Marcelle Mota, André Freire, Ingrid Monteiro, Kamila Rodrigues and Ticianne Darin
The XX edition of the Brazilian Symposium on Human Factors in Computer Systems (IHC 2021) took place in October 2021, from the 18th to the 22nd, online. The event attracted more than 242 online participants, including professionals (58), undergraduate (64) and graduate students (82) and basic education teachers (07). IHC 2021 was sponsored by NIC.BR, CGI.BR, ACM SIGCHI in cooperation, Balsamiq, Sidia and Tokenlab; and supported by IBM Research. You can see the opening and closing ceremonies of the event on the youtube channel.
This 20th edition, since its inception, organized and carried out entirely online, presented many challenges and an opportunity to reach different audiences and increase the inclusion of other people and regions of the country. In this context, the event’s theme, “Interaction from Caburaí to Chuí”, was designed to further celebrate the diversity in research and culture that, over the years, has built a solid, multifaceted, and plural HCI community in Brazil. Like the population in our country, the Brazilian HCI community is made up of different colors, accents, and customs – a wealth of human factors reflected in our research’s diversity. Figure 1 allows us to visualize the number of participants by the state in Brazil, emphasizing Ceará and São Paulo.
Figure 1: Participants by state
The general organization was under the responsibility of professors Ingrid Teixeira Monteiro (UFC), Kamila Rios da Hora Rodrigues (USP) and Ticianne de Gois Ribeiro Darin (UFC). In the scientific organization, professors André Pimenta Freire (UFLA) and Marcelle Pereira Mota (UFPA) were responsible.
Below is a summary of the event in numbers:
* Research track. Submitted: 77; Accepted: 9.
* Insightful Ideas and Emerging Results in IHC. Submitted: 44 + 3 (indicated from the research track); Accepted: 26.
* Workshop on Education in HCI (WEIHC). Submitted: 19; Accepted: 10.
* Workshop on Aspects of Human-Computer Interaction for the Social Web (WAIHCWS). Submitted: 12; Accepted: 6.
* Evaluation competition (postgraduate): Submitted: 2; Accepted: 2 .
* Evaluation competition (graduation): Submitted: 3; Accepted: 1 .
* Thesis and Dissertation Contest (theses): Submitted: 2; Accepted: 1 .
* Thesis and Dissertation Contest (Dissertations): Submitted: 10; Accepted: 5.
For the first time, the IHC Theses and Dissertations Contest was organized, which awarded the Junia Coutinho Anacleto Prize in honor of this professor who acted, with a pioneering spirit, in the supervision of scientific works in the area of IHC, with a significant legacy and contribution to the training of numerous researchers in HCI in Brazil.
In 2021, the IHC organization created an Accessibility Coordination responsible for ensuring that the event’s content was accessible to all its participants. Various support materials, social media outreach content, and educational materials were developed to improve accessibility awareness.
In addition, we had the first edition of the IHCzinho. It was an initiative to involve children in the event. Several researchers were at the home office, having to take care of everything related to work and family at the same time during the pandemic. In this sense, there is nothing better than allowing us to meet the people in the family, making them tell stories by developing a super interactive activity.
Figure 2:Submissions by State (1st Author) – Research Tracl and Insightful Ideas and Emerging Results
Figure 2 is a visualization of the states of IHC 2021 participants who submitted articles to the event on the main trails. It is worth noting that the places with the most participation in submissions are the states of São Paulo, Ceará, Minas Gerais, Paraná, Rio Grande do Sul, and Rio de Janeiro.
The event took place, mostly synchronously, with the presentation of papers and online lectures through the Hopin tool, some also broadcast on Youtube, in addition to moments of conversation between the participants at asynchronous moments, on the Discord tool’s event channel, which allowed for a greater exchange of experiences and rapid sharing of information. In addition, we have interaction environments at Padlet, with presentations by the participants, kids’ space, and Pet Parade.
The IHC 2021 was attended by four speakers: Ben Shneiderman (University of Maryland), Jennifer Preece (University of Maryland), Helen Petrie (University of York), and Milene Silveira (Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Grande do Sul). Professor Milene Silveira was honored with the “CEIHC Outstanding Acting” Award 2021. The “CEIHC Outstanding Acting” Award is given to people who have contributed to the development, strengthening, and success of the Brazilian Human-Computer Interaction Community in several functions and aspects, acting in leadership roles, representing the community in Brazil and abroad, and who contributed to innovative practices in some of the diverse topics of research in HCI. The Award took place for the first time in 2021.
Finally, the IHC 2021 also had two panels: “IHC in the industry: opportunities and challenges” in which industry representatives participated, and “Accessibility in speech or action: Who are you in the bread line?“, where we talked about the difficulties in putting into practice the accessibility issues known in theory.
IHC 2021 was marked by homesickness due to the second year of social distancing. It was a moment of celebration for the 20 years of the event, a special moment for the researchers and students who had the opportunity to participate without the costs of travel and accommodation.
The hope of the reunion was renewed so that the IHC 2022, in the city of Diamantina-MG, will be our (re)meeting point, with the safe return to face-to-face activities, which our community has missed so much in previous years.
