A presentation on the UX in Asia and SIGCHI by Professor Zhengjie Liu from Sino-European Usability Center Dalian Maritime University and ACM SIGCHI at the UX Indonesia-Malaysia 2014 that was conducted on the 26th April 2014 in the Hotel Bidakara, Jakarta, Indonesia.

1. UX in Asia and SIGCHI
Zhengjie Liu
Sino-European Usability Center
Dalian Maritime University
www.usabilitychina.com

2. Outline
 UX development in Asia and what we can
learn from it
 An overview of SIGCHI
 SIGCHI’s endeavor in developing worlds
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3. UX Development in Asia
1

4.  User experience (UX) profession
originated in North America and Western
Europe in the late 1980s
 It has begun to expand to the rest of the
world, especially Asia In the last 10 years
1

5.  Diversified Asia
 Economic development
 Industries
 Technology penetration
 Political systems
 Education systems
 Cultures
 Languages
 Ethnic groups
 …
1

6.  Asia’s diversity led to diversified UX
development
 China
 India
 Japan
 South Korea
 Singapore, Taiwan, Hong Kong
 …
1

7. China
 Introduced around 2000 and fast grew up after
2004
 Started from multinational companies
 A few thousands practitioners
 Focused on consumer electronic products and
online services
 From evaluation to user-driven innovation
 Still not well recognized in universities
 SIGCHI China, UXPA China, China UCD …
1

8. India
 Mobile communication infrastructure has led to a
demand for UX
 Top quarter of mainstream companies set up UX
teams
 Developed mainly in design schools
 Design of interactive products for internal Indian
needs – HCI4D
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9. Japan
 Started from 1990s
 ISO13407:1999 (Human-centered design
processes for interactive systems)
 Kansei engineering
 Not popular in universities
 Curriculum and a certification system for
usability professionals
 119 people were issued the certification in 2009
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10. Japan (cont.)
 Usability activities have changed very much
 from evaluation to user research
 from the design process to the whole lifecycle
 from hardware to software and the web
 from manufacturing to service
 from ergonomics to cognitive psychology then to the
ethnologic approach
1

11. South Korea
 Industry, universities and government
 Based in design and CS departments
 Korean HCI conference (2,000 attendees)
 2,000 usability practitioners
 Annual evaluation of accessibility for e-
government websites
1

12. Singapore, Taiwan, Hong Kong …
 Some usability practices in industry
 Emphasis varies depending on the major local
industrial sectors
 Singapore - service industry
 Taiwan – manufacturing
 Hong Kong - service and digital media industries
 Local communities tend to be informal
1

13. Key Trends
 Development of ICT industry
 All the established UX communities are without
exception in the places with a well-developed ICT
industry
 UX professionals serve either in the ICT
manufacturing or in a service industry
1

14. Key Trends (cont.)
 Embracement of competition
 Competition in the market is a key factor
affecting the demand for UX professionals
 UX practice is rare, if there is a lack of
competition
 E.g. public sector, like governmental organizations
and social services
1

15. Key Trends (cont.)
 Expansion of markets
 The size and value of the market affects the
need to invest in UX
 Why did UX grow in China and India?
1

16. Key Trends (cont.)
 Direct contact with end-users
 The need for a UX process happens in those
companies who directly interact with end
users
 Software and service outsourcing in India and
some coastal areas in China
 The scale of the industry is large, but usability
programs are rare
1

17. Key Trends (cont.)
 Products for multiple cultures and literacy
levels
 This diversity presents special challenges for
product development
 That is why HCI4D or UCD4D has been a
popular theme for years in India
1

18. Key Trends (cont.)
 Government promotion
 Governments can play an important role in
promoting usability
 South Korea
 research funding, ICT professional qualification,
standards for government online services
 Japan
 Introduction of ISO13407 standard to Japanese
industries in 1999
1

19. Key Trends (cont.)
 Dominant disciplines vary
 The discipline which played leading role in UX
in a country/region varies
 China, Japan and Korea: computer science,
design and psychology
 India: design
 Southeast Asia: ergonomics (?)
1

20. Key Trends (cont.)
 Multinational corporations’ role
 Multinationals import UX practices common in
the Western-based companies
 Local companies learn from the examples
1

21. Looking Ahead: Challenges
 Isolation of academia from industry must
be reversed
 Education and training for UX
professionals needs to be strengthened
 HCI courses need to be included as a core
component in the syllabuses for related
disciplines
1

22. Looking Ahead: Challenges (cont.)
 The diversity of Asian languages needs to
be addressed
 Communication is difficult either between
Asian and non-Asian countries or between
different Asian countries
 International organizations should help to
build multilingual platforms for exchange
 UX magazine by UXPA provides translation of
abstracts online in multiple languages
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23. Looking Ahead: Challenges (cont.)
 Local UX pioneers must emerge as a seed
to begin the growth of UX fields into a
larger sustainable community
 A successful local organization must work for
the local culture
1

24. Zhengjie Liu, User Experience in Asia, Journal of
Usability Studies, Vol. 9, Issue 2, February 2014 pp. 42-50.
http://www.upassoc.org/upa_publications/jus/2014february/JUS_Liu_February_
2014.pdf
1

25. ACM SIGCHI
1

27. Parent Organization
 ACM: Association for Computing Machinery
 Founded in 1947
 ~100,000 members
 Volunteer-run
 Extensive digital library (ACM DL)
 2,000,000 entries, 334,000 full text documents
 1,250,000 downloads/month
 50+ Journals
 Awards
 Turing Award
 ACM Fellows, Distinguished Members, Senior Members
 36 special interest groups (SIG)

28. SIGCHI
 SIGCHI: Special Interest Group on Computer-Human
Interaction
 4,300 members world-wide
 Membership reflects HCI’s multidisciplinary nature
 Social Sciences (Psychology, Ethnography, Ergonomics,
Communication)
 Computer Science/Engineering/Information Sciences
 Design (Arts, Architecture, Industrial Design)
 Awards
 Lifetime Research/Practice/Service, Social Impact, CHI Academy
 SIGCHI members come from industry and academia
 48% academic
 38% industry professional
 28% students
(some choose multiple labels)

29. SIGCHI Executive Committee
 Elected
 President
 EVP, VP finance, VP membership, VP at Large
 Appointed according to bylaws or ACM rules, e.g.
 VPs for conferences, publications, chapters,
operations, IFIP Rep., Editors Interactions
 Appointed by President, e.g.
 AC Education, Publicity, Developing worlds, Public
policy …
1

30. Publications
 Interactions magazine
 Transactions on CHI (TOCHI)
 SIGCHI material in the ACM DL
 ~27,000
 Cumulative downloads: ~11,000,000
1

31. Conferences
 Flagship conference
 CHI: Conference on Human Factors in Computing
Systems
 17 Sponsored and co-sponsored conferences
 CSCW, UbiCOMP, MobileHCI, UIST, DIS, RecSys,
TEI, ITS, IUI, GROUP,…
 25 Conferences in-cooperation
1

32. CHI
 Premier international HCI conference
 Founded: 1982, held annually since 1985
 Recent locations - Moving between continents
since 1993
 2011 Vancouver, BC, Canada
 2012 Austin, TX, USA
 2013 Paris, France
 2014 Toronto, ON, Canada
 2015 Seoul, South Korea
 2016 North America
1

33. CHI: Stable Attendance
• 2013: 3450
• 2012: 2554
• 2011: 2696
• 2010: 2385
• 2009: 2341
• 2008: 2692
• 2007: 2353
• 2006: 2410

34. CHI 2006 - 2012
2341
2692
2353
2410 2385
2696
2554
0
500
1000
1500
2000
2500
3000
2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012

35. industry:
713
academia:
1727
CHI 2012 - total: 2555

36. CHI 2012 - per continent
1650
616
243
28 13 4
0
200
400
600
800
1000
1200
1400
1600
1800
North America Europe Asia Oceania South America Africa
Total
Total

37. CHI 2012 - per country
1497
209
139
111
87 76
47 46
39
30
24 24 23 20 20 18
13 13 12 12 11 11
9 8 8 7
6
5
3 3 3 3 3
2
1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
1
10
100
1000
10000
UnitedStates
UnitedKingdom
Canada
Germany
Korea,Republicof
Japan
France
Sweden
Denmark
Singapore
Austria
Switzerland
Netherlands
Finland
Australia
China
Spain
Portugal
Israel
Mexico
Italy
Brazil
Taiwan
RussianFederation
NewZealand
Belgium
India
Norway
HongKong
Ireland
Cyprus
Poland
SaudiArabia
Philippines
Thailand
CzechRepublic
Estonia
Jamaica
Chile
Kenya
Slovenia
Turkey
SouthAfrica
Georgia
Namibia
Greece
Total

38. CHI 2012 - attendees per country
USA 1497
UK 209
Canada 139
Germany 111
Korea 87
Japan 78
…..

39. CHI 2015
1
0
50
100
150
200
250
2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012
Asian Attendance at CHI
2006-2012
Korea
Asia Total

40. SIGCHI Benefits
 Publications: Interactions, TOCHI
 Conferences (support, logistics, publicity, CHI
member reg.)
 Proceedings SIGCHI conferences in the ACM DL
 Support for workshops & local chapters,
development fund
 Communities
 Education
 Public policy
 Recognition of excellence in the field
1

41. Membership Demographics - Age

42. Membership Demographics – HCI Experience

43. Membership and Students
1
Year Students Members
2011 470 4306
2010 732 4415
2009 718 4845
2008 672 5117

44. Map of Local ACM SIGCHI Chapters
38 SIGCHI chapters around the world, on 6 continents,
in 23 countries, over 3,000 members (about 2,300 reported)

45. ACM SIGCHI Chapters
34 professional, 4 student chapters
Atlanta ACM SIGCHI Chapter
Belgian ACM SIGCHI
Brazil ACM SIGCHI
Central Chile ACM SIGCHI
Central Russia ACM SIGCHI
China ACM SIGCHI
Cyprus ACM SIGCHI
Czech ACM SIGCHI
Estonian SIGCHI of the ACM
Finland ACM SIGCHI
Greater Boston ACM SIGCHI
Greece ACM SIGCHI
Ireland ACM SIGCHI
Italian ACM SIGCHI
Korea ACM SIGCHI
Mexico ACM SIGCHI
Michigan ACM SIGCHI
New Zealand ACM SIGCHI
North India ACM SIGCHI
Northern Utah ACM SIGCHI
Ottawa ACM SIGCHI
Paris ACM SIGCHI
PhillyCHI (Philadelphia ACM SIGCHI)
Poland ACM SIGCHI
Portland ACM SIGCHI
Puget Sound ACM SIGCHI
Romania ACM SIGCHI
San Francisco Bay ACM SIGCHI
Spain ACM SIGCHI
St Louis ACM SIGCHI
Swiss ACM SIGCHI
Tel Aviv ACM SIGCHI
Toulouse/France ACM SIGCHI
Wananchi (Nairobi, Kenya)
George Mason University ACM Student SIGCHI
Iowa State University Chapter (Student SIGCHI)
Rochester Institute of Technology ACM SIGCHI Student Chapter
University of Michigan ACM Student SIGCHI

46. Chapters Benefits
• Visibility in the form of Interactions chapter columns
and at the SIGCHI website
• Annual Chapters Workshop at CHI
• Financial support for chapter networking projects*
• Administrative and web tools
• Promotional materials
• Visibility for chapter events
• ACM Distinguished Speakers Program (new European
HCI speakers coming soon)
*A novel benefit for local chapters is support for chapter
networking projects involving at least two chapters

47. SIGCHI in Developing Worlds
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Shift to another set of slides …

48. 48
谢谢