Designing for Healthy Living

SYNOPSIS

The World Health Organization estimates that over 70 per cent of cardiovascular disease deaths and around 50 per cent of all chronic disease deaths are attributable to a small number of risk factors, which include: unhealthy diet, physical inactivity, tobacco use and high blood pressure. It is interesting to note that the aforementioned risk factors are few and are lifestyle modifiable. The lifestyle that people adopt can therefore negatively or positively influence their health and wellbeing. The above discussion clearly points to an opportunity for design solutions to support healthy living. There is therefore a growing need for design solutions that empower people to manage or change their lifestyles, and address their health conditions. Although the healthcare sector is growing, it may not keep up with the situation. In view of the opportunity and need, we are organizing a workshop at the 21st Australian Conference on Computer-Human Interaction (OZCHI 2009) to solicit design solutions and efforts for supporting healthy living. The workshop is titled Designing for Healthy Living. It will be held in Melbourne, Australia on 24 November 2009, just one day prior to the main conference program. OZCHI 2009 will take place back-to-back with HFESA 2009 (http://www.hfesaconference.org.au). The venue for both OZCHI and HFESA is the ICT building of the University of Melbourne, 111 Barry St, Parkville.

The workshop is intended to be a platform for:

• bringing together and networking researchers and practitioners working in healthy living,
• understanding the state-of-the-art in designing for healthy living,
• understanding the trends and future directions in designing for healthy living, and
• fostering discussions on designing for healthy living.

AUDIENCE AND TOPICS OF INTEREST

The workshop is targeting researchers and practitioners working in areas such as HCI, online social networking, and health. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:

• Online social networks for healthy living
• User modeling and personalization in healthy living
• Mobile and ubiquitous computing for healthy living
• Context awareness in healthy living
• Persuasive technologies and healthy living
• Gaming for healthy living
• Information visualization for healthy living
• Designing for healthy families
• Emotional and motivational support applications
• Health care applications
• Computer Supported Cooperative Healthcare

SUBMISSION AND FORMAT

Workshop papers, up to 2 pages, should be of interest to researchers and practitioners working in healthy living. The papers may include established work, preliminary or on-going work, and experiences. Authors should use the OZCHI proceedings template available at ozchipaper_template2009.doc. Workshop papers should be submitted by e-mail to the workshop organizers at designing4healthyliving@gmail.com. Further information can be obtained by contacting the workshop organizers through the same e-mail address. All submitted papers will be reviewed by a program committee consisting of international researchers and practitioners.

IMPORTANT DATES

• 28 Aug 2009: Submission of workshop papers
• 25 Sep 2009: Notification of acceptance
• 02 Oct 2009: Camera ready workshop papers
• 24 Nov 2009: Workshop

WORKSHOP ORGANIZERS

• Stephen Kimani (CSIRO ICT Centre, Australia)
• Nilufar Baghaei (CSIRO ICT Centre, Australia)