The event was kicked off with a keynote by one of scandinavia's major mobile phone producers' design leads. Much to my surprise, the talk was rather superficial - materials, color, and the assumption that these would make a 'emotional product'. Also the research methods mentioned in the talk were rather questionable - basically, going on world trips for inspiration. All that was put into a buzz word-laden presentation.
The technical program me, however, was excellent. The talks were shortened (7 + 3 minutes for short papers, 15+5 minutes for long papers), which increased the pace. Highlight papers included "100,000,000 Taps" - a study which was conducted via a game in the Android Marketplace. While the findings were not a revolution per se, I did like the method.
I also appreciated the social events. The Mobile HCI community is an open-minded group of people, it has the right size (apx. 200 people attended the event) and seems mainly curiositiy-driven. I am much looking forward to next year's event in San Francisco!
Mobile HCI2011 -- additional review
Complementary to Fabians review a few additional remarks to the Mobile HCI 2011 conference:
It was interesting so see how researchers turned seemingly geeky features into meaningful opportunities – e.g. pico projectors used for supporting health care in rural india. On the other end it was indeed disappointing to realize how much major companies in the field seem to be focused on finishes, fancy materials and fashion trends when thinking about the next generation of mobiles.
Very convincing for any similar kind of event seemed the running prototype of "Buzzy" – an interactive Conference Scheduling and discussion tool that was used heavily during the conference. By allowing life commenting, exchanging references, etc. it offered a promising channel for augmenting the limits of a regular conference schedule.
A visionary outlook on upcoming evolvements within the field was provided by final keynote speaker Adrian Cheok – Professor at Keio University, Tokyo – who focuses on ubiquitous computing and mixed reality. By presenting current and older student projects and prototypes he framed tendencies in technology development that currently are becoming graspable, including distanced smell and touch interaction, digital object augmentation, wearable (pet) computers, etc.
Although inspired from engineers »feasibility fantasies« his talk didn´t lack a good sense of humor and it tried to open the scope on the societal and ethical implications that mobile communication might have on our futures – a perspective that I was sometimes missing in the regular talks.