Sino European Systems Usability Network

Fifth Seminar Tour to China

In May 2007, the final seminar tour of the SESUN project took place in Beijing. Working with the Software and Integrated Circuit Promotion Centre (CSIP), an agency of the Ministry for Information Industry, SESUN provided a one day conference on 30th May 2007 at the Media Center, Beijing. The China-EU Summit on Human-Centered Information Technology and Applications brought together over 150 delegates from industry and significantly initiated formal linkage between the project and the Ministry for Information Industry.

Inaugural speakers included Mr. Xiaohua, Director of Department of Electronics and Information Product Administration of MII, Ms Alison Birkett, First Counsellor, Delegation of the European Commission to China & Mongolia, Mr. Chenwei, Director of Department of Information Promotion of MII, Mr. Adam Bailin, Digital Media Manager for the UK Government's Central Office of Information and Professor Andy Smith SESUN Project Manager and Mr Qiu Shanqing, the Vice Director of CSIP.

The technical part of the programme provided an opportunity for speakers from both China and Europe to share perspectives on human centred technology. For China Mr Xiaohua Tian of IBM China provided a background on system development processes. In relation to the role of usable human centred IT applications that can enhance the lives of disadvantaged persons Ms Huiping Cui, Chief Officer of Information Center of China Disable Persons' Federation gave a presentation concerning the information society for disable people in China. For Europe, Julie Howell, Director of Accessibility, Fortune Cookie, UK provided a presentation on accessibility requirements in the United Kingdom. In addition to enhance global understanding Professor Ashok Jhunjhunwala, Professor, Indian Institute of Technology, Chennai, provided an overview of how citizens in rural India are being integrated into the information society.

In relation to the development of user centred design techniques in industry Mr. Xikun Sun, IBM Open Partnership Center, China and Dave Roberts Senior Designer and Strategy Consultant, IBM, UK shared perspectives on usability engineering

Adam Bailin, Digital Media Manager at the UK Government's Central Office of Information addressed issues relating to e-Government in a talk titled: Citizen Centric e-Government: Experiences in UK and Europe. Prof. Guozhong Dai, Chairman, ACM SIGCHI China and Professor at the Institute of Software, Chinese Academy of Sciences provided insights on the next generation of user-centred interaction technology. Andy Smith addressed the issue of education and training in Europe and implications for China.

To cement a joint understanding of the issues involved in the localised development of usability in China two of the SESUN partners (Professor Andy Smith and Professor Zhengjie Liu of Dalian Maritime University) outlined the findings of the three SESUN implementation projects.

Overall the event proved to be a highly successful launch-pad for the institutional development of human-computer interaction and usability in China. Of course this is early days but the SESUN partners are keen to work with CSIP, the MII and other agencies in whatever ways we can to further the following objectives:

Establishing indigenous ownership of the disciplines in China through a national body associated with established national bodies for computing / IT
Supporting academic research in HCI to help understand the disciplines in a Chinese context and thereby to identify localised usability practice
Developing training and accreditation schemes of usability professionals
Promoting the development of HCI education in universities