I direct the Ex)situ research group which explores the limits of interaction — how extreme users interact with technology in extreme situations. Rather than beginning with novice users and adding complexity, we begin with expert users who already face extreme interaction requirements. We are particularly interested in creative professionals, artists and designers who rewrite the rules as they create new works, and scientists who seek to understand complex phenomena through creative exploration of large quantities of data. Studying these advanced users today will not only help us to anticipate the routine tasks of tomorrow, but to advance our understanding of interaction itself. We seek to create effective human-computer partnerships, in which expert users control their interaction with technology. Our goal is to advance our understanding of interaction as a phenomenon, with a corresponding paradigm shift in how we design, implement and use interactive systems. We have already made significant progress through our work on instrumental interaction and co-adaptive systems, and we hope to extend these into a foundation for the design of all interactive technology — to create a physics of interaction.
Education
Ph.D. | Massachusetts Institute of Technology Management of Technological Innovation | 1990 |
M.A. | Northeastern University Experimental Psychology | 1979 |
B.A. | University of California, San Diego Experimental Psychology | 1977 |