The document summarizes the history and current state of human-computer interaction (HCI) in Mexico. It discusses how HCI started in the 1980s focused on software engineering, grew in the 1990s as more Mexican students studied abroad, and continued to expand in the 2000s with the formation of HCI groups and the inclusion of HCI in academic curricula. While HCI in Mexico now includes undergraduate and graduate programs, an industry, and conferences, challenges remain around developing a large HCI community and practitioner base. The next 20 years are positioned to consolidate HCI's growth in Mexico built on the foundations of the last 20 years.

1. The State of Mexico’s HCI:
an Overview
Mario A Moreno Rocha
UsaLab UTM
Mexico
Wednesday, July 11, 2012
“the always interesting story of Human Computer-Interaction and usability in Mexico is at its peak”
- multiple academic efforts
- important number of labs and institutions
- growing market and professionals
- the best moment for HCI in Mexico

2. The unfriendly
80s
SIGCHI-LA Workshop
2
Wednesday, July 11, 2012
“usability started in the 80s hidden into Software Engineering as a ‘new tests to be made on products of software’”
- input of another areas of knowledge was unheard of
- engineers just didn’t considered the users as an important part of the development

3. The crisis
of the 90s
SIGCHI-LA Workshop
3
Wednesday, July 11, 2012
“during the bonanza years of the early 90s, the Mexican government granted a record number of scholarships to Mexican
students, many of them were exposed to the study of HCI”
- the economic crash of 1994
- students started to came back
- spreading the word of User Centered Design

4. HCI in the new
millennium
SIGCHI-LA Workshop
4
Wednesday, July 11, 2012
“the Develop Consortium of the 2001 ACM SIGCHI Conference (Seattle) was devoted to Latin America, creating momentum for the
Mexican HCI community”
- formalised the Mexican SIGCHI Chapter
- next step to incorporate HCI studies into school’s curricula and proper facilities
- HCI courses, quest for labs, increased number of Mexican HCI students

5. History of
today
SIGCHI-LA Workshop
5
Wednesday, July 11, 2012
“since then, the study of HCI and the practice of usability has come to age”
- usability as an educational agenda turned into an industrial activity when our alumni became active
- new software development companies started to grow and multinationals eyed Mexico
- new professionals incorporated into HCI: translators, anthropologists, graphical designers, etc

6. undergraduate and graduate studies
an usability industry
conferences and meetings
groups and associations
SIGCHI-LA Workshop
Wednesday, July 11, 2012

7. Challenges and
opportunities
SIGCHI-LA Workshop
Wednesday, July 11, 2012
“HCI is not free from problems and challenges, but those are nothing but opportunities to turn our communities strong and
better prepared”
- fell short of a critical mass to secure a place on the Mexican computing community

8. research and studies
practitioners and markets
communication, involvement
and collaboration
SIGCHI-LA Workshop
Wednesday, July 11, 2012
- research and studies (turn HCI into a career option for every student)
- practitioners and markets (bigger and international markets; a robust and more professional practitioners)
- communication, involvement and collaboration (better communities)

9. SIGCHI and our
community
SIGCHI-LA Workshop
Wednesday, July 11, 2012
“being SIGCHI our role model of any HCI community, it’s really important to understand the extent of these resources”
- cultural and language aspects (first, second generations trained abroad, third and fourth in Mexico)
- technology are here to change the pace of the game, theory cannot cope with the speedy thech changes, so we have to excel in
order to attract younger audiences

10. The next
20 years
SIGCHI-LA Workshop
Wednesday, July 11, 2012
“the development of Human Computer-Interaction and usability in Mexico is a comprising labour in which we all have a place”
- started in academia, turned into a practice
- laboratories, academic programmes started to appear, triumph of international competitions turned the attention of the
industry and the demand of easy to use apps started to appear
- researchers and practitioners created momentum

11. Wednesday, July 11, 2012
“the last 20 years created the foundations of HCI in Mexico, the next 20 years will see its consolidation”