Objectives

• Provide an opportunity for students of Human-Computer Interaction and related fields (e. g. Computer Science, Design, Psychology, Social Sciences, among others) to participate in a practical activity.
• Create an exhibition space of solutions to a problem socially relevant.
• Foster greater interaction between industry representatives and students.

The Design Problem

In Mexico, the number of older adults is rapidly growing. It is estimated that in 2050, one in four Mexicans will be an older adult. This is worrisome because older adults have very particular needs such as health care, mobility or socialization. A great number of older adults do not use any form of technology (including mobile phones) since either they do not have access to it or the technologies are ill-suited for them to use. Among the major challenges faced by older adults are: 1) mobility, 2) socialization, 3) health care, and 4) physical activity. For instance, when aging, older adults’ social circles decrease causing certain effects in their health, among other things. Likewise, another challenge is maintaining muscle strength which can help in preventing, for instance, falls that in the long run can make older adults dependent on professional caregivers or family members, to which physical activity can be become paramount. This is even more critical when there are no close family members to look after older adults.

The use of ICTs can be important to promote good habits, increase positive behaviors, and deal with certain diseases. The challenge for this project is designing an object, product, interface, system, or service that can help older adults ameliorate or diminish the effects caused by the aforementioned challenges. This is done so older adults can have an overall better quality of life, by proposing an innovative solution to the design problem using user centered design methodologies.

Participants

• Groups of up 4 students with one supervisor.
• Each team must have at least one student and one supervisor.
• Each supervisor can have only one team.
• The supervisor may be a professor or industry professional.

Submissions

Each group must submit a presentation with a maximum of 15 slides, and a written report of up to 4 pages in ACM format describing in more detail the points raised in the presentation; both in Spanish or English, and in PDF format. Both documents should describe:

• The Problem addressed.
• The Social impact of the proposed solution in the Mexican context.
• The Process used during the project.
• The Methodology, methods and techniques used.
• The Description of the target audience.
• The Proposed solution.

As with other submissions sent to MexIHC 2016, the Students Design Competition entries should not have been previously accepted for presentation or publication in any other event.

Please send your proposal by email to:

Evaluation Process

Submissions it will be evaluated based on:

• Quality of work.
• Novelty of approach.
• Significance of the contribution to the field of HCI.
• Clarity of written document.
• Strength of the case for the expected social impact of the proposal.

Confidentiality of submissions is 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. Submissions should not contain sensitive, private, or proprietary information that cannot be disclosed at publication time.

A jury made up of researchers and industry representatives will choose the best five projects based on the two files submitted. The five projects selected will be invited to be presented during MexIHC 2016.

Late submissions will NOT be considered.

Final Presentation at MexIHC

The presentation should be in English or Spanish. At least two representatives of each team must be present during the event to make the presentation of their project. A jury of four representatives from industry and academia will choose the three winning projects.

Student Design Competition Chairs

• Laura S. Gaytán-Lugo, University of Colima, laura@ucol.mx
• Luis A. Castro, Sonora Institute of Technology, luis.castro@acm.org