Design Briefings (New!)

A design briefing is a presentation of a notable user interface design, with special emphasis on conceptual issues in the design and on the design and evaluation methods that were used during its development.

Design briefings are more conceptual and lifecycle-oriented than demonstrations: presenters do not just show their interface, but also show preliminary designs and talk about why those designs were modified. Presenters should present data (or possibly anecdotal evidence) from the evaluation of the various design iterations, and they may discuss any special conceptual issues in the dialogue structure.

Design briefings are more applied than papers: for example, evaluation data need not be systematic or statistically significant. Also, the designs need not necessarily embody fundamental user interface breakthroughs. Even if similar design ideas have been seen before, a design briefing might still be accepted if the total user interface integrates these ideas in interesting ways or if an interesting story can be told about how the design was developed.

Design briefings will be held in an auditorium with 30 minutes for each presentation (including both a demonstration of the interface and the conceptual and empirical discussion mentioned above).

Review Process

The Design Briefings committee will consider both product and process issues for the user interface in question. Thus, submissions will be evaluated both with respect to how interesting the finished user interface design is and the extent to which informative stories will be told about the process of designing the interface. We want interfaces and design processes that are important and of high quality, but we also want reports of lessons learned by the designers and lessons for the audience.

Format

Summary

Prepare a two-page summary of the design briefing, containing presentation title and authors, contact information, keywords, abstract, and body text. This summary must be prepared in the Conference Proceedings format. It will be published in the CHI '95 Conference Companion if the design briefing is accepted.

Proposal

Prepare a detailed 6- to 8-page proposal for the review committee, containing the following information:

A statement of why this interface is notable, with screen pictures pointing out those major features that will be demonstrated in the design briefing.
A list of the major design issues faced during the project with screen pictures or other illustrations of the preliminary designs.
A summary of the interface evaluation data or anecdotal evidence.
Summaries of the presenter's background and involvement in the actual design project. If two presenters are involved, then both presenters' backgrounds and project involvement should be described.
A detailed description of the equipment needed for the demonstration part of the briefing, with an indication of whether the presenter can bring this equipment if it is not in the standard Audio-Visual setup.

Upon Acceptance

Authors will be notified of acceptance or rejection by the end of November 1994.

The two-page summaries of accepted design briefings will be published in the CHI '95 Conference Companion. Electronic versions will be published on a CD-ROM. The primary author of each accepted design briefing will receive an Author Kit with detailed instructions on how to submit both the camera-ready copy and the electronic version of the summary. These materials are due on January 6, 1995.

Checklist for Submissions

Every year some submissions are returned without review because the authors failed to follow the guidelines established by the conference committee. Don't let this happen to you! Please follow the steps in this checklist in preparing your submission, and double-check that you have met all the requirements before sending it.

Read the General Submission Instructions.
Note that submissions must be in English, and that electronic mail or FAX submissions will not be accepted.
Fill out the Standard Cover Sheet.
Fill out the Planning Information Sheet.
Prepare a two-page summary in the Conference Proceedings format for publication, as described above.
Prepare a detailed proposal for review, as described above.
Be sure that your submission contains no proprietary or confidential material. Submission of video or pictures of identifiable people should be done only with the understanding that responsibility for the collection of appropriate permissions rests with the submitter, not CHI '95.
Collect the Standard Cover Sheet, the Planning Information Sheet, the summary, and the proposal, in the order given, in a packet, and make six copies. Use 8.5 x 11 inch or A4 paper.
Make sure each copy of the packet is STAPLED, not loose or held by clips.
You may include a self-addressed reply postcard which will be mailed to acknowledge receipt of your submission.
Send the six copies of your submission packet, and the reply postcard, to the Design Briefings Chair at the Send To address. Be sure to allow enough time for your submission to arrive by the indicated Deadline.

Keith Instone // instone@acm.org // 94-12-06