Designing Interaction for the Cloud
 
A workshop at  the ACM CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
May 7 2011, Vancouver, BC
 
Recent advances in Cloud Computing has seen the utilization of a thin client on the user’s desktop PC. Meanwhile massively scaling processing and data storage capabilities are housed within data warehouse server facilities; allowing super computing power to be easily accessed, remotely and securely, via the user’s local PC, over the wired or wireless Internet. Many novel technologies and methods of working are becoming apparent, such as Software/Platform/Infrastructure as a Service, Service Oriented Architectures, Rich Internet Applications and web based collaborative activities, focussed around on-demand scalable Utility Computing. Such shifts in practice inevitably give rise to new methods of interaction, challenges in providing interaction and new opportunities to enhance user experience of the computing system. This workshop seeks to bring together researchers and practitioners, from as many different subject areas as possible, who have experience or new ideas for dealing with interaction in Cloud Computing. Expected topics of discussion may involve:
 
  1.  Reconciling the economic and business benefits of cloud computing with changes to the user experience.  
  2.  Issues for organisations and individuals in migrating from a locally based interaction to cloud-based interaction.
  3.  Issues of trust and security when third parties manage your infrastructure.
  4.  Adopting current HCI design techniques to a cloud-centric approach  
  5.  Issues of design context, adaption and tailorability of cloud-based systems.
  6.  Designing for failure: the user experience when the cloud goes offline.
  7.  UI tools, notations and models which may specifically support specifying and designing cloud-based interaction.
  8.  Lessons learned from earlier work in CSCW and distributed computing that can be re-applied or re-thought.  
  9.  Social and organisational issues of implementing cloud solutions.