HCI Track

The Human Computer Interaction (HCI) track is designed to provide a variety of offerings involving HCI and for different audiences, culminating at the end of day with a field trip to the Graphics, Visualization, and Usability (GVU) Center at Georgia Tech. Sessions include a panel discussion of the career opportunities in HCI to an invited technical speaker, Fernanda B. Viegas, who will discuss her work using visualization as a medium.

This track is intended for anyone interested in HCI.

The Human Computer Interaction sessions on Friday, October 1st are:


Session One: Unlocking Human Potential: A Vision for Human-Centered Computing

Friday, October 1st. 10:00-11:00 am – Room: Regency Ballroom V

Session Description: This opening session for the technical track on HCI provides an historical summary of the intellectual agendas that have informed this field and presents a future agenda for Human-Centered Computing. The speaker will share numerous examples of current work being performed at the GVU Center at Georgia Tech.

Presenters: Elizabeth Mynatt, Georgia Institute of Technology

Session Details: Human-centered Computing (HCC) investigates socio-technical systems drawing from the fields of Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), Social Computing, Industrial Design, and Learning and Cognitive Sciences. The heart of the matter is that HCC recognizes the dance between people and computing technologies. New technologies present novel opportunities and people respond through use, disuse, adoption, assimilation and rejection. The overarching activity of appropriation pushes back on technology design to inform the next steps. This dance can be beautifully fluid, full of new energy, and it can be frustratingly awkward. Throughout this field there are tremendous opportunities to study and invent, design and observe the role of computing technologies in all walks of life.

In this talk, I present a brief history of the intellectual agendas that have come together to inform Human-Centered Computing. Looking forward, I present the agenda that informs our community today, Unlocking Human Potential through Technical Innovation. Drawing from the seven themes that anchor the work in the GVU Center at Georgia Tech, I will present examples of how computing research can enable Creativity, Wellness, Independence, Emotion, Learning, Persuasion and Trust. These challenges push past questions of interaction design and look at the fundamental experience of computing and its role in everyday life.

Bios:

Elizabeth MynattELIZABETH MYNATT

Elizabeth (Beth) Mynatt is associate dean and professor in the College of Computing and director of the GVU Center at the Georgia Institute of Technology. The GVU center hosts over sixty faculty drawn from computer science, psychology, liberal arts, new media design, history of science and technology, engineering, architecture, management, and music. Mynatt played a pivotal role in creating the College of Computing Ph.D. program in Human-Centered Computing, integrating studies in human-computer interaction, learning sciences and technology, cognitive science, artificial intelligence, robotics, software engineering, and information security. In the last decade, Mynatt has directed a research program in ubiquitous computing and technologies adapted to everyday life. With work that began at Xerox PARC and has grown to fruition at Georgia Tech, she examines the pervasive presence of computation in everyday life. Mynatt is a member of the SIGCHI Academy, principal leaders in the field of HCI, whose efforts have shaped the disciplines and/or industry, and led the research and/or innovation in human-computer interaction. Mynatt is also a member of the Computing Community Consortium, an NSF-sponsored effort to engage the computing research community in envisioning more audacious research challenges. Mynatt earned her Bachelor of Science summa cum laude in computer science from North Carolina State University and her Master of Science and Ph.D. in computer science from Georgia Tech
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Session Two: Career Stories of Women Working in Human Computer Interaction

Friday, October 1st. 11:15am -12:15pm – Room: Regency Ballroom V

Session Description: Human Computer Interaction (HCI) is defined as “the study of interaction between people (users) and computers”. The objective of this panel is to illustrate the various career paths as a researcher or practitioner of HCI – addressing both established and emerging opportunities. Several women will share career stories and illustrate how they have sought/created opportunities, mentor and/or are mentored, face challenges and leverage social networks and professional bodies.

Moderator: Elizabeth Churchill, Yahoo! Inc.

Presenters:

Session Details : Computers are now part of everyday life, on desktops at work and at home, on our laps and in pockets and purses in the form of mobile personal, devices. They are also a ubiquitous part of our everyday environment as kiosks, dashboards and appliances. It is not surprising therefore that the field of HCI is broad, covering both hardware and software design and representing the intersection of many disciplines and skills. Researchers and practitioners who work in HCI address issues that range from “under the hood” infrastructure issues (including information representation, information architecture and protocol design, predictive user modeling) to the design of device form factors, graphical interfaces and interactions. The main theme that runs through all of HCI is the creation of interfaces, devices, interactions and experiences that are based on people’s capabilities, constraints, passions and proclivities; the primary approach of HCI is to put humans “in the loop” when designing, that is to consider human characteristics first and foremost in the design process.

There are many different paths that can be take to have a successful career in HCI, but its multidisciplinary nature means that the work is more often than not a collaborative rather than a solitary activity, and that mutual respect across different disciplines is essential to get the work done. Anecdotally, HCI as a field has a higher percentage of women than other disciplines such as engineering and computer science.

This panel is intended to offer an introduction to careers in HCI and to illustrate some of the ways in which successful women in the field have navigated their career paths. Our intention is to offer an insight into what it is like to be a woman working in the field of HCI. WE will address both industry and academic career tracks.

Bios :
Elizabeth ChurchillELIZABETH CHURCHILL

Elizabeth Churchill is a Principal Research Scientist at Yahoo! Research and manager of the Internet Experiences research group. Originally a psychologist by training, throughout her career Elizabeth has focused on understanding the ways in which people interact – face to face or through technology. Prior to joining Yahoo!, she worked at PARC, the Palo Alto Research Center in Palo Alto, California. Before that she managed the Social Computing Group at FX Palo Laboratory, Fuji Xerox’s research lab in Palo Alto. Elizabeth is the current Vice President of SigCHI, the Association of Computing Machinery’s special interest group in Computer Human Interaction.

Amy BruckmanAMY BRUCKMAN

Amy Bruckman is an associate professor in the School of Interactive Computing at the Georgia Institute of Technology. Bruckman received her Ph.D. from the MIT Media Lab’s Epistemology and Learning group in 1997, her M.S.V.S. from the Media Lab’s Interactive Cinema Group in 1991, and a B.A. in physics from Harvard University in 1987. In 1999, she was named one of the 100 top young innovators in science and technology in the world (TR100) by Technology Review magazine. In 2002, she was awarded the Jan Hawkins Award for Early Career Contributions to Humanistic Research and Scholarship in Learning Technologies.

Mary CzerwinskiMARY CZERWINSKI

Mary Czerwinski is a Research Area Manager of the Visualization and Interaction for Business and Entertainment (VIBE) research group at Microsoft Research. Mary’s primary research areas include studying group awareness systems, information visualization and task switching. Mary has been an affiliate assistant professor at the Department of Psychology, University of Washington since 1996. She has also held positions at Compaq Computer Corporation, Rice University, Lockheed Engineering and Sciences Corporation, and Bell Communications Research. She received a Ph.D. in cognitive psychology from Indiana University in Bloomington. More information about Dr. Czerwinski can be found at http://research.microsoft.com/users/marycz.


Katherine IsbisterKATHERINE ISBISTER

Katherine Isbister is director of the Social Game Lab at NYU-Poly, an investigator in the NYU Games for Learning Institute, on the Advisory Committee of the NYU Game Center. She serves on the advisory board of the IGDA Games Education Special Interest Group and on the Editorial Board of the International Journal of Human Computer Studies. She wrote Better Game Characters by Design (nominated for a Game Developer Magazine Frontline Award) and Game Usability. Better Game Characters. In 1999, Isbister was selected as one of MIT Technology Review’s TR100 Young Innovators most likely to shape the future of technology.

Kerry RoddenKERRY RODDEN

Kerry Rodden is a Quantitative User Experience Researcher at YouTube analyzing product usage to help inform user experience design decisions. She founded and led the quantitative user experience research team at Google, working on many products including web search and Gmail. Kerry has a BSc in Computer Science from the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow, UK and a PhD in Computer Science from the University of Cambridge, UK. She is active in the Human-Computer Interaction community, and is interested in large-scale data analysis, search, information visualization, personal information management, image browsing, and eye-tracking. Her personal website is at http://www.rodden.org/kerry

M.C. SchraefelM.C. SCHRAEFEL

M.C. Schraefel is a Reader in the Intelligence, Agents and Multimedia Group (IAM), part of Electronics and Computer Science, Southampton. Prior to joining IAM at ECS, mc was an Assistant Professor in the DGP Group Computer Science at the University of Toronto. She is also a Fellow of the British Computer Society and a Research Associate at MIT, and was recently awarded a Senior Research Fellowship from the Royal Academy of Engineering to focus on how the design of tools to support quality of life for scientists and enhance/accelerate the path to creativity, discovery and innovation.
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Session Three: Fernanda B. Viegas: From Politics to Art: Visualization as a Medium

Friday, October 1st. 3:00pm-4:00pm – Room: Regency Ballroom V

Talk Title: From Politics to Art: Visualization as a Medium

Session Description: Data visualization has historically been accessible only to the elite in academia, business, and government. It was “serious” technology, created by experts for experts. In recent years, however, web-based visualizations–ranging from political art projects to news stories–have reached audiences of millions. Meanwhile, new initiatives in government, aimed at all citizens, point to an era of increased transparency.

What will this new era of data transparency and expressiveness look like–and what are the implications for technologists who work with data? To help answer this question, I report on work into public data analysis and visualization. Some of the results come from Many Eyes, a “living laboratory” web site where people may upload their own data, create interactive visualizations, and carry on conversations. Political discussions, citizen activism, religious conversations, game playing, and educational exchanges are all happening on Many Eyes. Finally, I discuss artistic projects that complicate and subvert the traditional notion of data visualization by highlighting its potential as an expressive medium that invites emotion.

Presenter : Fernanda B. Viegas, Research Scientist, Google

Bio :
Fernanda B. Viegas FERNANDA B. VIEGAS

Fernanda B. Viégas is a computational designer whose work focuses on the social, collaborative, and artistic aspects of information visualization. She is a research scientist at Google, where she co-leads the visualization group with Martin Wattenberg.

Her fascination with the power of visualization to spark conversation led to the creation of Many Eyes at IBM, where she was a researcher from
2005 to 2010. The site is an open experiment in collective sensemaking and the impact of data analysis on public debate.

Before joining IBM, Viégas’s research at the MIT Media Lab focused on the visualization of online communities. She is known for her pioneering work on depicting chat histories, email archives, and Wikipedia activity. Viégas’s interest in the stories that people tell about these archives led to a series of visualizations of personal, emotionally-charged data.

Her artistic visualizations have been exhibited in venues such as the New York Museum of Modern Art, the Boston Institute of Contemporary Art, and the Whitney Museum of American Art.

Viégas holds a Ph.D. and M.S. from the Media Lab at MIT. She is Brazilian and misses the year-round warm weather in Rio de Janeiro where she grew up.
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Session Four: New Voices in Human Computer Interaction

Friday, October 1st. 4:15pm-5:15pm – Room: Regency Ballroom V

Session Description: A set of panel presentations and discussions by new researchers in HCI. Their agendas inspire the next generation of HCI research.

Moderator: Rebecca E. Grinter, Georgia Institute of Technology

Presenters:

Session Details: Human Computer Interaction has its roots in workplace studies focused on optimizing “man-machine interfaces.” Much has changed in the landscape that was eventually renamed human-computer interaction. An focus on optimization has broadened to an appreciation for the overall experience of computing systems. HCI work has broken out of the office and into the home and on the body. More radically, researchers now recognize the importance of human-computer interaction as fundamental to much of human activity. The objective of this panel is to illustrate the vision, scope and ambition of some of these new voices in the HCI community. Several women will describe their current research at this early and formative stage of their careers.

The panel will include presentations on these topics:

Listening to Marginal Voices: Feminism in HCI

Shaowen Bardzell, Indiana University

Feminism—a body of theory that combines philosophical critique and political activism—is increasingly of interest to HCI. Feminism has long explored ways that dominant voices crowd-out marginal ones, from politics to the media. User-centered design has been a dominant strategy in HCI for decades, seeking to give voice to the user through usability tests, observations, interviews, and so forth. But we might ask ourselves, as a field, have we listened to some users more than others? In this talk, I will explore some ways that interaction designers can benefit from an engagement with marginal voices.

Collaborative & Social Search

Meredith Ringel Morris, Microsoft Research and University of Washington

Traditional Web search is a solitary experience, with Web browsers and search engine sites designed to support a single user, working alone. However, collaboration on information-seeking tasks is actually quite commonplace! For example, students work together to complete homework assignments, friends seek information about entertainment opportunities, family members jointly plan vacation travel, and colleagues jointly conduct research for their projects. Dr. Morris’s research on collaborative and social Web search involves understanding how people are currently appropriating technology and social media to support information retrieval, and designing, building, and evaluating new tools to enhance these experiences. How can we better support middle-school students in researching group homework assignments using mobile phones or large, shared displays? How can colleagues gather and explore data when gathered around a multi-touch conference table? How can we help people find relevant information online by combining the speed and breadth of search engines with the trusted and personalized answers provided by social networking applications? Dr. Morris will share her research results on these topics as part of the panel presentation.

Helping People Assess Online Health Information

Erika Shehan Poole, Pennsylvania State University

My dissertation investigated how people give and receive technical advice about computer problems. Healthcare is another domain that shares similar characteristics. Like technical information about one’s home network, information online about one’s health can also be complicated, conflicting, inaccurate, or irrelevant to one’s unique situation. Despite the potential for inaccurate or misunderstood information, recent studies suggest that many Internet users seek health info online, at times even in place of visiting a healthcare professional — perhaps due to the embarrassing or intimidating nature of asking a doctor about some health issues, inadequate access to health insurance, or limited time during appointments with physicians. In this talk, I’ll discuss how HCI can play a role in helping non-experts assess online health information credibility, relevance, and usefulness.

HCI Meets Mobile for Health Workers in Rural India
Divya Ramachandran, University of California, Berkeley

For her dissertation work, Divya studied health workers and their pregnant clients in rural Orissa, India. During an early round of field work in India, she learned about the national government’s recently initiated maternal health program, which employs one woman from each village as an Accredited Social Health Activist (ASHA) who convinces their clients to utilize health services. She learned that ASHAs’ performance is poor due to their limited training, education and credibility in the village where they work. She designed a mobile-based video solution to improve the ability and motivation of ASHAs to teach, persuade and provide support to their clients and increase the frequency and effectiveness of their one-on-one interactions. Working with ASHAs and their clients, she designed and tested a series of short animated videos on pregnancy for ASHAs to show to her clients during house visits. With appropriate training, ASHAs could more effectively engage their pregnant clients as well as influential people in their homes, like husbands and in-laws. The videos were later improved to follow a dialogic pattern of information narration, such that ASHAs were guided to stop, pause and discuss topics in a more engaging and persuasive manner. In addition, ASHAs very imaginatively recorded videos of influential village leaders, nurses, past clients, etc. describing threats of various health issues, personal experiences and testimonials on the ability of the ASHA. The videos have shown gains in ASHA self-efficacy and learning, as well as longer, more in-depth discussion between clients and ASHAs.

Bios :
Rebecca E. GrinterREBECCA E. GRINTER

Beki Grinter is an Associate Professor in the School of Interactive Computing at the Georgia Institute of Technology. Her research focuses on the relationship between human action, and interaction, and computing. She uses empirical methods to explore how we can support people interactions with systems and each other through systems. Her research has influenced the design of better processes and products with the purpose of improving the collaboration. This research lies at the intersection of several different research communities including computer supported cooperative work, human computer interaction, sociology, software engineering and ubiquitous computing. Beki holds a Ph.D. in Information and Computer Science from the University of California at Irvine. Prior to working in the School of Interactive Computing, she was a Member of Technical Staff in the Software Production Research department at Bell Laboratories. She also was a Member of Research Staff in the Distributed Systems Area at Xerox PARC.

Shaowen BardzellSHAOWEN BARDZELL

Shaowen Bardzell is an Assistant Professor of Human-Computer Interaction Design in the School of Informatics and Computing at Indiana University. She specializes in socio-cultural computing, with an emphasis on emotional, intimate, and embodied experiences, a series of research themes that contribute to the broader agenda of feminist HCI that she is developing. Recent work has focused on intimate interactions online, designing for emotion in non-western homes, and the application of critical and cultural theories for developing concept-driven design strategies.

Meredith Ringel MorrisMEREDITH RINGEL MORRIS

Meredith Ringel Morris is a research scientist in the Adaptive Systems & Interaction group at Microsoft Research. She is also an affiliate assistant professor of Computer Science & Engineering at the University of Washington. Dr. Morris’s research area is human-computer interaction, with a particular emphasis on computer-supported cooperative work and social computing. She has published numerous technical articles and patents on multi-user interactive systems, and recently co-authored the book Collaborative Web Search: Who, What, Where, When, and Why? (Morgan & Claypool, 2010). Dr. Morris served as the co-chair of the technical program for CHI 2009, the ACM’s premier conference on the topic of human-computer interaction. She was named one of 2008’s 35 Innovators Under 35 by Technology Review, and one of 2009’s 100 Notable Women in Seattle Technology by TechFlash. Dr. Morris earned a Ph.D. and M.S. in computer science from Stanford University, and an Sc.B. in computer science from Brown University.

Erika Shehan PooleERIKA SHEHAN POOLE

Erika Shehan Poole is an assistant professor in the College of Information Sciences and Technology at Penn State University. Her research in human-computer interaction focuses on how groups collaborate to use, maintain, and make sense of computing technologies; areas of study have included home technology maintenance practices, public understandings of emerging technologies, workplace adoption of collaboration software, and collaborative gaming technologies for improving health and wellness. Erika holds a BS in computer science from Purdue University, an MS in computer science from Georgia Tech, and a PhD in human-centered computing from Georgia Tech.

Divya RamachandranDIVYA RAMACHANDRAN

Divya Ramachandran is finishing her Ph.D. at the Berkeley Institute of Design and Computer Science Department, University of California, Berkeley. She works in the area of human-computer interaction, with a special focus on international development. She has worked on a number of projects in the fields of rural communication, education and health. Her dissertation examines the use of mobile, persuasive technologies for maternal health promotion. For this work, she conducted qualitative research, iterative prototype design, and evaluation over three years in rural India. Within the broader ICTD space, she is interested in how ICTs can be designed to motivate local change agents to achieve development outcomes. She holds a bachelor’s degree in computer engineering from the University of Utah.

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Session Five: HCI Field Trip

Friday, October 1st. 5:15- 7:00pm – GVU Center at Georgia Institute of Technology

Session Description: Please join us for a laboratory tour of the GVU Center at Georgia Tech. Over 100 research demonstrations by Georgia Tech faculty and students are part of this special event for Grace Hopper 2010. The GVU Center enables research in human centered computing (HCC) by fostering interdisciplinary collaborations that combine expertise in science, engineering, design, art, and the humanities. The mission of unlocking human potential through technical innovation guides research in creativity, emotion, wellness, independence, learning, persuasion and trust.