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In India: March 2004 Seminars

March 2004 series of seminars were presented in each of Chennai, Kolkata and Hyderabad.

Speakers included Andy Smith who is Director of the UK Centre for Software Internationalisation and Co-convenor of the Indo European Systems Usability Partnership and Liam Bannon who has enjoyed an international reputation as a leading HCI researcher for several decades. Liam is currently Professor at the Interaction Design Centre, University of Limerick in Ireland.

Elisa del Galdo, the world-leading expert on internationalisation issues within usable systems design also took part in seminars. Based from both the US and Europe, Elisa has led usable systems development across the world and has jointly edited, with Jakob Nielsen, the major text on the topic. Lastly Jon Rimmer who is both an academic and practitioner in usability was also involved. He has worked for Microsoft in the US and been involved in many projects in Europe. He is currently based at the University of Sussex in the UK.

Seminar Systems Usability: usable IT in a global context

Rationale:
In this seminar Andy, Liam, Elisa and Jon have engaged with Indian delegates in addressing the following issues:
What are the key elements of usability and user-centred design?
How do we integrate usability within the offshoring model?
How do we develop usable systems that meet the needs of users across the globe?
How do we plan to build usability and HCI within the Indian education system?

Content
Introduction to usability, user-centred design and HCI.
User centred design: adapting established approaches for the Indian software industry.
Interaction design: new perspectives in human centred computing.
Culture and internationalisation: usability in a global context.
Keynote by Indian representative.
The way forward

Seminar HCI: building the Indian curriculum

Rationale:
In European universities HCI is found at several levels, from a two-hour invited lecture and one book chapter to a full four-year human-centred design curriculum. Its location varies between disciplines (Industrial Design, Computer Science, Psychology, etc.) and between types of universities, including distant education institutes. This seminar was aimed at University staff and to investigate the relation between market needs, university expertise, and the international HCI curriculum model. It was aimed to co-develop understanding of the core content fit to any model chosen. Andy, Liam and Jon have discuss possible choices, requirements, collaboration opportunities, sources of information and material; and develop sketches for a development process.

Content
Interdisciplinary issues: HCI at University level.
Curriculum: goals, models, formats, content, examples.
The needs of the market: University education and ICT industry in India.
Approaches to HCI in Indian Universities.