Taking SIGCHI to Amsterdam

Abstract

When we started this column last year, we had fully intended on trying to corner some of the overseas SIGCHI membership and capture their views on key distinctions between North American and "other" brands of HCI work (both research and applied). This has proven difficult to do, not because differences do not exist, but because in most areas we are more similar than different. In broad terms we are all interested in improving the quality of human computer interaction, though we may focus in different areas when we measure such quality. For example, I still think it is safe to say that North Americans place more emphasis on minimizing user effort in applied HCI work, while Scandinavians place more effort on improving quality of work (which may mean something different than minimizing keystrokes). That this is not "news" is related to the fact that these different communities have been in communication for some time now. Scandinavians are better able to discuss GOMS models, and North Americans better able to discuss participatory design.