[Air-l] Call for book chapters: New HCI design challenges in Space

[A.C.Roibas at bton.ac.uk]

CALL FOR CHAPTERS
Submission Deadline: April 15, 2007

Designing the user experience of future peripatetic users: new HCI design challenges in Space
A book edited by Dr. Anxo Cereijo Roibás, University of Brighton; Loredana Bessone, ESA and Dr. Patricia.M.Jones, NASA

Introduction:
Travelling to the depths of Space is no longer a privilege of astronauts and scientists. Space Agencies are starting to allow those who have the means to afford it, provided that they fulfil a minimum set of physiological requirements to join the ventures into outer space. At the same time, companies are developing spacecrafts for civilian use and plan huge space stations capable of accommodating thousand of settlers. However, micro-gravity or reduced and enhanced gravity environments strongly influence the way users interact with technology. In other words, what works on earth does not necessarily perform in Space. As the age of space habitation dawns, we must work to find ways to transfer our technological advances on Earth to Outer Space 

The Overall objective of the Book:
This book aims to present significant projects carried out in academia, space agencies and in industry regarding the quality of the user experience with interactive systems in Space. The idea is to promote awareness of interdisciplinary work concerning methods and tools for HCI in Space in order to be ready for the future life beyond the terrestrial atmosphere and to share knowledge to develop innovative interactive systems on Earth. 
A crucial problem when designing HCI for Space systems refers to the validity of data gathering and the realism of user scenarios. Ethnographic on-site studies and evaluation methods show that some problems concerning the user behaviour and environment are only identified when capturing the rich texture of activity being performed in the field. 

The Target Audience:
Educators, and Researchers in HCI, managers of HCI projects working in Space and mobile industry (telecom companies, device manufacturers, service providers, game designers, etc.); industrial designers; new media trends sociologists; new media journalists; human factors practitioners; interface evaluators, information architects, designers and testers. The book is intended to provide  valuable material to be used for research and teaching purposes  (in any curricula including communication and information systems in its set of disciplines). This book is also intended to be useful for designers and engineers that need concrete materials to understand the user experiences in social practices and to evaluate the applications used and combined. 

RECCOMENDED TOPICS INCLUDE, BUT ARE NOT LIMITED TO, THE FOLLOWING:
•	Technological, cultural, political, philosophical, psychological and economic dimensions of future pervasive and interactive communication systems;
•	New challenges in pervasive communication systems in Space: new users and uses, interoperability amongst interfaces, tangible computing, intelligent environments, context awareness, etc;
•	Innovative research approaches for the creation of operationally relevant and realistic future scenarios;
•	Taxonomy of radically new applications;
•	Art expressions (e.g. locative art) in space and patterns for smart & malleable digital content;
•	Advanced interaction models (immersive & intelligent environments, humanising interfaces, haptics, etc);
•	Transferring interaction patterns between usage areas (e.g. games, Space industry, medical, etc);
•	Advanced evaluation techniques for pervasive systems in Space.
•	Participatory Design and other user-centered approaches focused on users' cultural, social, behavioural and ergonomic backgrounds.
•	Challenges of analyzing and designing to support sociability in the Space;
•	Emerging nomadic societies, communities and related socio-cultural trends;
•	Assessment of the Perceived Quality of Experience through ethnographies, or other experimental evaluation techniques.
•	Novel methodologies for services design.

SUBMISSION PROCEDURE
Authors are invited to submit on or before December 1, 2006, a 2-5 page manuscript proposal clearly explaining the mission and topic of the proposed chapter. Authors of accepted proposals will be notified by January 15, 2007 about the status of their proposals and sent chapter organizational guidelines. Full chapters are expected to be submitted by April 15, 2007. All submitted chapters will be reviewed on a double-blind review basis. The book is scheduled to be published by Idea Group Inc., www.idea-group.com, publisher of the Idea Group Publishing, Information Science Publishing, IRM Press, CyberTech Publishing and Idea Group reference imprints.


Inquiries and submissions can be forwarded electronically (World document) to: a.c.roibas at brighton.ac.uk