CALL – for papers to First International Workshop on 'Understanding Delight in Design: User Experience, Technologies and Tools'

University of Birmingham

10 September 2012

Deadline for paper submissions: 18 June 2012

This workshop is organised at HCI 2012 - People and Computers XXVI, University of Birmingham, 12-14 September 2012.

Drawing on the established fields of usability, user experience and interaction design, this workshop aims to bring together people to discuss the concept of 'delight' in interface, product and interaction design.

The organisers argue that 'Delight' or 'delightful' design is an aspirational quality that the Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) community would do well to consider when designing and evaluating interfaces. Open-mindedness and designing for emotion seem critical aspects of a broader call or desire for design which is ‘delightful’; an experience which engages the user more fully, an experience which provokes ‘ensoulment’, a term coined by Nelson and Stolterman to describe an emotional response to a product which results in a deeply moving feeling of being significantly changed.

This workshop seeks to explore: 

1. what constitutes a delightful interface, and how we can determine its value
2. how this can be capitalised on in interaction and interface design and
3. how successful realisation of the 'delightfulness' of interfaces might be evaluated.

'Delightful design' is an aspect of research and user experience under investigation in SerenA, a multi-disciplinary project to design interactive systems that create opportunities for serendipitous connections.

The organsising committee invites contributions that address the concepts of delightful design; appropriate topics include but are not limited to:

• Case studies and reports of positive emotion or delightful design in product and interaction design, and visual practices;
• theoretical or conceptual discussions around the notion of 'delight' and unexpectedness in interfaces, technologies and products;
• papers which propose a new understanding of user experience and usability goals;
• evaluation techniques that consider the assessment of 'delight' or emotion;
• the role of 'delight' and participant engagement within the user-centred design process;
• the changing role of emotional design in interactive interfaces across media platforms and emergent technologies.

For more information http://www.serena.ac.uk/delight-in-design-workshop/