This IJHCS special issue on ACI capitalises on the momentum that ACI research has been gaining in recent years, to make a decisive step forward towards its academic establishment, and further support its development. To this end, we invite novel, high quality contributions that demonstrate a user-centered focus, and preferably (but not necessarily) present an engineering element, around any of the following questions:
Design. What interaction modalities might we need to develop in order to make technology accessible to other animals? How could we design for users with different sensorial apparatuses, cognitive capabilities, and ergonomic characteristics? How could appropriated multisensory interfaces and alternative interactional paradigms be explored and theorized? On the other hand, how could design solutions developed within ACI applications inform design within HCI?
Methodology. What methodological frameworks could enable animals to actively participate in the design process as legitimate stakeholders, technology users and design contributors? How much of HCI methodological arsenal could be called upon when we design with animals or investigate how technology affects them and their interactions with us? How could non-linguistic methodologies be adapted from HCI or derived from other disciplines? Conversely, how could more-than-human approaches developed within ACI contribute to HCI practices?
Theory: What are the main challenges that ACI researchers might encounter in conceptualizing the interaction between humans, animals and technology? How could we interpret the outcomes of applied studies, concrete designs and research practices to articulate such interactions? What existing theoretical frameworks from HCI, animal science, or other disciplines, might ACI theories draw from or contribute to?
Ethics. What might be legitimate technological applications for ACI? What implications does ACI’s animal-centered perspective have for conducting research that involves animal participants? What ethical frameworks might be most suitable to support the development of ACI? What might the relation between ethics and methodology be in ACI? And how could a reflection on ACI ethics influence ethical aspects of HCI research?
We welcome relevant submissions contributed from within any related discipline and describing work within diverse contexts. However, please be aware that IJHCS does not normally consider papers which describe military applications.
Submission:
Manuscript should be prepared according to the IJHCS Guide for authors. Please select SI: ACI when you reach the “Article Type” step in the submission process at http://ees.elsevier.com/ijhcs/.
Timelines:
Submission Deadline: 30 June 2015
Final Paper Due: 31 December 2015
Guest Editors:
Clara Mancini, The Open University
C.Mancini@open.ac.uk
Oskar Juhlin, Stockholm University
oskarj@dsv.su.se
Shaun Lawson, University of Lincoln
slawson@lincoln.ac.uk