Design for Life conference call

Next year's annual conference of the British Human-Computer Interaction Group is on the theme Design for Life. It will be at Leeds Metropolitan University, UK 6-10 September 2004, and includes social and community applications of computing.
The overview reads: "Join researchers, practitioners and educators from around the world at HCI2004 where we will be exploring the theme of Design for Life. As designers, evaluators and implementers of interactive systems we have great responsibility. The systems we design impact upon the lives of the people who use them - for good or ill."

"Design for Life has many facets. It is design for quality of life: designing systems that are liberating, humane and enabling, and which recognise the user’s individuality, rather than constraining, mechanical and dehumanising. It is design for real life: ensuring what we do makes a difference in every day experience and is relevant to the person on the street.
"It is design for all aspects of life: for work, for leisure, for travel, for fun. It is design for community life: supporting society, government, learning and health. It is design for the richness of life, recognising that successful interaction is as much about experience, emotion, satisfaction and creativity as it is about task, productivity and effect.
"It is design for the whole life from childhood to older adulthood. It is design for the diversity of life: for users with diverse needs, from diverse cultures and with different perspectives and priorities. Finally it is design for long life: not focusing on passing phases and fads but on products that adapt to changing needs and on approaches that can contribute to sustainable developments.
"Some of these concerns are traditional ones for HCI; others are new challenges that we must face.
"Following the theme of Design for Life, the HCI 2004 conference provides a forum for us to tackle these and other related issues. The conference will include an exciting range of presentations, panels, workshops, tutorials and interactive demonstrations, as well as special events to explore the commercial and industrial benefits of HCI research and practice. We invite both practicioners and researchers to participate and together explore how we can design products that enhance the lives of their users."
It adds:"Relevant areas include but are not limited to:
• Human-centred design methodologies
• Case studies of HCI in action
• Ambient and pervasive computing
• Mobile systems
• Computers and fun
• Social and community applications
• HCI in education and health
• Universal design
• Design for different age groups
• Creativity in design
• User experience
• Sustainable HCI design and development

This blog started at a workshop at the 2003 conference.