Student Design Competition

Call for proposals

Objectives

• Provide an opportunity for students of Human-Computer Interaction and related fields (e. g., Computer Science, interaction and visual design, Psychology, Social Sciences, etc.) to participate in a practical activity and to demonstrate their skills in problem-solving, interaction design, and user experience.
• Create an exhibition space of solutions to a real-world challenge using myriad approaches (design research, brainstorming, prototyping, implementation, evaluation, etc.).
• Foster greater interaction between industry representatives and students.

The Design Challenge: Life after the Pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought a lot of changes to our lives. In some regions, they have applied new ways to survive, and in some others are just dreaming about it. This year’s design competition challenge is inspired by three areas impacted by the pandemic:

(1) Work. How is work going to change in a post-pandemic world? If you choose this topic you should explore how individuals and companies might change the way they do business. Will workers start using flexible schedules and flexible space? Will people work co-located, remote, or hybrid? What teamwork and communication tools would you design for this new reality?

(2) Education. How is education going to change after the pandemic? What should be the role of in-person and remote classes? How should the teaching and learning process change? How are these overall changes manifested across the different educational levels, from kindergarten to university?

(3) Entertainment. How are people going to access entertainment experiences in the post-pandemic future? How are those experiences going to be different from today’s options? What technologies will enable new forms of co-located and distance entertainment? What is the future of movie theaters and other places of entertainment? How is entertainment going to be different for different ages?

In this Student Design Competition, we encourage you to contribute by re-imaging and designing a post-pandemic world in light of all these technological changes. We encourage you to use human-centered design approaches to develop a new way (e.g., a product, interface, system, or service) to support, empower, or alleviate the challenges of a life experience around new forms of labor or study. The scope of this design challenge is broad: for example, you could focus on work, or education, or entertainment. You may adopt different design strategies, including participatory design, co-creation and co-design, service design, design for social innovation, inclusive design, and open innovation. You may come up with a participatory design and co-creation approach using existing technologies or you may find opportunities in new technologies, such as machine learning, cryptocurrency, augmented reality, wearables, to name just a few. However, you must avoid technological solutionism and ensure that people and their needs are the driving force for your project, rather than the technology.

We particularly encourage that the following criteria be considered:

• Does the design solution address a real challenge or challenges of the future life?
• Does the design solution use technology in an appropriate and novel way?
• Was relevant prior work properly identified and cited?
• Were analysis, synthesis, design, and evaluation both systematic and sufficient?
• Were the research process and the involvement of stakeholders ethically appropriate (e.g., were institutional guidelines followed)?
• Were genuine stakeholders involved in the process of research, development and evaluation?
• Did the team explore the entire ecosystem of stakeholders, conditions, and contexts?
• Was the design solution well-crafted and effectively presented?

Important dates

• September 30th October 9th - Submission Deadline
• October 27th – Notification
• November 3rd – Camera-ready submission
• December 1st - Exhibition: teams present their projects

Student Team Requirements

• Groups of up to 4 students with one supervisor (5 participants max).
• Each team must have at least one student and one supervisor.
• Each supervisor can have only one team.
• The supervisor may be a professor or industry professional.
• Submissions are invited from all students at all stages of their university careers, from undergraduate to postgraduate. While not a mandatory requirement, it is strongly encouraged that the teams put forward a multidisciplinary team.

Submission details

Each group must submit a presentation with a maximum of 12 slides, a written report of up to 4 pages in the AmexIHC Journal Format [Document Template] describing in more detail the points raised in the presentation; both in Spanish or English and in PDF format. Both documents should describe:

• The problem addressed.
• The social impact of the proposed solution in the Mexican context.
• The process used during the project.
• The methodology, methods, and techniques used.
• The description of the target audience.
• The proposed solution.

Additionally, we encourage the team to provide a supplementary video (max 5 minutes), illustrating how your solution contributes for a post-pandemic life with the help of scenarios. Even though the supplementary video is optional, it can help the jury to understand your proposed solution better. In any case, the selection process will be based on the two mandatory files (presentation and written report).

As with other submissions sent to MexIHC 2021, the Students Design Competition entries should not have been previously accepted for presentation or publication in any other event.

The accepted submission will be published in the journal “Avances en Interacción Humano-Computadora” (AIHC) of AmexIHC. You can find the final format of the manuscript in the following link: Document Template

Please send your proposal fill in this form link

Contact us at: sdc.2021@mexihc.org

Selection Process

Submissions will be evaluated based on:

• Quality of work.
• Novelty of approach.
• Significance of the contribution to the field of HCI.
• Clarity of written document.
• Strength of the case for the expected physical, psychological or social impact of the proposal.
• Correct use of techniques.

Confidentiality of submissions is maintained during the review process. All rejected submissions will be kept confidential in perpetuity. All submitted materials for accepted submissions will be kept confidential until the start of the conference, with the exception of title and author information which will be published on the website prior to the conference. Submissions should not contain sensitive, private, or proprietary information that cannot be disclosed at publication time.

A jury made up of researchers and industry representatives will choose the projects that will be invited to present at the conference based on the two files submitted. The projects selected will be invited to be presented during MexIHC 2021.

Late submissions will NOT be considered.

At the conference

The best projects proposals will be invited as a short oral presentation during the conference.

The presentation should be in English or Spanish. At least two representatives of each team must be present during the event to make the presentation of their project. A jury of three representatives from industry and academia will choose the three winning projects.

Archives

The accepted submissions will be published in the AMexIHC publication journal.

SDC Chairs

• Sandra Nava-Muñoz, UASLP / SLP, MX
• Ramón René Palacio Cinco, ITSON / Navojoa, MX
• Andrés Monroy-Hernández, Snap Inc. / Princeton

References

• Tools: Figma, Sketch, Balsamiq
• The design of everyday things by Don Norman