Message from the Case Study Chairs

Case studies are part of CHI "Contemporary Trends" - they are Juried content that provoke, intrigue, and inspire the CHI audience. These submissions record the history of HCI practice and innovation outside of the scope of traditional archival research papers.

Case Studies provide an excellent means of presenting results that address particular phenomena, especially in real-world contexts. A Case Study could involve, for example, an in-depth study of a specific event or a particular problem encountered and solved. We expect the author(s) to have gained a better understanding – perhaps even a radical redefinition or reframing – the phenomenon, and to convey their insights and new understandings in a way that advances the field. We envision that the insights will enable practitioners to improve their practice, that they can seed further research into practice, and overall will enhance our understanding of HCI.  

HCI practice can set new standards and forge new paths for the broader field of HCI. We know you're doing ground-breaking work out there. The CHI community needs to hear about it!

We look forward to receiving your submissions and seeing you at CHI 2015.

Joonhwan Lee, Seoul National University, Korea

Danielle Cooley, dgcooley.com, USA

casestudies@chi2015.acm.org

What is a Case Study?

Case Studies are examples of HCI practice based on real-world experiences that will be instructive and of interest to other members of the community. Case studies provide a substantial contribution to the field and move it forward.

Case Studies can illustrate, explore, report, analyze, summarize, debunk, challenge, or simply describe. They might focus, for instance, on the following topics:

• Application, critique, or evolution of a method, process, theory, or tool

• Unfolding trends within any area of HCI Practice or specific domain

• Innovation through Research or Design (disruptive or otherwise)

• Design of a specific experience, discussing its rationale, any issues, and lessons learned

• Research of a specific domain, user group, or experience, discussing its insights and lessons learned

• Management and Strategy of research and design in organizations

• HCI Teaching and Learning in education, training, or knowledge sharing.

• Great designs and 'Big Ideas' - and how to make them happen

• Domain-specific topics, especially lesser known domains of interest

• Pilot studies preceding and informing larger-scale investigations

• Critical instances that explore particular cases of interest with little concern for generalization

• Related works that may have been completed at different times but do form a coherent whole

• Challenges to existing notions of Research, Design, Theory, and Practice

• Revisiting definitions of HCI practice

Case Studies differ from archival research papers in that Case Studies do not define themselves as part of the potentially longer term body of academic research. They might not have as extensive a literature review as archival research papers, or might not explicitly add to HCI theory within an academic school of thought.

The key success criteria for case studies are that they must present novel and original insights, and show potential for real impact on the HCI body of knowledge and HCI practice. Case study submissions will not be constrained by traditional academic expectations, but will be judged by their significant contribution to the field of HCI as judged by an expert jury of HCI practitioners or practitioner researchers.

Case Studies are not considered academic archival publications, but can be republished as such, as appropriate.

Case Study Selection Process

Case Studies offer narratives of the challenges of an activity, the processes/techniques used, and the results achieved (good or bad), including the impact on all stakeholders, such as the user community, the sponsoring organization, and technology providers. Accepted submissions will be chosen on the merit and contribution of the report, not only on the quality of the outcome that it describes. This means that a valuable lesson learned from a poor outcome is just as acceptable as a valuable lesson learned from a good result. Case Studies are selected by a "jury" - a panel of experts selected by and including the Case Study chairs. Each juror will take the role of Case Study Associate Chair (AC) for part of the submissions and will inform their assessment from a number of reviews by CHI reviewers. The jury will make the final decisions, led by the Case Studies chairs. Authors will receive the reviews of their submissions after the decisions are announced, and should keep in mind that the Case Studies program is a Juried contribution and thus does not follow the strict peer-review process as applied to Papers or Notes. In particular, the Case Study review process does not allow authors the opportunity to submit rebuttals. Specifically, the review criteria will be the extent to which the case study report meets the following:

• is of interest to a broad segment of the CHI community, or redefining what should be of interest
• advances the state of the practice
• is described in a way that others can replicate the activity in their own environment
• makes a convincing argument that the experience is applicable beyond the specific example described
• clearly outlines any limitations of the report as well as of the activity described

The extended abstract should contain no sensitive, private, or proprietary information that cannot be disclosed at publication time.  Submissions should NOT be anonymous. However, confidentiality of submissions will be maintained during the review process. All rejected submissions will be kept confidential in perpetuity. All submitted materials for accepted submissions will be kept confidential until the start of the conference, with the exception of title and author information which will be published on the website prior to the conference.

Upon Acceptance of your Case Study

Authors will be notified of acceptance or rejection on 21 November 2014. Authors of accepted submissions will receive instructions on how to prepare and submit the publication-ready version. These will be due on 9 January 2015.

At the Conference

Participants will be given 15 minutes (including questions) to present their case study during a scheduled session. Please see Presenting at CHI 2015 for information about standard computing and A/V equipment that will be made available to presenters at CHI 2015. The Best Case Study award and any Honorable Mention recipient(s) will be announced at the conference.

After the Conference

Accepted Case Studies will be distributed in the CHI Extended Abstracts, available on USB and in the ACM Digital Library.