uist-topic-selection
Use when deciding whether a project belongs at UIST — testing it against the interface-systems contribution bar (novel technique, toolkit, or hardware that works), making the CHI-vs-UIST routing call explicitly, and re-routing to CSCW, IMWUT, TEI, ISMAR, IUI, or TOCHI when the artifact is not the contribution.
Profile →npx skills add brycewang-stanford/Awesome-Journal-Skills --skill uist-topic-selection --agent claude-code
Same command for any agent — swap --agent for codex, cursor, copilot.
Weekly change comes from our own snapshots, not the repository page — it measures attention, not adoption.
# UIST Topic Selection UIST publishes papers whose contribution **is an interface artifact**: a new interaction technique, an enabling piece of hardware, a toolkit or authoring system, or an algorithm that makes a previously impossible interaction possible. The venue grew out of demo culture and still reviews like it — the implicit first question is "what did you build, and can I imagine holding it?" Use this skill before any UIST plan is made; the March deadline punishes late routing discoveries. ## The artifact-subtraction test Delete the system from the paper and see what survives: - If what survives is a **finding about people** (how users behave, adopt, trust, collaborate), the system was an instrument, not a contribution — that is a CHI or CSCW paper. - If what survives is **nothing**, because every claim is about what the artifact enables and how it is engineered, you are holding a UIST candidate. - If what survives is a **model or algorithm evaluated offline** with no interactive loop, consider IUI, an ML venue, or a domain venue instead. ## CHI vs UIST: make the call, don't drift into it Both are SIGCHI venues, both use PCS, and many projects could be dressed for either. D
- The artifact-subtraction test
- CHI vs UIST: make the call, don't drift into it
- Fit ledger
- Where UIST-adjacent work actually belongs
- Three routing vignettes
- Timing the decision
- Scope notes for the 2026 cycle
- Output format
What does the uist-topic-selection skill do?
Use when deciding whether a project belongs at UIST — testing it against the interface-systems contribution bar (novel technique, toolkit, or hardware that works), making the CHI-vs-UIST routing call explicitly, and re-routing to CSCW, IMWUT, TEI, ISMAR, IUI, or TOCHI when the artifact is not the contribution.
How do I install it?
Run `npx skills add brycewang-stanford/Awesome-Journal-Skills --skill uist-topic-selection --agent claude-code` — it drops the skill into your project so the agent can pick it up. Swap the --agent value for codex, cursor or copilot if you use one of those.
Where does this skill come from?
From brycewang-stanford/Awesome-Journal-Skills, a repository with 984 stars. We read it straight from the repository tree rather than a submitted listing, so what you see here is what is actually published.
Is a popular skill a good skill?
Not necessarily. Stars measure attention, not adoption — a repository can trend for a week and be abandoned. That is why we show the weekly change from our own snapshots next to the total, instead of a single flattering number.