To create an effective user experience, real-world product developers must balance creative interaction design with objective attention to end-user needs and performance. This can be a significant challenge in fast-track situations where ideal methods can only be approximated. To share insights and techniques of practice in these areas, the Design and Usability in Practice category will bring together product-creation projects involving interaction design and usability work.

These sessions are intended as a forum for corporate design and usability departments, product development teams, professional designers and usability specialists, design studios, consultants and advanced students of these fields. Presentations will showcase designs and describe usability work from real product-development projects. Exchanges of ideas among presenters and the audience will be a central part of the experience.

Submissions should describe the development of commercial products or systems for internal use. They should tell the story behind a specific product or system; show the concept, design, and/or usability challenges; explain the steps taken to solve the problems; and present the resulting design or design decisions. The work is not expected to report scientific breakthroughs, but should show creative application of design and usability methods in real-world contexts.

Submissions could focus on one or more of the following topics within the development process:

• field research projects investigating new user segments
• novel interaction design solutions
• designs in new areas of technology
• successful applications of usability evaluation methods
• new kinds of cooperation among designers, usability evaluators, marketing groups and other stakeholders
• other practical challenges in developing interactive products

Each submission should describe a single product or system. The reported projects should involve recent work.

As with short papers, extensive literature searches are not expected or encouraged. However, work that reports the use of previously published methods in a practical context should cite some descriptions of those methods.

An international panel will review submissions for quality and interest to the professional audience. The emphasis will be on practical factors, with an understanding of the need for design and engineering trade-offs in real-world situations. These include, for example:

• Recognition of the challenges set by resources, timeframes, technological requirements, organisational settings, etc.,
• Ability to maintain high quality of design and good usability in unfavourable circumstances,
• Ability to use the situational opportunities to promote and realise good design and usability,
• The efficiency of the actions taken and methods used,
• The quality of the presentation material.

In addition, the submission's suitability for a presentation will be considered.

CHI 2003 provides mentors for authors who would like assistance in preparing their submissions. Practitioners who have not previously presented at a CHI conference are especially encouraged to take advantage of mentoring. Please see the separate description of the mentoring program for more information. The deadline to request a mentor is 7 June 2002.

Format

Submissions must be made electronically. Prepare a two-page, publication-ready paper in the Conference Publications Format, including title, author information, abstract, keywords, body, illustrations and references.

Submissions may also include up to six pages of supplemental material to help reviewers understand and evaluate the submission. This material can include (1) suggestions for a theme and moderator for the conference session in which the work would appear, and (2) additional illustrations of the system described in the paper, with brief captions. This material is optional. If included, it should be placed on extra pages (no more than six) at the end of the CHI conference publications format document that is submitted for review. Please note that the additional illustrations will not be published in the CHI 2003 Extended Abstracts. However, authors may be able to show some of this material during their presentation at the conference.

The main submission or the supplemental illustrations may include links to websites, but reviewers may not have time to check the sites. Most reviewers are working behind corporate firewalls, so websites that use custom controls or other code may be blocked. Papers will be judged primarily on the two-page written submission and supplemental illustrations.

Confidentiality of submissions is maintained during the review process. All submitted materials will be kept confidential until the date of the conference.

• Your submission must be in English.
• All Design and Usability practice submissions must be submitted by individual authors. Anonymous corporate submissions are not accepted.
• Submissions must be made electronically via the CHI 2003 Electronic Submission Web Page.
• Submissions arriving after the deadline will not be considered.
• Your submission should contain no proprietary or confidential material and should cite no proprietary or confidential publications.
• Responsibility for permissions to use video, audio, or pictures of identifiable people rests with you, not CHI 2003.
• You will receive email notification upon receipt of your submission.

Submission is electronic, in PDF format via the CHI 2003 Electronic Submission Web Page. Your submission must arrive before the deadline of 23 September 2002, 5PM (17:00) at your local time. Submissions arriving after the deadline will not be considered. Submissions will not be accepted by fax.

We will use your electronically submitted PDF file during the review process, and, if accepted, the two first pages of submitted PDF file is what we will print. However, if we have problems handling the PDF file for your paper, we will contact you to work out the problems or to request a backup hardcopy printout.

Accepted papers will be published in the CHI 2003 Extended Abstracts.

Notification Date

Authors will receive an email notification of acceptance or rejection during the week of November 18th. Upon acceptance you must complete and return a copyright release form in order to be published. This form will be sent with the acceptance notice.

Before the Conference

The primary author of each paper will receive instructions on how to submit publication-ready copy. Only minor corrections to the original submission will be possible at this stage. Therefore, ensure that your original submission is clearly written, carefully proofread, and correctly formatted. Your final copy is due by January 17, 2003.

If needed, authors should be prepared to answer additional questions before the conference to help their session chair organize the session.

Sessions will have a specific theme, with a moderator and presenters. Presenters will each give a short description of their project and the challenges they resolved. Short demonstrations may be used to reveal design and usability issues, but the presentations will not showcase full systems. The second part of each session will be a panel-style discussion of issues and problems, including questions from the audience.

Session themes will encourage discussion and networking between people approaching similar projects from different angles - design, usability, end-user needs, etc. Proposed themes include mass communication and interaction, e-learning, home products, professional user interfaces, universal design, vehicle interface, mobile interfaces, and emotion. Submissions within these categories are especially encouraged, but the initial list may be modified based on the submissions.

Please perform the activities in this checklist to ensure completeness in your submission.

• Read the conference overview and CHI Submissions: Process & Formats.
• If you wish to request a mentor, please see the description of the mentoring program, and contact chi2003-mentoring@acm.org no later than 7 June 2002.
• Prepare a two-page paper in the conference publications format and include suggestions for a theme and moderator for the conference session and optional additional illustrations.
• Create a PDF file of your submission.
• Test a PDF file by viewing or printing it with the same software we will use when we receive it, Adobe Acrobat Reader Version 4. This is widely used and obtainable at no cost from http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readermain.html.
• Go to the CHI 2003 Electronic Submission Web Page, and follow the instructions for electronic submissions to submit the PDF file and enter the requested information, including author information, keywords, and abstract.
• Be available shortly after the Design and Usability in Practice submission deadline in case we encounter any problems in handling your PDF file and need to contact you.