GUEST EDITORIAL Special Edition on HFT2008 International Symposium Established in 1961, the International Symposium series on Human Factors in Telecommunication (HFT) is organized once every two years to provide a forum for human factors experts, researchers and telecommunication design practitioners to discuss and share their experiences in the research and the application of human factors principles in telecommunication. Its interest includes the evaluation, design and application of human factors techniques and approaches for all aspects of the telecommunication and information and communication technology (ICT) industries on its policies, products, services, standards, and content development. The 21st Symposium on Human Factors in Telecommunication (HFT 2008) was hosted by the Interface Design Department at the Faculty of Creative Multimedia, Multimedia University, Malaysia, and this was the first time the HFT series of symposia was held in Asia. HFT2008 was endorsed by the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) Human Factors Group and it took place from the 17th until 20th of March, 2008 at the Renaissance Kuala Lumpur Hotel in Malaysia. Bridging industry and academia for over forty-six years, the HFT Symposium series continue to be guided by an international Permanent Steering Committee comprising of experts in the field of telecommunication, ICT and human factors. This year’s HFT2008 addressed the theme User Experience of ICTs, and in addition to paper presentations there were also workshops on guidelines for the generic user interface elements for 3G mobile devices, services and applications, and personalization and user profile management. There were also poster presentations throughout the symposium. To reflect on the multi- disciplinary nature of the symposium, the topics of interests were categorized as follows: • Accessibility and Design for All • Human Factors Methods and Techniques • Mobile Communication • Personalization and Profiling • Networking and ICT Applications • Standards and Frameworks • User Interface Design • Voice User Interface The five papers that have been included in this special edition of International Journal of Interactive Mobile Technologies (iJIM) have been selected for three reasons. Firstly, these papers are of a high quality and reflect the scientific standards that one would expect at an international symposium. Furthermore, some of these papers were shortlisted for the John Karlin Best Paper Award at HFT2008. The authors were also given the opportunity to incorporate any comments raised at the symposium and any updates in their field of research and development which they feel would enhance the quality of their papers. Secondly, these papers reflect the current trend, diversity and interests in the field. The five papers reflect contributions from fourteen authors representing 4 http://www.i-jim.org