FAQ last updated: November 5, 2001

What are the benefits of submitting?
There are many benefits of submitting. If your work is accepted, you will have the opportunity to present it at the CHI2002 conference which is the largest world-wide conference devoted to human computer interaction. The presentation will be an excellent chance for you to interact with colleagues about your project. Your work is also likely to be included in a future issue of Interactions Magazine. If your work is not accepted, you will get feedback from our selection panel which you can use to improve future submissions.

Who is eligible to participate?
The CHI2002 conference is open to anyone who is interested or engaged in areas of computer human interaction. It is not necessary to be a member of ACM SIGCHI to participate in the conference or to submit a portfolio.

Do you know of some great interaction designs?
If you have seen someone's interaction design work somewhere or used a product with a great user interface, you can make a suggestion to us via the Post-a-tip page http://www.acm.org/chi2002/cgi-bin/suggest_design.cgi ). We will contact the nominee and get him/her to submit a portfolio.

What does it mean to be 'nominated' by someone?
It just means that someone thinks that CHI2002 may be a great forum to show your work. You still have to follow the submission process and eligibility criteria. All submissions whether received with or without a nomination tip will be treated the same way. There is no guarantee what so ever that your portfolio will be selected.

How do I choose a portfolio category - 'Professional' or 'Academic'?
The choice of category primarily depends on the products you want to include in the portfolio.

If your portfolio contains products that have shipped or launched after 1 January 2000 in the real world, then it is appropriate for the 'Professional portfolios' category. Examples are: intranet launched within a company, a CD-ROM which is published, an information appliance that is launched, an ITV program that went on air, a web site that became operational, a software product or tool etc. This category is mainly intended for professional designers, freelancers, consultants, design studios and corporate design teams.

If your portfolio includes products that are exploratory, conceptual or research oriented, then it might be more suitable for the 'Academic portfolios' category. You must note, however that this category is primarily intended for students, researchers and educators with final year student projects getting preference.

Portfolios mixed with work belonging to both categories will be rejected. You might want to submit both separately.

What is the format for submission? Is there a sample submission?
Files of a sample submission are at: sampleportfolio.pdf .

The four page pdf format for portfolios have the following specific layout guidelines:

1. The title of submission, authors names, affiliations and contact addresses must be included.
2. All pages must be numbered for correct sequence.
3. The pages must be of US letter size in colour, grey scale or black and white.
4. There is no limit on the size of pdf file, but for practical reasons (the selection panel members download them at various network speeds in different countries!), it is advisable to keep the size of file to a maximum 1 MB.
5. Make sure to embed fonts and adjust graphics quality while making a pdf file.
6. You may indicate web links and place clickable buttons in the pdf files.
7. You are free to choose your layout style so long the text is readable.

For instructions on creating a PDF file see: http://www.acm.org/chi2002/producing.html .

What do I need to check before submitting a portfolio?

1. Cover sheet: Make sure you have name of co-ordinating author and full contact address.
2. Summary page: Include a 50 word summary of portfolio and a single colour picture of one of the products in your portfolio (JPEG/GIF). This will be included in the conference program booklet.
3. Technology support request: If you need something more than standard support, please make your descriptions as specific as possible. Examples of such requirements include wireless microphones, high resolution projection (greater than 600 by 800), simultaneous projection from multiple sources, external telephone lines, workstation (rather than PC) support, Internet access, the ability to play audio cassettes or CDs, etc. Your request for additional support will be considered but cannot be guaranteed.

Standard support available:

• Computer: 1 PC with CD-ROM and Zip drive, 1 Mac with CD-ROM and Zip drive, and the most current commercially available operating systems.
• Audio: A clip-on, podium, or table microphone for each presenter; a connection from the computer sound output to the room audio.
• Visual: Non-simultaneous projection of 35mm slides, overheads, NTSC and PAL video (VHS), and computer displays with resolution up to 600 by 800 pixels.
4. Portfolio document: 4 page pdf file with embedded fonts. See above for format details.
5. Weblinks list: As an optional supplement to the submission, you may provide public or password protected sites where selection panel members can check out the actual product, browse through detailed screen shots, use cases, or simulations. The passwords must be valid throughout the period of 7 December, 2001 to 25 Janauary, 2002. This will serve as supplementary information to reviewers but is not required.

How can I (we) submit - by mail or electronically?
Instructions can be found on the Process and Format page.

What is the timeline?

• Upload submission electronically: 7 December, 2001
• Selection notification: 21 January, 2001
• Presentation at conference: 23-25 April, 2001 (Minneapolis)

What is the selection procedure?

• The area co-chairs will screen the submissions and assign three members from the selection panel (from mixed backgrounds - professionals, academics, researchers ) to review each submission.
• The panel members voluntarily declare if there is a conflict of interest in which case the co-chairs will assign a submission to another member.
• All the submissions will be made available online for viewing of all the selection panel members during a specified review period (12 December 2001 - 18 January 2002). Only the assigned panel members may actually enter or edit scores for any submission.
• Panel members print out the files and review the portfolios.
• Panel members are expected to complete the review of assigned submissions and fill in the scores latest by 13 January, 2002. The co-chairs will compile all the scores and a rank order of all submissions. During the week 14 January 2002 - 18 January 2002, the area co-chairs will seek clarifications from panel members on scores and ranking. A conference call will also be held with all panel members during this week to discuss the final rankings.
• The area co-chairs will then negotiate maximum number of slots for conference session with the conference chairs. Based on this, the submissions from the top of ranking will be selected for presentation at the conference.
• Authors will be informed about the selection result on or after 26 January 2002.

What criteria will be used by the selection panel?
The selection panel members will use the following selection criteria to assign scores. A total score will be computed based on assigned weights to each criteria.

Poor =1, Fair = 2, Average = 3, Good = 4, Excellent = 5

Who will select the submissions?
All the interaction design portfolio submissions will be first screened for eligibility by the area co-chairs: Raghu Kolli (Meru Research), Tom Erickson (IBM), and John Karat (IBM).

An international selection panel comprised of professional designers, educators, researchers and consultants will then review the screened submissions based on selection criteria:

• Janet Abrams, Design Institute, University of Minnesota
• Sally Beardsley, Sally Beardsley Design
• Elizabeth Boling, Instructional Systems Technology, Indiana University
• Dan Boyarski, School of Design, Carnegie Mellon University
• Millicent Cooley, User Research and Usability, Prodigy
• Shannon Ford, Independent Consultant
• Bill Gaver, Computer Related Design, Royal College of Art
• Matt Holloway, Zaplets, Inc.
• Stephanie Houde, Pageflex, Inc.
• Mat Hunter, IDEO Europe
• Suguru Ishizaki, QUALCOMM Incorporated
• Lauretta Jones, IBM Research
• Rik Koster, Eden Design & Communication
• John Maeda, MIT Media Laboratory
• Paul Moody, IBM Research
• Kevin Mullet, Propel
• Harry Saddler, Design Element
• Gitta Salomon, Swim
• Keiichi Sato, Institute of Design, Illinois Institute of Technology
• Tiffany Shlain, The Webby Awards
• Peter Simlinger, International Institute of Information Design
• John Thackara, Doors of Perception
• Laurie Vertelney, Vertelney User Experience

Based on the number of submissions selected by the panel, the area chairs will negotiate as many session slots as possible with the conference chairs: Loren Terveen (AT&T) and Dennis Wixon (Microsoft). The final list of selected portfolios will be made by the area chairs.

What are the costs for submission?
There are no costs for submission of portfolios itself. If your submission is selected, then one of the authors is required to make a presentation at the conference. Attendance at conference requires registration fees even for presenters. For details of conference registration fees see the Registration Section of this site.

How many submissions do you expect to receive?
This is the first time a new format like Interaction Design Portfolio is introduced at CHI conference. Therefore we do not have any past data. We guess the total number of submissions to be upwards of 30.

How may submissions will be selected?
We expect to select a minimum of 4 to a maximum of 12 submissions depending on the quality of submissions. If there are several more high quality submissions, we will try to provide alternative venues such as presentations at the demo area.

What do I (we) have to do if my(our) portfolio is selected?

• Register for the conference, book accommodation and make payment as necessary
• Make a presentation at the conference
• Give a demo
• Optionally, you may want to contribute your work to the Interactions magazine

Will selected portfolios be published in CHI proceedings?
It has been decided not to include the Interaction Design Portfolio submissions in the CHI proceedings because of practical difficulties and budgetary issues related to full colour printing. However, we plan to publish all the submissions received (highlighting the selected ones, of course) at a web site, if authors give permission.

Some submissions may be recommended for publication in the ACM Interactions magazine (http://www.acm.org/interactions) and a web supplement. These will have to be refined to follow the publication guidelines for Interactions magazine.

What may be the grounds for not selecting a portfolio?

• The submission may have reached after the deadline: 7 December, 2001
• A submission in professional category may have included a product that is launched before 1 January, 2000
• A submission in professional category may have included a product that is simply a development or marketing prototype that is never launched in the market.
• A submission in an academic category may have included a student project that was done before 1 January, 2000.
• A submission in academic category may have included a research project parts of which was already published before 1 January, 2000.
• The visual quality of submission may be poor.
• The portfolio may have high quality of visual design but may not be illustrating the interaction design principles sufficiently.
• The portfolio may be focussing more on the underlying technology implementation or product features than interaction design principles.
• One or more products shown in the portfolio may not be novel or exploratory in solution.
• The design process is not sufficiently described in the portfolio.
• The portfolio does not make any reference to user feedback.
• The files submitted online may not be readable or printable.
• A portfolio contains work that is mixed between professional and academic categories.
• A portfolio is more than 4 pages or contains more than 5 products.
• A portfolio ranks lower in overall score relative to other submissions.

Where can I find more information about CHI2002 conference in general and the SIGCHI?
You can find the complete conference program, other categories for submission, registration information etc. within this website.

You can also find more information about SIGCHI (Special Interest Group for Computer Human Interaction), the worlds largest community of specialists from industry and academia at: http://www.acm.org/sigchi .

Whom can I contact if I have a question?
The best person to contact would be the area chair: Raghu Kolli (Meru Research, The Netherlands) through email (chi2002-design@acm.org) . If you really have to, you can also reach him by phone at: +31 624 524 374. From November 15 to January 14, Tom Erickson (IBM Research, USA) will be acting chair; he can be reached at the same email (chi2002-design@acm.org), or, if necessary, by phone at (612) 823-3663 (email will usually be much quicker).