Technology on the Trail

I’m proud and pleased that our book, HCI Outdoors: Theory, Design, Methods and Applications, is available from Springer Publishing. The book is an edited volume of contributions from 18 groups of authors—researchers in academia, industry, research labs, and think tanks who are defining new ways that technology is explored, designed, and tested for use in outdoor settings. The book is part of Springer’s Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) series, which features books that focus on interactions between people and technology.

The book is divided into five sections, each with multiple chapters. Rural Contexts explores how outdoor settings are different than urban ones, and how technologies designed for urban settings may not work as well and should be designed and evaluated differently. Willed and the Wild examines the wildness that is inherent in wilderness, and how that affects the way we design and evaluate technology. Groups and Communities considers how technology assists collections of people to feel more connected. Design for Outdoors raises questions about the design sensitivities and guidelines important and unique to outdoor settings. And Outdoor Recreation considers how technology affects our enjoyment of outdoor recreation like skiing, walking, and hiking.

Crafting the book was a long and rewarding process, spearheaded by a collection of workshops that helped identify key ideas in the area and bring together interested researchers. Virginia Tech’s Tech on the Trail workshops examined how technology is used on trails, including our nearby Appalachian Trail, in support of exploration, recreation, science, and more. The NatureCHI workshops sought ways to support engagement with nature in an unobtrusive manner to avoid detracting from the outdoor experience. The UbiMount workshops looked at how ubiquitous computing technologies can support mountaineering activities. Finally, the HCI Outdoors workshop at the ACM SIGCHI Conference in 2018 featured the largest collection of participants, with around 20 people taking part in presentations, discussions, and activities that highlighted and categorized the challenges of designing technology for the outdoors. The idea for the book emerged from the final HCI Outdoors workshop in 2018, and almost all of the chapters include authors who attended one or more of these workshops.

The book was vetted through a pair of classes offered at the editors’ home institutions, Virginia Tech and Brigham Young University. Each class dedicated a class session to each chapter, seeking to view it not as a final product but as an early-stage work in progress. The students contributed to constructive feedback for the authors, furthering the discussions with the authors and resulting in a far better product that the editors alone could have helped to create. The final versions of the chapters captured the authors’ views of the HCI outdoors theme, balanced with our desire for a coherent and connected book.

A great many universities have this book in their libraries, and Springer’s MyCopy program allows you to purchase a softcover version of the book through your library for only $25. (Yes, I’m aware that the hardcover and digital versions are much more expensive.) I hope you’ll look it over and consider using it for your own research, teaching, or enjoyment.