3rd Workshop on Research in the Large – App Stores, Wide Distribution,
and Big Data in MobileHCI Research

at MobileHCI 2012, San Francisco, California

Deadline: May 25th, 2012
Workshop: September 21st, 2012

http://large.mobilelifecentre.org

Theme
———-
Traditionally, mobile HCI studies have often been conducted in highly
controlled environments, involving small numbers of users. App stores
and other wide distribution channels have now provided researchers
with a enormous opportunity to move outside the lab. Indeed, many
researchers have started to use public deployments and big data for
mobile HCI research. Publishing apps in mobile application stores and
public APIs for mobile services enable researchers to study large
samples in their ‘natural habitat’ – but this also requires adaptation
of evaluation and research methods, and dealing with deployment issues
previously unencountered by most MobileHCI researchers.

This workshop continues the ‘Research in the Large’ workshop series
held at UbiComp 2010 and 2011. Relevant topics include the design of
large-scale studies, reaching target users, dealing with new types of
evaluation data, and heterogeneous usage contexts. We seek ways to
systematically collect, analyse and make sense of large datasets,
potentially in real-time.

The goal of this workshop is to provide a forum for researchers and
developers from academia and industry to exchange experiences,
insights and strategies for wide distribution of research apps and the
resulting large data streams these deployments produce. We aim at
building an understanding of the opportunity of the different channels
and the issues and obstacles involved in a research context.

Topics
———-

We welcome participants from both industry and academia who have an
interest and/or experience in the following themes:
- Methods & experiences with research through app stores and other
distribution platforms
- Strategies for attracting and recruiting a suitable sample
- Dealing with big data: infrastructure, tools and experiences in
dealing with large- scale datasets, potentially those growing by
millions of data points every day
- Statistical & visual analysis methods and tools for the various
sorts of data resulting from public apps
- New developments of distribution channels, tools and
infrastructures, and their potential effects
- Dealing with uncertainty and data noise
- Identifying interesting usage and experience patterns for further research
- Combination of large-scale studies with smaller studies
- Re-integration of research in the large outcomes in the design &
development process of apps
- Design of appropriate large-scale studies based on given research questions
- Approaches to increase internal and external validity

Submission
———-
Prospective authors are invited to submit their contribution, in PDF
format conform to the ACM Mobile HCI 2012 archive format
electronically via EasyChair no later than May 25th, 2012. Submissions
are expected to be either up to 4 pages describing research that
addresses one or more of the workshop’s themes or up to 2 page
position papers on the opportunities and challenges ahead. Papers must
be anonymized and will be reviewed by a program committee from
industry and academia.

Important Dates
———-
* Friday May 25, 2012 – Submission Deadline
* Friday June 29, 2012 – Acceptance Notification
* Monday July 23, 2012 – Revised Manuscript Due
* Friday September 21, 2012 – Workshop in San Francisco!

Organizers
———-
Benjamin Poppinga, OFFIS, Germany
Henriette Cramer, SICS @ Mobile Life, Sweden
Matthias Böhmer, DFKI, Germany
Alistair Morrison, University of Glasgow, United Kingdom
Frank Bentley, Motorola Mobility, USA
Niels Henze, University of Stuttgart, Germany
Mattias Rost, SICS @ Mobile Life, Sweden
Florian Michahelles, ETH Zurich, Switzerland

Questions? Contact Frank Bentley: f.bentley@motorola.com