CALL FOR PAPERS

Intelligent User Interfaces for Developing Regions:
Users, Problems and Technologies

Third IUI4DR Workshop in Conjunction with IUI 2013
Santa Monica, California
March 19, 2013

Website: http://www.eis.mdx.ac.uk/research/idc/IUI4DR/

Abstract Submission Deadline:  9 Jan 2013

OVERVIEW

This workshop aims to look at interaction from the viewpoint of users in developing regions.  We will identify interesting research challenges and usability obstacles experienced by this user population at the workshop. Related workshops were conducted in 2008 and 2011, and several interesting themes emerged, for example low-literacy and multimodal interfaces. In 2013, we will build on past workshops by focusing on different themes that affect the interactions of this target population. This will involve a deeper user-centered analysis of who the users are in developing regions, the main devices they use for interaction, their most common application content, and the computer input capabilities that best support their language and application needs. At IUI4DR 2013, we aim to focus on understanding the problem(s) faced by people in developing regions, and how those problems could be addressed by appropriate intelligent user interface technologies.

TOPICS OF INTEREST

1. Users and their problems: We wish to invite papers that provide insights on how the users in developing countries are different from users in the developed world. What specific issues need to be considered in terms of native language literacy, English language literacy, or knowing how to operate technology? While “low literacy” and “low purchasing power” are frequently attributed to users in developing regions, we wish to develop deeper insights into the variability among these users and implications for user-centered design, methods, and appropriate evaluation techniques.

2. Interfaces in developing regions: The developed world is moving from standard keyboard-based interfaces to incorporate new interaction styles such as touch-screen, gesture-based, augmented-reality, video/image-based, spoken language, tangible, and multimodal interfaces. At IUI4DR we would like researchers to share insights and debate what types of interface worked best in the developing world and why.

3. Input technologies: Most worldwide languages in developing regions are not Roman alphabetic ones, such as English, which are supported well with keyboard input and dominate the content represented on the Web. What obstacles exist to expressing other native languages when using existing computers, and why is the ability to express one’s native language a consequential issue?

4. Application content: While healthcare, agriculture, education, small business and finance are considered primary domains in most developing regions, we would also be interested in applications involving governance, disaster management, and other mobile domains.

5. Intelligence in interfaces: We would like to invite papers that could propose AI techniques such as recommender systems, conversational agents, intelligent assistants that have been used in the context of developing regions.

We seek original, unpublished papers in the following two categories: (a) Up to 2 page position papers that describe novel ideas on interesting research themes and directions, (b) Full papers or work-in-progress (6-10 pages) that document system interfaces, usability issues, user analyses, prototypes of new interfaces, and related topics for users in developing countries. Papers should be in the IUI publication format. The papers need to be authored in CHI archival format. All submissions should be in the PDF format and should be submitted electronically through the IUI4DR Easychair Conference site (http://www.easychair.org/conferences/?conf=iui4dr13). Since the submission deadlines are dependent on the IUI conference, we will not be able to grant any extensions in any circumstances. We also propose to edit a post-workshop proceedings or book that would define the problem of people interacting with information in the developing regions, and an articulation of possible approaches to overcoming these problems.

Since the workshop also aims to be a community building event and exchange for researchers working in this area, at least one author of an accepted paper is required to attend the workshop to present their work.

SUBMISSION DETAILS

Paper Submission – 9 Jan 2013
Paper Notification – 31 Jan 2013
Camera-ready – 15 Feb 2013
Workshop – 19 Mar 2013

ORGANIZERS

Sheetal K. Agarwal (IBM Research, India)
Dr. Neesha Kodagoda (Middlesex University, UK)
Dr. Sharon Oviatt (Incaa Designs, USA),
Nitendra Rajput (IBM Research, India)
Prof. William Wong (Middlesex University, UK)

PROGRAM COMMITTEE

Marshini Chetty, Georgia Institute of Technology, USA
Jason Ellis, IBM Research, USA
Alejandro Jaimes, Yahoo! Research, Spain
Kasper Løvborg Jensen, Polytechnic of Namibia, Namibia
Keyur Sorathia, Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati, India
Bill Thies, Microsoft Research, India