I am a Technical Program Chair for the ACM DIS 2018 conference in Hong Kong. The theme of the DIS 2018 conference is Diversity and Design.
DIS 2018 invites papers about a burning issue shaping design today: diversity. Diversity is reflected in the choice of Hong Kong as the site of the DIS 2018 conference. Hong Kong’s 7.5 million people come from different ethnic, social and cultural backgrounds to form a multiplicity of communities, beliefs, and practices. Hong Kong is defined through its relation to geographical neighbors like Shenzhen and Macau. The former is known as a massive manufacturing and technology hub; the latter as Asia’s gambling capital. Yet, just like Hong Kong, both are more than these stereotypes: their nature, business, food, entertainment, and popular culture are diverse and different from each other.
Today, emerging technologies are redefining this question. Many newly emerging interactive artifacts and systems can be personalized. Individuals can create their own artifacts with globally available platforms. For designers, these platforms pose new possibilities, but also challenges in terms of concepts, methods, processes, and technologies.
DIS 2018 invites several types of submissions, including papers, pictorials, demos, provocations and workshops. As before, the conference focuses explicitly on the design aspects of interactive systems, products, services, and spaces – but the limit is imagination.