CALL FOR PARTICIPATION: CHI 2004 WORKSHOP

Helping Users To Use Help: Improving Interaction With Help Systems

ORGANIZERS:     Garett Dworman and Stephanie Rosenbaum, Tec-Ed, Inc.

All too often, users fail to use the help systems available to them.
This may be the fault of the help system, whose content or information
architecture (IA) has proven unhelpful in the past.  But even if content
and IA support users' needs and tastes, a help system may fail to engage
users because they don't interact with it in the first place.  This
one-day workshop will explore the integration of help systems into
users' environments and users' initial interactions with help systems,
from the perspective of interaction and interface design.  The
participants will:

   * Perform reviews of help system access mechanisms
   * Develop guidelines for designers
   * Identify research to validate or revise guidelines

We encourage a diverse group of participants interested in the
challenge of helping users to use help, especially:

   * Practitioners who have worked with the interaction design of help
     systems
   * Usability professionals who have evaluated help systems
   * Researchers who have investigated users' interactions with help
     systems

Please submit a position paper (2 - 4 pages) with two types of
information:

   * Biographical information about your experience in interaction, UCD,
     IA, and/or content, especially with help systems.

   * At least one example, with discussion, of access mechanisms for help
        systems.  Good and bad examples are acceptable; discuss their
        strengths and weaknesses.  Examples must be printable so we can
        create hard-copy handouts.

Position papers are due 2 February 2004. For more information about the
workshop and the organizers backgrounds, or to submit a position paper,
e-mail mailto:[log in to unmask]

DETAILS:

CHI 2004 is being held on 24-29 April 2004 in beautiful Vienna, Austria.
For more details about CHI 2004 go to their web site at
http://www.chi2004.org/.

This is a full-day workshop held on Monday, 23 April 2004 during the
CHI 2004
pre-conference events.  The original CFP for our workshop is online at
http://www.chi2004.org/program/prog_workshops.html#ws16.

Please note we are accepting submissions of position papers until
2 February 2004.  Send submissions to mailto:[log in to unmask]


(c)2003 Tec-Ed, Inc.