When: April 26th – May 1st

Where: Toronto, Canada

InContext is busy at CHI this year! We’re excited to be on a panel, leading a SIG, presenting a case study, and more.

CHI 2014 is the ACM CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, the premier international conference of Human-Computer Interaction. You can also find more information on the conference website and the advance program.

We hope to see you there!

Saturday, April 26

CHI Workshop: Perspectives on Gender and Product Design:
Are we living in a ‘man-made’ world?

Karen will also be participating in a workshop that focuses on bringing to the fore different perspectives of how gender affects technology design, adoption, appropriation, and possibly resistance.

Monday, April 28

11:00 a.m. – 12:20 p.m.

Panel: Design Methods for the Future that is NOW: Have Disruptive Technologies Disrupted Our Design Methodologies?

Responsive Design. Mobile First. Agile Development. Lean UX. Crowdsourcing. Machine Learning. In a world that has been disrupted by new technologies and approaches, what does it mean to do “front-end” or “user-centered design”? Karen Holtzblatt and David Rondeau are joining other industry and academic professionals to explore whether user research and design methods as we know them need to be radically overhauled, or some even eliminated,

Tuesday, April 29

7:00 a.m. – 8:30 a.m.

CHI 2014 Women’s Breakfast

Get to know new women in the HCI field and make valuable connections!

Come sit at Karen’s table for this opportunity to meet and discuss the challenges and successes of women. Discuss in small table groups such topics as mentoring networks, work-life balance, diverse success paths, and personal branding. “Speaker-sparks” will be shared by CHI leaders. Each will share a quick story and then ask a question for table groups to discuss.

Participants can range from students just starting in the field, professionals just beginning their journey in academia or industry, and seasoned leaders willing to share their expertise.

Thursday, May 1

11:00 a.m. – 12:20 p.m.

SIG: Communicating User Research in Order to Drive Design and Product Decisions

It’s generally accepted that user research should be performed, the challenge now is for UX professionals to represent and communicate what we find in ways that are valued and consumable by product teams. How can we get what we know into stakeholders’ minds so it drives their design thinking? How can we represent the data so that it facilitates ideation? InContext and Google are leading this SIG, which is a forum for people with real-world experience and challenges to discuss their best practices—and missteps—for communicating user research.

May 1st, 2014

14:00 p.m.- 15:20 p.m.

Case Study: Measuring Product “Coolness” — Developing a Measurement Instrument

This case study from InContext and SAP outlines the process that used qualitative data to design a valid quantitative measure for what makes a product “cool”. The final result is a repeatable process for measuring cool through a quick survey, the results of which provide implications to product teams on how to improve their products to increase “coolness”.