Steve Benford
School of Computer Science, University of Nottingham
Trajectories Through Extended User Experiences

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Our interactions with digital technologies are increasingly interwoven with our physical activities as part of extended user experiences that span multiple (real and virtual) spaces, timescales, roles and interfaces. By drawing on examples from more than a decade of working with artists to create interactive performances, installations, games and rides, I will illustrate the nature of extended user experiences and the distinctive challenges that they raise for HCI. I will then introduce a conceptual framework to express the structure of such experiences in terms of interleaved trajectories. While initially inspired by artistic experiences, I will argue that trajectories can help explain, and ultimately design, a broad range of extended user experiences and supporting digital services.

Steve Benford is Professor of Collaborative Computing at the University of Nottingham where he is a founder member of the Mixed Reality Laboratory. He is currently Head of the School of Computer Science and Director of the University's Horizon Doctoral Training Centre. He received CHI best paper awards in 2005, 2009 an 2011, the Prix Ars Electronica Golden Nica for Interactive Art in 2003, the Nokia Mindtrek award in 2007, and four BAFTA nominations. He has recently been awarded an EPSRC Dream Fellowship to explore future creative uses of computing.