Research Goals and Strategies for Studying User Experience and Emotion

=======================================================================

CALL FOR PAPERS

You are hereby invited to submit a paper to the NordiCHI 2008 workshop

“Research Goals and Strategies for Studying User Experience and Emotion”.

http://www.cs.uta.fi/~ux-emotion/

One-day Workshop date: October 19
Submission deadline: August 17

NordiCHI 2008 is arranged October 18.-22. in Lund, Sweden.

=======================================================================

The consideration of experiential and emotional aspects has recently 
become central to our understanding of interaction with technology. 
Today, user experience (UX) and user’s emotions are considered as 
essential factors in providing value for the users of technology, for 
instance, by evoking emotionally significant positive experiences. 
Currently, UX and affect are considered to be very important for a 
product’s market success. The aim of the current workshop is to review 
and discuss different methods of studying UX and user affect and to find 
out how these methods could and should contribute to product design.

The field of UX has arisen from a need to take a more holistic approach 
to design. In contrast, the traditional focus on performance and task 
oriented usability excludes many important aspects of users, products 
and their interactions. UX has been approached and defined in many ways. 
Most approaches consider UX to essentially consist of emotional, 
sensual, behavioural, cognitive, and social levels. Also, product 
features (such as form, function, and interaction), user’s 
characteristics (such as past experiences, current emotional state, 
interpretations), and the context of use (such as spatio-temporal) are 
considered to be central aspects of UX.

Based on the variety of definitions and theoretical approaches, many 
viewpoints and research methods exist for studying UX. Methods such as 
interviews, questionnaires, observation, experience prototyping, and 
bodystorming have been used to study UX. On the other hand, guidelines 
for designing pleasurable products and for evoking specific emotions 
have been identified quite rarely. A broad and critical review of 
different research approaches will help to clarify the theoretical 
essence as well as the practical importance of UX. This includes 
envisioning what kind of approaches future research on UX should employ 
and how the research findings should inform design.


GOALS OF THE WORKSHOP
=======================

Goals of the workshop are
1) to explore how user experience should be studied in different 
contexts and for different goals
2) to elicit how the results of the studies can inform design
3) to bring together people of different disciplines all working in this 
field to discuss and exchange experiences.


ACTIVITIES AND INTENDED AUDIENCE
=================================

In the first part of the one-day workshop selected position papers will 
be presented. Contributions on research methods for UX as well as case 
studies of emotional product design shall be included. During the second 
part, workshop participants will engage in focused discussions on 
different aspects of UX (aesthetics, pragmatics and emotions) which will 
be summarized in an interactive way.

We welcome participants from academia as well as from industry and 
encourage people who are evaluating or designing human technology 
interaction to present their own work at this event.


SUBMISSION GUIDELINES
====================
Submission deadline: August 17

Position papers should be 2-4 pages long formatted following ACM paper 
format (as available at 
http://sigchi.org/chi2004/res/CHI04PubsFormat.doc) and should be sent 
directly to jenni.anttonen(at)cs.uta.fi.

Papers will be reviewed and selected on the basis of their relevance, 
quality, and ability to stimulate discussion. Approximately 10-15 papers 
will be accepted for presentation.

Accepted papers will be published in electronic format.


IMPORTANT DATES
===============
Submission deadline:             August 17
Notification of acceptance:      September 5
Workshop date:                   October 19


ORGANIZERS
==========
Jenni Anttonen, University of Tampere, Finland
jenni(at)cs.uta.fi

Satu Jumisko-Pyykkö, Tampere University of Technology, Finland
satu.jumisko-pyykko(at)tut.fi

Michael Minge, Berlin University of Technology, Germany
michael.minge(at)zmms.tu-berlin.de

Anna E. Pohlmeyer, Berlin University of Technology, Germany
anna.pohlmeyer(at)zmms.tu-berlin.de

Toni Vanhala, University of Tampere, Finland
toni.vanhala(at)cs.uta.fi