We are pleased to invite submissions for the Annual Symposium on Human-Computer Interaction for Work (CHIWORK 2026). CHIWORK 2026 will be a hybrid event. Authors of accepted papers must present their contribution at the CHIWORK conference, either in person in Linz or virtually.
Conference Theme
Flow – Fun – Friction: Navigating opportunities and challenges of technology for tomorrow’s workforce
Work combines the experiences of feeling flow, having fun, and overcoming friction. The theme of CHIWORK’26, which will be held in the UNESCO City of Media Arts Linz, Austria, focuses on understanding how individuals, groups, and organizations adapt, thrive, and flourish as new and old technologies continue to shape the way we work. The concept of flow can help us reflect on how work and its related experiences can be made more engaging and rewarding. The perspective of fun can shed light on the experiential qualities of work, such as feeling a sense of meaning, satisfaction, and joy. By thinking about friction, we can consider how workers, organizers, or researchers can address the barriers and sometimes even leverage the frictions—ethical, social, and design—to redesign work. We invite researchers to explore how HCI can shape the future of work by considering work from the perspectives of flow, fun, and friction to build new understandings of work, tools, systems, and environments to empower tomorrow’s workforce.
CHIWORK’26 welcomes work addressing Human-Computer Interaction for working environments in the broadest possible sense. In addition, we particularly encourage submissions that address the conference theme.
Important dates
All times are in Anywhere on Earth (AoE) time zone. When the deadline is day D, the last time to submit is when D ends AoE. Navigate to the time.is website if you’re not sure.
Submission system open: November 17, 2025
Submission deadline for full papers: February 2, 2026 *
Decision notification: March 30, 2026
Camera-ready version: April 20, 2026
Submission platform
Please submit your papers through EasyChair by the submission deadline.
All information can be edited up to the submission deadline. After the submission deadline, no changes will be allowed to the author list and order. Please review the ACM Policy on Authorship for more information.
*The submission system closes at Feb 3 18:00 CET to allow for final edits to existing submissions.
Contribution type and areas
As this community develops, we are looking forward to reviewing a range of paper types, which will all be included in our proceedings. Papers must be original and cannot be published or under review at another venue. Papers of all types are submitted to a single track (Full Papers), but we welcome different types of contributions, each reviewed on its own merits:
- Research Papers – Describing novel research that will be reviewed based upon merits of scientific rigor, originality, and significance.
- Design Fictions – Speculative explorations of future scenarios, assessed for the impact of their provocations and their ability to stimulate discussion. Artefacts supporting the design fiction should be included as an appendix after the references.
- Pictorials – Pictorials are formats where visual representations are key to communicating research. These are assessed as original research work, with the difference that visual communication conveys the contribution of the research/study.
- Critiques and Provocations – Bold, unconventional perspectives that challenge prevailing assumptions and spark debate within the HCI for work research community. We welcome thought-provoking critiques, experimental ideas, and radical visions that push the boundaries of work technology design and its societal impact.
- Systems/Tools – Showcasing novel systems that enable new ways of working. These submissions will be evaluated for both the system’s innovation and the depth of implementation details provided.
- Industry Case Studies – Insights into real-world examples of evolving work practices, assessed based on the practical knowledge they offer and their implications for the future of work.
Topics of interest
The authors must make explicit how their submission is relevant to CHIWORK. Typically papers presented at CHIWORK study or design for different work types (paid or unpaid), work tasks, workers’ experiences, or interactions within workplaces. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:
- New ways of getting work done: techniques for interleaving work; workflow design; easy resumption, engagement, and disengagement; and incorporating well-being needs in productivity tools
- What is work?: literature reviews, studies, theories, or frameworks that expand on what the term “work” means for HCI.
- Working and trust with AI and automation: techniques for cooperation and collaboration with AI agents, mixed-initiative interaction, new tools for task automation, working in and with automated environments and entities including cars, drones, and robots; designing for fairness, transparency and dignity; AI-assisted decision making; perceptions and acceptance of AI; agentic AI
- Technologies for the future of work: networking, augmented reality, virtual reality, wearable devices, and human-robot collaboration
- Workplace psychology: assessment of human factors in working environments to generate learnings for the HCI communities.
- Supporting well-being of workers (physical, psychological, or subjective): maintaining work-life boundaries, supporting physical movement, facilitating work attachment and detachment, exploring how systems support or privilege the well-being of workers in gendered, race-, caste- and class-informed ways
- Designing digital tools: preparing the ground for professional development and adaptation to and development of individual skills
- Matching and developing worker skills for job opportunities: assessing worker skills, matching existing skills to new job opportunities, platforms, and peer-networks for learning new skills, upskilling
- Inclusion and accessibility: technology that is built for equality and technology that supports all abilities
- Integrating (generative) AI into existing work practices: use in practice, risks, organizational and staff perspectives, impacts and opportunities of automation for blue-collar workers
- Security and privacy: protecting work infrastructure from malicious actors and maintaining privacy while providing personalized support for work and well-being
- Novel ways of measuring outcome: rewarding performance so that it takes into account an individual’s unique needs, incorporating well-being as an integral part of productivity, fostering and measuring creativity and innovation, and supporting self-reflection by workers
- Tools and platforms for hiring and managing workers: new models for hiring, onboarding, and management; understanding and supporting freelancing, on-demand, crowd-work, and gig work
- Societal impact: supporting decision-making for policy and regulation, integrating perspectives of workers, firms, governments, and communities; addressing the economics and resilience of individuals, communities, and society
- Tools for remote work: working from home, working while commuting, and meetings with remote participants
- Sustainability: environmental impact of work, social sustainability at the workplace, designing greener work practices, sustainability impact of technologies for work, and assessment methods for sustainability
Preparing your submission
Paper length and format
Authors are invited to submit papers of a length commensurate with the contribution (minimum 6 pages). There is no upper page limit; we encourage comprehensive literature reviews and complete appendices or supplementary material for transparency. As an indication, the length of typical submissions is approximately 7,000–10,000 words excluding references, figure/table captions, and appendices.
Papers should be formatted in accordance with the single-column ACM SIGCHI format. Online guidance is available: https://www.acm.org/publications/authors/submissions.
Templates are available for the following platforms:
- Overleaf (Latex) (or search for ACM Conference Proceedings Primary Article)
- Microsoft Word
- LaTeX (Use sample-manuscript.tex for submissions, and use \documentclass[manuscript, review, anonymous]{acmart}.)
Reviewers will review the papers in the single-column format. Accepted papers will later be processed and transformed into the ACM double-column publication format. Contact authors of accepted papers will receive instructions on how to prepare and submit a final version by the Publication-Ready Deadline.
Responsibility for obtaining permission to use video, audio, or pictures of identifiable people or proprietary content rests with the author, not the ACM or the CHIWORK conference. Please anticipate that formal permission for each third-party content used in the submission will be requested at the publication-ready deadline.
Inclusivity
Authors should ensure their work and writing are as inclusive as possible; where this is not possible, it should be acknowledged. For example, authors should use gender-inclusive language when developing their papers (see e.g., HCI Guidelines for Gender Equity and Inclusivity) and consider what communities their work is – and is not – supporting, as well as their geographical context.
Anonymization policy
Papers should keep the identities of the authors hidden – please remove all identifying information from the text and metadata, and please cite your own work in the 3rd person. This includes identifiable information in the Method section (location where the study is conducted), acknowledgements (grant number of funding agency, names of colleagues).
Policy on use of generative AI/LLMs
All papers submitted will require an AI disclosure statement. The use of generative AI is permitted, but should be fully disclosed. Please refer to the ACM policy on authorship for more information.
Peer-review process
Papers will be assessed following a double-blind peer-review process, receiving at least 3 reviews. The selection process will follow a single decision program committee meeting.
Desk rejection: papers that are incommensurate with their contributions, not properly anonymized, not formatted according to the recommended template, or out of the scope of the conference, will be considered for desk rejection.
The use of LLMs when reviewing in a way that compromises the authors’ confidentiality and intellectual property is not permitted. As a reviewer, it is not allowed to upload submissions to a third party generative AI provider. Please note that any strengths and weaknesses of the paper should be identified by the reviewer themselves. Please refer to the ACM Peer Review Policy Frequently Asked Questions.
Proceedings and publication fees
At least one author of each accepted paper needs to be registered to the conference and must present their contribution at the CHIWORK conference, either in person in Linz or virtually.
Accepted papers is planned to be published in the Proceedings of the CHIWORK Conference in the ACM Digital Library. Following the new ACM publishing model for conference proceedings, all accepted CHIWORK 2026 papers is planned to be published Open Access.
Further information may be found on the ACM website:
- Full details of the new ICPS publishing model: https://www.acm.org/publications/icps/faq
- Full details of the ACM Open program: https://www.acm.org/publications/openaccess
Technical Program Chairs
Sowmya Somanath – University of Victoria, Victoria, Canada
Advait Sarkar – University of Cambridge, University College London, and Microsoft Research, United Kingdom
Helena Anna Frijns – Interdisciplinary Transformation University, Linz, Austria
For questions, please email [email protected]
Program Committee Members
Adolphe Béquet – LESCOT, Univ Gustave Eiffel
Aishwarya Chandrasekaran – University of Delaware
Alessandro Fornaroli – Delft University of Technology
Ambika Shahu – IT:U Interdisciplinary Transformation University
Ana Correia de Barros – CRPG
Anastasia Sergeeva – University of Luxembourg
Andrew Kun – University of New Hampshire
Andrew Anderson – IBM Research
Anindya Das Antar – University of Michigan
Anna Cox – UCL Interaction Centre
Ashratuz Zavin – University of Calgary
Belgin Mutlu – Pro2Future, Know-Center
Bijetri Biswas – University of Bristol, School of Engineering, maths and computer science
Bineeth Kuriakose – University of Oslo
Carlos Toxtli – Clemson University
Christian Janssen – Utrecht University
Christina Vasiliou – Open University of Cyprus
David Kostolani – TU Wien
Diego Gomez-Zara – University of Notre Dame
Dinara Talypova – IT:U Interdisciplinary Transformation University Austria
Donghan Hu – Virginia Tech
Erin Solovey – WPI
Florian Michahelles – TU Wien
Hauke Sandhaus – Cornell University
Ioana Visescu – University of Luxembourg
Isabelle Cuber – University of Zurich
Ishaani M – Delhi Technological University
Jane Hsieh – Carnegie Mellon University
Jelena Mitrović – University of Passau, Faculty of Computer Science and Mathematics
Jessica He – IBM Research
Jinghui Cheng – Polytechnique Montreal
Jon Mella – University College London
Kashif Imteyaz – Northeastern University
Kevin Chow – University of British Columbia
Kyungjoo Cha – Bournemouth University
Lara Bauer – LIT Robopsychology Lab, Johannes Kepler University Linz
Mansi Sharma – German Center for Artificial Intelligence
Marios Constantinides – University College London
Mauricio Verano Merino – Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
Max Chen – Worcester Polytechnic Institute
Meagan B. Loerakker – TU Wien
Michael Muller – IBM
Mihai Bace – Department of Computer Science, KU Leuven
Mikołaj Woźniak – Oldenburg University
Minghao Cai – University of Alberta
Molly Feldman – Oberlin College
Niels van Berkel – Aalborg University
Ouijdane Guiza – Pro²Future
Pascal Jansen – Ulm University
Qing Xia – University College London
Rama Varanasi – Cornell University
Rebekah Cupitt – Birkbeck, UoL
Rifat Mehreen Amin – LMU Munich
Sabrina Lakhdhir – University of Victoria
Sam Van Damme – Ghent University
Sander de Jong – Aalborg University
Setareh Zafari – Austrian Institute of Technology
Shadan Sadeghian – university of Siegen
Sharon Ferguson – University of Waterloo
Shri Harini Ramesh – University of Calgary
Sonja Rattay – University of Copenhagen
Sutirtha Roy – University of Calgary
Syrine Haddad – Belfort-Montbeliard University of Technology, France
Thomas Neumayr – University of Applied Sciences Upper Austria, Research & Development
Vít Rusňák – Faculty of Informatics, Masaryk University
Werner Geyer – Independent Researcher
Xiaowei Chen – Max Planck Institute for Security and Privacy
Xuefei Li – University of Sydney
Yichun Zhao – University of Victoria
Yihang Zhao – King’s College London
Yoana Ahmetoglu – UCL
Yuhao Sun – University of Edinburgh
Yujin Kim – University of Wisconsin-Madison