The 2nd African Human Computer Interaction Conference (AfriCHI) will take place in beautiful Namibia, between 3rd and 7th of December 2018. AfriCHI will be hosted by the Namibia University of Science and Technology in Windhoek, Namibia –

Under the theme “Thriving communities”

The aim of AfriCHI 2018 is to expand the participation of Africans in the practice and study of Human Computer Interaction (HCI) and Interaction Design (IxD), and to advance HCI by increasing awareness of designs, tools, inventions, methods, theories and pedagogies for creating or using technology on the African continent and beyond. The theme equally reflects on the thriving of local African communities that HCI and IxD practitioners and researchers have been engaging with.

AfriCHI’18 is for anyone interested in people’s interactions with digital technology or media, who is African, based in Africa, or undertakes/wants to work on projects/research in Africa or with Africans. We welcome practitioners, professionals, scholars and students in all fields and traditions that consider interactions with digital technology. This includes not only designers, engineers or analysts of software, hardware and media (e.g. user experience or mobile application designers, information architects, usability experts etc.), but also educators in all aspects of digital life; researchers in all disciplines; change-makers, planners and managers in all sectors including government, NGOs and industries; entrepreneurs, artists, activists; and elders in grassroots/creative collectives.

We invite a broad range of contributions for presentation at AfriCHI’18, publication in the conference proceedings and wider access in prestige online archives. This includes tracks for written papers and notes; panel discussions; posters; interactive installations and performances; workshops; and, Doctoral and Masters symposium. Contributions will be reviewed by international experts in HCI, its allied fields, and in African contexts and traditions and, if accepted, will be published in the Proceedings of AfriCHI’18.

We encourage submissions from people who have had few possibilities to participate in international conferences and also offer mentoring and collaboration to people seeking this kind of assistance. AfriCHI’18 is exploring real-time Internet links with institutions throughout Africa to ensure that people who cannot travel to Namibia can listen to talks. If you can help make this happen please contact the Remote Access Chair on: remote@africhi.net.

Topics

AfriCHI’18 is an interdisciplinary conference about all issues that connect people, digital technology and Africa and/or Africans. Topics of interest in all tracks include, but are not limited to, any of the following in relation to Africa/Africans:

Contexts:

Places; people, users or developers; communities or groups; events; every day or unusual phenomena; languages; perspectives; trans-national, cross-cultural or cultural aspects etc.

Meanings, values or experiences:

Health, education, governance, citizenship, well-being, designing things that matter, empowerment, ethics, sustainability, privacy, gender and cultural diversity, accessibility, engagement, aesthetics, fun etc.

Processes:

Techniques, tools or methods for researching, designing, co-designing, evaluating, deploying or using interactive systems, etc.

Technologies:

Mobile devices; multi touch and touchless interaction; Web 2.0 technologies; social media; personal, community and public displays; decentralised (mesh) networks; Big Data; Quantified Self; Internet of Things, etc.

Pedagogies and epistemologies:

Teaching, learning or developing capacity in HCI/Interaction Design; Afro-centric research, theory or invention; indigenous or traditional knowledges in HCI/design; post-colonial perspectives etc.

Submissions

All submissions are made online through AfriCHI’s submission system. This includes the main files, conforming to the templates and formats for the relevant track, an abstract and descriptive information (e.g. authors, keywords). We will open AfriCHI’s submission system in May 2018.  Authors may submit and resubmit their materials as often as they wish after this date, and before submission deadlines. All deadlines on the date associated with a submission track are midnight GMT. We urge authors to test uploading submissions before the relevant deadline and contact the appropriate track chairs to arrange alternatives in advance if they predict problems e.g. due to Internet issues.

Submissions should not have been previously published or be concurrently under submission elsewhere. Submissions should be anonymized and will undergo a double-blind review process unless stated otherwise. All accepted submissions are published in the conference proceedings and will be widely accessible in a prestigious online archive.