Advances in interactivity, computing power, mobile devices, large displays and ubiquitous computing offer an ever-increasing potential for empowering users. This can happen within their working environment, in their leisure time or even when extending their social skills. While such empowerment could be seen as a way of connecting people in their workspace, home or on the move, it could also generate gaps requiring larger effort and resources to fruitfully integrate disparate and heterogeneous computing systems. The conference theme of INTERACT 2011 was “building bridges” as we believe human–computer interaction (HCI) is one the research domains more likely to significantly contribute to bridging such gaps. This theme thus recognizes the interdisciplinary and intercultural spirit that lies at the core of HCI research. The conference had the objective of attracting research that bridges disciplines, cultures and societies. Within the broad umbrella of HCI, we were in particular seeking high-quality contributions opening new and emerging HCI disciplines, bridging cultural differences, and tackling important social problems. Thus, INTERACT 2011 provided a forum for practitioners and researchers to discuss all aspects of HCI, including these challenges. The scientific contributions gathered in these proceedings clearly demonstrate the huge potential of that research domain to improving both user experience and performance of people interacting with computing devices. The conference also is as much about building bridges on the human side (between disciplines, cultures and society) as on the computing realm.