HCI and the human condition

We’ve just returned from CHI2007. It’s a huge event, with multiple parallel tracks, and clearly there is something for everyone in the offerings. In this, more than any previous conference, there was room for practitioner and other applied papers in HCI. On departing the research/theoretical ivory towers, one will increasingly face social issues. For example, once you decide that haptic interfaces are ready to actually be used, the debate shifts from “is this effective?” to “whom can it affect?” A cursory glance at the session titles already points to this new development in HCI. Looking at these sessions, what strikes us is not their novelty to CHI (many of these issues have been raised before), but rather their increasing social/ actual application.