What To Study In HCI? A Reflection Based On CHI and UK Research Data

HCI is a wide, varied, and complex field that covers a broad spectrum of research. We therefore believe that there is no simple answer to the question ‘what to study in HCI? ’ To shed some light on it, however, we reflect on this question with the aid of data from past HCI conferences, present meta-analyses reports, and possible future research priorities. In our discussion, we argue that the current focus of HCI research is too focused on studying the usability of gadgets. Instead, we believe that researchers in the HCI field have the unique opportunity to combine fundamental research, usability design, and awareness of social issues to achieve real-world impact. As such, we suggest that researchers should aim their studies on human aspects that can solve various needs, problems, and societal challenges. Author Keywords Research; strategy; overview; research portfolio; CHI; introspection; overview; data; topics; topic map; visualization; area; study; reflection; discussion; HCI. ACM Classification Keywords H.5.0. Information interfaces and presentation (e.g., HCI): General. Paste the appropriate copyright/license statement here. ACM now supports three different publication options: • ACM copyright: ACM holds the copyright on the work. This is the historical approach. • License: The author(s) retain copyright, but ACM receives an exclusive publication license. • Open Access: The author(s) wish to pay for the work to be open access. The additional fee must be paid to ACM. This text field is large enough to hold the appropriate release statement assuming it is single-spaced in Verdana 7 point font. Please do not change the size of this text box. Every submission will be assigned their own unique DOI string to be included here