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ACM (The Association for Computing Machinery), http://www.acm.org

SIG/CHI (Computer-Human Interaction) - "ACM SIGCHI embraces work on the hardware and software engineering of interactive systems, the structure of communication between human and machine, characterization of the use and contexts of use for interactive systems, methodology of design, and new design themselves. SIGCHI serves as an international venue for specialists in human-computer interaction, education, usability, interaction design, computer-supported cooperative work, and other related areas." (SIGCHI Bulletin, March/April 2001) SIG/CHI is the most established and well-known special interest group in the field. Currently there are about 4500 members.

ASIST (American Society for Information Science and Technology), http://www.asis.org

SIG/HCI - "serves practical and theoretical interests in research, design, development and evaluation of how human beings use and communicate with computers. Interests include online users and their behavior; the observable capabilities and performance of the interactive computer systems; and the characteristics of the human-computer interface. SIG/HCI encourage the development and refinement of online interaction models to highlight common features in existing or proposed interfaces. Major emphasis is on the interface with networks and various online information storage and retrieval applications, but other information-processing and display systems are also considered." (ASIST Handbook and Directory) SIG/HCI is one of the largest in ASISIT.

SIG/VIS - "provides a forum for ASIST members to discuss, develop, and promote issues and research involving graphic and visual information. Such information includes, but is not limited to, text document images, still and moving pictures with or without sound, geographic attributes and topology, and virtual representations of the visual world. SIG/VIS's mission is to promote the exchange, development, communication, and dissemination of information and research related to visual and graphic information among ASIST members and of the larger community of practitioners and scholars." (ASIST Handbook and Directory)

SIG/USE - "members are concerned with the activities, both behavioral and cognitive, of people who are interacting with information. These activities include recognizing information needs, seeking information that will address those needs, exploring information sources present in one's context/situation, retrieving information from available sources, communicating and collaborating with others concerning an information need or information resource, using information, and other interactions between people and information. The SIG wishes to promote studies of human information-related behavior and provision of information services and to encourage the application of the study results to information systems design." (ASIST Handbook and Directory)

IFIP (International Federation for Information Processing), http://www.ifip.or.at

TC13/HCI (Technical Committee 13 - Human Computer Interaction) - "to encourage development towards a science and a technology of human-computer interaction" with the following aims: encourage empirical research (using valid and reliable methodology, with studies of the methods themselves where necessary):

Promote the use of knowledge and methods from the human sciences in both design and evaluation of computer systems;
Promote better understanding of the relation between formal design methods and system usability and acceptability;
Develop guidelines, models and methods by which designers may be able to provide better human-oriented computer systems;
Co-operate with other groups, inside and outside IFIP, so as to promote user-orientation and "humanization" in system design.

TC13/HCI comprises five working groups as described below.

WG 13.1 (Education in HCI and HCI Curricula) - "to improve HCI education at all levels of education."

WG 13.2 (Methodology for User Centered System Design)- "to foster research, dissemination of information and good practice in the methodical application of HCI to software engineering." The scope of the working group includes evaluation and synthesis of HCI specification and design methods, implications of cognitive psychology for the design of human-computer interfaces, and evaluation and study of different approaches to design delivery.

WG 13.3 (Human-Computer Interaction and People with Special Needs) - "to survey the latest tendencies in the design of HCI and its impact on usability by people with special needs, to make HCI designers aware of the special needs of disabled and elderly people, to recommend guidelines for the design of HCI to facilitate the use of computers by people with special needs, to advance technical possibilities to permit the replacement of an interface by another more appropriate for people with disabilities, and to encourage the development of systems equipped with hardware and software tools which permit the adaptation of the human interface to each specific user".

WG 13.4/2.7 (User Interface Engineering) - "to investigate the nature, concepts and construction of user interfaces for software systems." The scope of the working group includes increasing understanding of the development of user interfaces based on knowledge of system and user behavior, providing a framework for reasoning about interactive systems, and providing an engineering model for the development of user interfaces.

WG 13.5 (Human Error, Safety and System Development) - "to develop leading edge techniques in hazard analysis and the safety engineering of computer-based systems."

In addition, one working group (Computer Graphics and Virtual Worlds) under Technical Committee 5 - Computer Applications in Technology - of IFIP is also related to HCI.

WG 5.10 (Computer Graphics and Virtual Worlds) - "to promote and encourage the advancement of the field of computer graphics and virtual worlds and their applications in technology." The scope of the working group includes graphical systems, graphics and CAD for engineering and scientific applications, graphics modeling and rendering, graphics and multimedia, virtual reality, animating virtual worlds, modeling and animating human beings for medical applications, and artificial life in virtual worlds.

HFES (Human Factors and Ergonomics Society), http://www.hfes.org

CSTG (Computer Systems Technical Group) - "is concerned with human factors in the design of computer systems. This includes the design of hardware, software, documentation, work activities, and the work environment. Members' goal is to ensure that computer systems are useful, usable, and safe. They also try to enhance the quality of work life by ensuring that job design is interesting and provides opportunity for growth."

ITG (Internet Technical Group) - "create a community for professionals from industry, academia and government organizations who share a common interest in Internet technologies and related behavioral phenomena. The ITG will work to advance the application of Human Factors principles and methodologies to Internet technologies, as well as promote behavioral study of human-machine and human-computer interaction via the Internet."

VETG (Virtual Environments Technical Group) - "is concerned with human factors issues associated with the human-virtual environment interaction. These issues include maximizing human performance efficiency in virtual environments; minimizing health and safety issues; and circumventing potential social issues through proactive assessment. If VR systems are to be effective and well received by their users, researchers need to focus significant efforts on addressing human factors issues."

BCS (British Computer Society), http://www.bcs.org.uk

British HCI Group - "central concern is to improve usability and the effectiveness of any computer-based technology. Topics to be addressed include practice and research in task analysis and requirements specification, design methods, evaluation and usability metrics."

Usability Professional Association, http://www.upassoc.org

Usability Professional Association Group - "provide a network and opportunities through which usability professionals can communicate and share information about skills and skill development, methodology used and/or proposed in the profession, tools, technology, and organizational issues." Currently, there are over 1600 members.

Other resources

http://www.interface-analysis.com/ergoworld/hci.htm provides very good resources and information on HCI. One other interesting web site is IBM's User Interfaces Research (http://www.research.microsoft.com/research/ui/).

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