Human-Computer Interaction for Development: Mapping the Terrain

Research explicitly focused on the role of Human-Computer Interaction in International Development has been an area of increasing interest over the past 10 years. For example, in 2003, there was a special issue of ACM interactions on HCI in the developing world (Dray, Siegel, & Kotze, 2003). This was followed by a series of workshops at major international conferences (e.g., INTERACT ’07/’09, CHI ’07/’08/’09, HCI ’07, DIS ’08, PCF5) over the decade. Indeed, it was at the CHI ’08 workshop that the seeds for this special issue were sown. Given the progress which had been made, including the formation of the IFIP TC13 Special Interest Group on Interaction Design for International Development, the participants felt that the time was right to reoect on both the lessons learned and where HumanComputer Interaction for Development (HCI4D) currently stands. That reoection, presented in this issue, is framed along three axes: