User-Lab to host International Design for Engagability Conference (iDeC)

18 June, 2004, West Midlands, UK

User-Lab to host International Design for Engagability Conference (iDeC)

Birmingham Institute of Art and Design’s User-Lab to host International Design for Engagability Conference (iDeC)

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The Birmingham Institute of Art and Design’s User-Lab http://www.user-lab.com will host the host International Design for Engagability Conference (iDeC) in July 2004.

User-Lab is a unique facility in art, design and media education, based in Birmingham, West Midlands. The lab aims to facilitate knowledge transfer between designers, businesses and technologists in the growing area of experience design. The first iDeC will bring together, researchers, designers and organisations and focus on issues in providing accessible, usable and engaging products and services.

iDeC will take place on the 6-7th July 2004 in Birmingham, West Midlands, comprising of presentations and keynote speakers from commercial and research organisations. The aim of the conference is to bring together a wide range of practitioners with their own unique insights into understanding the user experience.

"Engagability is how companies can add value to customers. Old school usability ensured that user could operate the products but did little to address why people value some products and not others. This conference will bring together researchers at the cutting edge of engagabilty and demonstrate methods for increasing user satisfaction", adds John Knight Usability Engineer at User-Lab.

Pleasure, enjoyment, positive emotions, hedonic values have recently been applied to the user experience. The emphasis on the positive leads to some interesting questions about the user experience: For example, Should the education experience be a joy? Is pleasure important in game playing? What happens when all products are pleasurable? If the computer is a theatre, is it a tragedy or comedy? Is self-actualisation less rewarding, if it is easy to attain? Is familiarity or unfamiliarity pleasurable? Can pleasure be guaranteed? Is the pursuit of pleasure, rewarding or healthy? Is one person’s pleasure another person’s pain?

The conference will address the aforementioned and be of interest to those involved in researching, designing and manufacturing user-centred products and services (usability and accessibility) and are areas that will be addressed at the iDeC.

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Registration to the conference is free to speakers (and up to three colleagues), the press and students, but excludes the cost of catering and proceedings.

Received and Accepted Papers:

Applications for self-aware systems: Why would we need conscious shoes? Pepperell, R

On-Line Consumer Behavior and Culture by Ghada R. El Said

Mobile Group Music Improvisation: Bryan-Kinns, N

QOC matrices: An alternative practical notation for design space analysis, Englefield, P and Tibbits, M

The Ethics of Engagement: Knight J and Pandir, M

Industrial design: Engaging with, and incorporation of emerging technologies, Thompson, S

Conference Themes: Affective computing, Digital media, E-Learning, E-Retail, Games, HCI, Interactive arts, Mobile devices and ubiquitous computing, Public access kiosks and interactives.

For more information and how to book for the event, visit:
http://www.uce.ac.uk/web2/releases/3328.html

This press release in available in PDF, plain text and Word formats. Photographs are available of the User-Lab team. The media spokesperson for User-Lab is John Knight, Usability Engineer.

About User-Lab:
http://www.user-lab.com

User-Lab is a non-profit making organisation based at Birmingham Institute of Art and Design http://www.biad.uce.ac.uk/. The lab is part of the Institute’s Research Department and is staffed by a multidisciplinary team with expertise in digital media design, human-computer interaction, psychology and software engineering.

The lab comprises three purposely built testing and design labs that are equipped with the latest technology for conducting behavioural, physiological and psychological research.
The lab has two related functions: to carry out research into the digital experience and, based on the results of this work, to develop an innovative commercial service.

In the two years since its inception, the lab has been involved in a number of collaborative projects with RDAs, FEs, charities and the public and private sector. The outcomes of these projects range from assisting start up businesses to training, as well as the lab’s core business of user-centred design services.

User-Lab runs Web Accessibility Training with the Royal National Institute for the Blind (RNIB) http://www.rnib.org.uk/ and ECOTEC an international research and consultancy organisation http://www.ecotec.com/.

----Contact----

Elemental PR:

Rachel Hawkes, Account Executive, Elemental PR
Email: user-lab@elementalpr.co.uk

Direct Telephone: +44 (0)870 745 9292, Mobile: +44 (0)7930 375663,
Fax: +44 (0)870 745 9293, Website: http://www.elementalpr.co.uk

Address: Second Floor, 145 -157 St John Street, London, EC1V 4PY, England, UK

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