Usability in space

CALL FOR CHAPTERS

Submission Deadline: April 15, 2007

Designing the user experience of future peripatetic users: new HCI design challenges in Space

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:
ü Technological, cultural, political, philosophical, psychological and
economic dimensions of pervasive and interactive communication systems in
Space;
ü Situational awareness: systems that enable people to react to impending
lethal events ( e.g., solar flares detected during an interplanetary travel
or extraterrestrial human exploration).
ü New challenges in pervasive communication systems in Space: new users
and uses, interoperability amongst interfaces, tangible computing,
intelligent environments, context awareness, etc;
ü Innovative research approaches for the creation of operationally
relevant and realistic future scenarios;
ü Taxonomy of radically new applications;
ü Art expressions (e.g. locative art) in space and patterns for smart &
malleable digital content;
ü Advanced interaction models (immersive & intelligent environments,
humanising interfaces, haptics, etc);
ü Transferring interaction patterns between usage areas (e.g. games,
Space industry, medical, etc);
ü Advanced evaluation techniques for pervasive systems in Space.
ü Participatory Design and other user-centered approaches focused on
users' cultural, social, behavioural and ergonomic backgrounds.
ü Challenges of analyzing and designing to support sociability in the
Space;
ü Emerging nomadic societies, communities and related socio-cultural
trends;
ü Assessment of the Perceived Quality of Experience through
ethnographies, or other experimental evaluation techniques.
ü Novel methodologies for services design.

Book edited by
Dr. Anxo Cereijo Roibás, University of Brighton;
Loredana Bessone, ESA

Scientific Board
Dr. Patricia.M.Jones, NASA
Prof. Ignacio Aedo, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid
Dr. Jeffrey W. McCandless, NASA Ames Research Center
Didier Chincholle, Usability & Interaction Lab - Ericsson Research

SUBMISSION PROCEDURE
Full chapters are expected to be submitted by May 31, 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.I
Inquiries and submissions can be forwarded electronically (World document)
to: a.c.roibas@brighton.ac.uk

• Dr. Anxo Cereijo Roibás