HCI International 2009

Keynote address

Abstract

The majority of the world's gross domestic product (GDP) is managed within today's information technology infrastructure. At the same time, the current global economic crisis illustrates many shortcomings in the design of these same systems and of the business processes they execute. Even before the emergence of this specific crisis, a macro-tend was underway reaching for improved sustainability and green IT within the industrial sector. This trend will only accelerate in the coming decade, as both government and private capital flows into projects and products as needed to renovate many of our core systems such as transportation, communication, manufacturing, IT and agriculture. A convergence is taking place which combines the goals of GDP growth with sustainability, and thus forms a revised set of guiding design principles as well as funding criteria in the effort to restart global economy.

An old Chinese proverb states "In challenge always exists opportunity". The HCI profession is much more mature and capable today than when many of these original systems were developed. Ergonomic approaches for lean manufacturing and User Centered Design within agile software development are part of our shared lexicon and skill base, as papers at this conference demonstrate.

We will all be called upon to participate in the sustainability movement, but how well prepared are we to deliver professionally? How will we apply HCI to new problems such as creating a global standard for tracking and trading carbon credits? Can we suggest which areas are most appropriate for investment and which approaches within them are most promising based on our knowledge of human capabilities?

With a decade of re-engineering ahead of us, this talk will introduce an overall framework for understanding sustainability principles and opportunities, and suggest how HCI methods can increase the probability of success in meeting these next generation challenges.

Biographical Sketch

Daniel Rosenberg is a Senior Vice President at SAP, the largest Enterprise Applications Software company in the world. In this capacity he directs user experience design and usability activities across all SAP product lines. His team is also responsible for UCD methodology definition, corporate UI standards and Accessibility. Prior to joining SAP he was Vice President of R&D for UI Design at Oracle Corporation. Previous corporate positions include the role of User Interface Architect for Borland International and Ashton-Tate. While at Borland, he designed the first Windows GUI for Borland C++, as well as many other early innovative product user interfaces for personal computers.

He has authored or co-authored many well known publications in the HCI field, including "Human Factors in Product Design" (Elsevier 1991), as well as chapters in the original "Handbook of Human Computer Interaction" (Elsevier 1988), "Coordinating User Interfaces for Consistency" (Academic Press 1989) and "Usability in Practice" (Academic Press 1994). He is also one of the founding editors of ACM's NetWorker magazine, a publication that focuses on how the Internet has changed the nature of work.