Serena Hillman | Microsoft - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Papers by Serena Hillman

ACM CHI, 2024

The CHI community has expressed a growing interest in creating and sharing educational materials ... more The CHI community has expressed a growing interest in creating and sharing educational materials related to User Experience (UX) outcomes, particularly emphasizing summative research. Based on insights gathered at a CSCW 2003 workshop on understanding and evaluating UX outcomes at scale, we identified two areas of focus: (1) the need to develop Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) educational resources for UX, specifically focusing on summative methods and industry practices, and (2) the opportunity to further review and discuss the potential of a casebook-a textbook centered around case studies. This Special Interest Group (SIG) at CHI 2024 aims to directly address these opportunities by bringing together a community of academic and industry researchers for the exchange of ideas, ultimately guiding the development of educational resources that equip HCI students with strong summative research skills as they enter the UX field. At the SIG, we will discuss HCI educational resources for UX outcomes and present a casebook outline, gathering feedback, insights, and interest regarding the proposed case studies and general format.

Journal of User Experience, 2024

Throughout the last several decades, researchers have developed standard usability questionnaires... more Throughout the last several decades, researchers have developed standard usability questionnaires to evaluate usability and present a single score to represent the product’s overall level of ease of use. One of the most notable questionnaires is the System Usability Scale (SUS) (Sauro & Lewis, 2009). However, since the SUS was introduced in 1986, products and services have not only undergone monumental advancements in technology, but HCI and UX research practices have also matured. These changes are also true for the enterprise space. In this paper, we present preliminary evidence concerning the construct validity of a usability questionnaire that has three advantages for enterprise applications over the original 10-item SUS questionnaire: the better measurement of usability technical products/services, reduced questionnaire items, and alignment with enterprise products and services. Results indicate that the new usability questionnaire exhibits a similarly strong correlation with satisfaction as the SUS, while also strongly correlated with SUS for enterprise and enterprise data products/services.

CHI, 2022

In-product feedback mechanisms allow for capturing user feedback while the user is engaging with ... more In-product feedback mechanisms allow for capturing user feedback while the user is engaging with the product or service. Traditionally in-product feedback has focused on metrics such as Net Promoter Score (NPS) [21] and Customer Satisfaction (CSAT) [5] which look to measure customer loyalty or overall product satisfaction. By introducing complementary user experience (UX) metrics that are focused on user outcomes, UX teams have greater insight into measuring the successes or challenges of their users in the context of use. This case study describes and discusses the process employed and the lessons learned while designing and implementing a user-centered in-product feedback system. We specifically call out challenges and opportunities around aligning with business outcomes, navigating current frameworks, unlocking self-serve data to stakeholders, informing strategy, and feeding additional research. In conclusion, we present these learnings as a framework, dubbed BLUE, to help other UX teams create in-product feedback mechanisms.

CHI, 2022

Neurodiversity was coined in 1999 [9]. At its start, the movement was used to advocate for people... more Neurodiversity was coined in 1999 [9]. At its start, the movement was used to advocate for people with Autism and has since broadened to include other neurological conditions such as ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder), dyslexia, and even mental health disorders such as depression and anxiety. While the neurodiversity movement has made efforts into researching and designing technology with diverse voices and experiences at its center, there is still a lot of work that needs to be done in this area. For example, cognitive accessibility user research deals with the challenges for people with cognitive or learning disabilities when using technologies [5]. However, these developments are limited to the scope of web users but have the potential to reach all technologies, from wearables to mobile apps to data analytics and visualization tools.
As new movements arise and thoughts shift towards social justice, it is becoming more and more apparent that marginalized groups can no longer be left out of design conversation and innovation. For example, design justice focuses on the ways that race, class, gender, and disability, 90% of which are invisible, account for a variety of user needs [10]. As Harvey Blume noted, “Neurodiversity may be every bit as crucial for the human race as biodiversity is for life in general. Who can say what form of wiring will prove best at any given moment?”[4]. Though it is difficult to separate the intersection of these groups, we can contribute to the discourse and goals of disability justice in Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) through the lens of the neurodiversity movement and those impacted by being left out of design to guide our practice and create opportunities for collaboration and solutions.
In this position paper we highlight two neurodiversity topics of interest as discussion points for the Dreaming Disability Justice (DJ) in HCI 2022 CHI Workshop. The first topic is DJ and intersectionality, and the second topic is the expansion and complications of neurodiverse approaches to HCI. We selected these topics to discuss both the roots and potential direction of this space within HCI.

The ACM conference on Designing Interactive Systems , 2019

Teachers need to communicate material effectively in a clear and engaging format. Many teachers u... more Teachers need to communicate material effectively in a clear and engaging format. Many teachers use presentation software such as PowerPoint, Google Slides or Keynote to create and display educational content. These presentation products offer mobile companion applications (apps) designed to both sync with content on a second screen and add additional tools to navigate and interact with slides. In this paper, we conducted two exploratory studies to investigate the mobile digital presentation needs and current experience of K-12 teachers when using mobile companion apps. We identify that current solutions fall short of addressing these needs and suggest potential design implications to better align with the in-classroom experience. Findings suggest improvements could be made by allowing teachers to capture teachable moments-through text and annotations on slides-improving these.

ACM CHI 2019, 2019

Over the past decade, there has been an increase in educational software use within classrooms as... more Over the past decade, there has been an increase in educational software use within classrooms as well as continuing demand on K-12 teachers extending beyond in-class activities. Yet, we still do not have a deep understanding of current teacher behaviors outside the classroom. Our paper presents insights on how to better design for technology use in this space by reporting on key themes such as communication, privacy and student technology at home. These findings translate into design implications to increase transparency with student data, the need to design first for technology students have access to in the home (e.g. mobile) and designing for the teacher need of setting personal boundaries within communication tools.

Our research looks to understand how to best design manipulatives within a mixed-reality (MR) sys... more Our research looks to understand how to best design manipulatives within a mixed-reality (MR) system for the classroom. This paper presents insights around how teachers currently use physical manipulatives to inform future MR designs in the K-5 classroom. Manipulatives are physical objects used for teaching; Examples include, coins, blocks, puzzles markers etc. K-5 teachers have been using physical manipulatives to help illustrate abstract concepts for decades. Physical manipulatives have proven high value for students [7] and their high level of adoption by grade school teachers makes them a potential candidate for introducing MR into the classroom. In this research, we use participatory design, journey maps and interviews to identify teacher challenges with current physical manipulatives and explore potential design directions for MR manipulatives in the classroom. Our preliminary findings suggest that MR could help improve autonomy around student learning and increase opportunity for collaboration between peers, as well as between teacher and student.

Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems

In this paper we present lessons learned from a diary study completed for Electronic Arts' AAA vi... more In this paper we present lessons learned from a diary study completed for Electronic Arts' AAA video game NHL16 in August 2015. Key findings suggest that while there is high risk to use the method, there is also great benefit in terms of impact via actionable data and ability to collect rich artifacts to tell the users' stories. To reduce the risk, this work presents a series of suggested guidelines for conducting a diary study in games user research, which has not been investigated in past work. We lay a foundation for diary methods in GUR and how to further improve the method by providing examples and real results through an AAA game example.

In this paper we present the Tumblr analytics dashboard, tApp. tApp is designed based on findings... more In this paper we present the Tumblr analytics dashboard, tApp. tApp is designed based on findings from a study we completed on Tumblr and fandoms. Within, we describe an overview of seven sections of the dashboard, reasoning behind the design, current prototype screen shots, one use case scenario and proposed future work.

PhD Dissertation, Simon Fraser University.

eCommerce has dramatically changed over the last several years, leaving a gap of knowledge around... more eCommerce has dramatically changed over the last several years, leaving a gap of knowledge around what these changes mean to-and how they affect-the user and their experiences. To address this gap, I collected empirical evidence through three studies. The first looks at mobile web commerce, and focuses heavily on the issue of trust. The second looks at group shopping sites, an example of social commerce. The third study investigates mobile payment systems and user challenges and successes. Although each study introduces specific design implications, together they expand extant work in traditional eCommerce to include social and mobile aspects and thus contribute new knowledge toward a more ubiquitous commerce (ubicommerce) experience.

Proceedings of the Conference on Designing Interactive Systems, Jun 21, 2014

A growing trend is the participation in online fandom communities through the support of the blog... more A growing trend is the participation in online fandom communities through the support of the blogging platform Tumblr. While past research has investigated backchannels—chatter related to live entertainment on micro-blogging sites such as Twitter—there is a lack of research on the behaviours and motivations of Tumblr users. In our study, we investigate why fandom users chose Tumblr over other social networking sites, their motivations behind participating in fandoms, and how they interact within the Tumblr community. Our findings show that users face many user interface challenges when participating in Tumblr fandoms, especially initially; yet, despite this, Tumblr fandom communities thrive with a common sense of social purpose and exclusivity where users feel they can present a more authentic reflection of themselves to those sharing similar experiences and interests. We describe how this suggests design directions for social networking and blogging sites in order to promote communities of users.

ACM Conference on Computer Human Interaction (CHI) 2014, May 1, 2014

As smartphones continue to increase in popularity in North America so too does the opportunity to... more As smartphones continue to increase in popularity in North America so too does the opportunity to expand their use and functionality. Our study looks at one of these new opportunities, Mobile Payment Services (MPSs). This study investigates user behaviours, motivations and first impressions of MPS in Canada and the United States through interviews with veteran users and interviews and diaries with new users. Participants used a variety of MPSs, including: Google Wallet, Amazon Payments, LevelUp, Square and company apps geared towards payments (e.g., Starbucks). Our preliminary findings are presented as user successes and challenges.

ACM Conference on Computer Human Interaction (CHI) 2014, May 1, 2014

Personal informatics applications are increasingly available for amateur endurance athletes to re... more Personal informatics applications are increasingly available for amateur endurance athletes to record and monitor their performance and training. This information can be valuable for coaches who tailor training programs based on this data. Despite this, it is not clear if the information provided by such tools map to the real needs of the amateur athletic community. To address this, we conducted interviews with eight amateur athletic coaches of endurance athletes. Our results show that athlete-specific contextual factors can be important to track and monitor in relation to performance-based metrics. This information can be difficult to capture, analyze, and share. This suggests design opportunities for personal informatics applications for amateur athletes and coaches.

Workshop on Financial Interactions, Digital Cash, Capital Exchange and Mobile Money (#CHIMoney), May 1, 2014

eCommerce has dramatically changed over the last several years with the increased adoption of sma... more eCommerce has dramatically changed over the last several years with the increased adoption of smart phones and social networking, leaving a gap of knowledge around what these changes mean to—and how they affect—the user and their experiences. To address this gap, we collected empirical evidence through three studies. The first looks at mobile web commerce, and focuses heavily on the issue of trust. The second looks at group shopping sites, an example of social commerce. Finally, the third study investigates mobile payment services and user challenges and successes. While each study has introduced specific design implications, together we hope to expand the work in traditional eCommerce to include social and mobile aspects and thus contribute new knowledge towards a more ubiquitous commerce (ubi-commerce) experience.

ACM Conference on Computer Human Interaction (CHI) 2013, May 1, 2014

We report the findings of an ethnographic study exploring how 13 participants from rural and slum... more We report the findings of an ethnographic study exploring how 13 participants from rural and slum regions of Kenya communicated with remote family members using technology. We focus on communication practices that enabled family members to support economic sustenance activities and also investigate the social aspects of using technology to provide or receive moral, emotional or other forms of support from distributed family members.

Video Proceedings of the CSCW Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work and Social Computing , Feb 2014

A growing trend is the participation in online fandom communities through the support of the blog... more A growing trend is the participation in online fandom communities through the support of the blogging platform Tumblr. We investigated Tumblr fandom users’ motivations behind participating in fandoms, and how they interacted within the Tumblr community. Our results show that fandom users feel their Tumblr experience is ‘always-on’ where they participate at nearly any point in the day. They have also adopted a unique set of jargon and use of animated GIFs to match their desired fandom activities. Overall, our results show that Tumblr fandom users present a unique culture, much different from other social networking sites.

Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, ACM Press (CHI2013), Apr 2013

Group-shopping sites are beginning to rise in popularity amongst eCommerce users. Yet we do not k... more Group-shopping sites are beginning to rise in popularity amongst eCommerce users. Yet we do not know how or why people are using such sites, and whether or not the design of group-shopping sites map to the real shopping needs of end users. To address this, we describe an interview study that investigates the friendship networks of people who participate in group-shopping sites (e.g., Groupon) with the goal of understanding how to best design for these experiences. Our results show that group-shopping sites are predominently used to support social activities; that is, users do not use them first and foremost to find ‘deals.’ Instead, group-shopping sites are used for planning group activities, extending and building friendships, and constructing one’s social identity. Based on these findings, we suggest improved social network integration and impression management tools to improve user experience within group-shopping sites.

ABSTRACT Mobile devices are increasingly being used in a variety of new contexts, including situa... more ABSTRACT Mobile devices are increasingly being used in a variety of new contexts, including situations at home or work where one might previously have used a computer. One area in which this is increasingly occurring is mobile shopping termed mCommerce. To understand this space better, we conducted a diary and interview study with mCommerce shoppers who have already adopted the technology and shop on their mobile devices regularly.

ABSTRACT When a patient has a chronic illness, such as heart disease or cancer, it can be challen... more ABSTRACT When a patient has a chronic illness, such as heart disease or cancer, it can be challenging for distributed family members to stay aware of the patient's health status. A variety of technologies are available to support health information sharing (eg, phone, video chat, social media), yet we still do not have a detailed understanding of which technologies are preferred and what challenges people still face when sharing information with them.

Teenagers are increasingly using video chat systems to communicate with others, however, little r... more Teenagers are increasingly using video chat systems to communicate with others, however, little research has been conducted to explore how and why they use the technology. To better understand this design space, we present the results of a study of twenty teenagers and their use of video chat systems such as Skype, FaceTime, and Google Hangouts. Our results show that video chat plays an important role in helping teenagers socialize with their friends after school and on weekends where it allows them to see emotional reactions and participate in activities like shared homework sessions, show and tell, and performances over distance. Yet video chat is also used to engage in more private activities such as gossiping, flirting, and even the viewing of sexual acts. This presents an interesting design challenge of supporting teen use of video chat while mitigating privacy and parental concerns.

ACM CHI, 2024

The CHI community has expressed a growing interest in creating and sharing educational materials ... more The CHI community has expressed a growing interest in creating and sharing educational materials related to User Experience (UX) outcomes, particularly emphasizing summative research. Based on insights gathered at a CSCW 2003 workshop on understanding and evaluating UX outcomes at scale, we identified two areas of focus: (1) the need to develop Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) educational resources for UX, specifically focusing on summative methods and industry practices, and (2) the opportunity to further review and discuss the potential of a casebook-a textbook centered around case studies. This Special Interest Group (SIG) at CHI 2024 aims to directly address these opportunities by bringing together a community of academic and industry researchers for the exchange of ideas, ultimately guiding the development of educational resources that equip HCI students with strong summative research skills as they enter the UX field. At the SIG, we will discuss HCI educational resources for UX outcomes and present a casebook outline, gathering feedback, insights, and interest regarding the proposed case studies and general format.

Journal of User Experience, 2024

Throughout the last several decades, researchers have developed standard usability questionnaires... more Throughout the last several decades, researchers have developed standard usability questionnaires to evaluate usability and present a single score to represent the product’s overall level of ease of use. One of the most notable questionnaires is the System Usability Scale (SUS) (Sauro & Lewis, 2009). However, since the SUS was introduced in 1986, products and services have not only undergone monumental advancements in technology, but HCI and UX research practices have also matured. These changes are also true for the enterprise space. In this paper, we present preliminary evidence concerning the construct validity of a usability questionnaire that has three advantages for enterprise applications over the original 10-item SUS questionnaire: the better measurement of usability technical products/services, reduced questionnaire items, and alignment with enterprise products and services. Results indicate that the new usability questionnaire exhibits a similarly strong correlation with satisfaction as the SUS, while also strongly correlated with SUS for enterprise and enterprise data products/services.

CHI, 2022

In-product feedback mechanisms allow for capturing user feedback while the user is engaging with ... more In-product feedback mechanisms allow for capturing user feedback while the user is engaging with the product or service. Traditionally in-product feedback has focused on metrics such as Net Promoter Score (NPS) [21] and Customer Satisfaction (CSAT) [5] which look to measure customer loyalty or overall product satisfaction. By introducing complementary user experience (UX) metrics that are focused on user outcomes, UX teams have greater insight into measuring the successes or challenges of their users in the context of use. This case study describes and discusses the process employed and the lessons learned while designing and implementing a user-centered in-product feedback system. We specifically call out challenges and opportunities around aligning with business outcomes, navigating current frameworks, unlocking self-serve data to stakeholders, informing strategy, and feeding additional research. In conclusion, we present these learnings as a framework, dubbed BLUE, to help other UX teams create in-product feedback mechanisms.

CHI, 2022

Neurodiversity was coined in 1999 [9]. At its start, the movement was used to advocate for people... more Neurodiversity was coined in 1999 [9]. At its start, the movement was used to advocate for people with Autism and has since broadened to include other neurological conditions such as ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder), dyslexia, and even mental health disorders such as depression and anxiety. While the neurodiversity movement has made efforts into researching and designing technology with diverse voices and experiences at its center, there is still a lot of work that needs to be done in this area. For example, cognitive accessibility user research deals with the challenges for people with cognitive or learning disabilities when using technologies [5]. However, these developments are limited to the scope of web users but have the potential to reach all technologies, from wearables to mobile apps to data analytics and visualization tools.
As new movements arise and thoughts shift towards social justice, it is becoming more and more apparent that marginalized groups can no longer be left out of design conversation and innovation. For example, design justice focuses on the ways that race, class, gender, and disability, 90% of which are invisible, account for a variety of user needs [10]. As Harvey Blume noted, “Neurodiversity may be every bit as crucial for the human race as biodiversity is for life in general. Who can say what form of wiring will prove best at any given moment?”[4]. Though it is difficult to separate the intersection of these groups, we can contribute to the discourse and goals of disability justice in Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) through the lens of the neurodiversity movement and those impacted by being left out of design to guide our practice and create opportunities for collaboration and solutions.
In this position paper we highlight two neurodiversity topics of interest as discussion points for the Dreaming Disability Justice (DJ) in HCI 2022 CHI Workshop. The first topic is DJ and intersectionality, and the second topic is the expansion and complications of neurodiverse approaches to HCI. We selected these topics to discuss both the roots and potential direction of this space within HCI.

The ACM conference on Designing Interactive Systems , 2019

Teachers need to communicate material effectively in a clear and engaging format. Many teachers u... more Teachers need to communicate material effectively in a clear and engaging format. Many teachers use presentation software such as PowerPoint, Google Slides or Keynote to create and display educational content. These presentation products offer mobile companion applications (apps) designed to both sync with content on a second screen and add additional tools to navigate and interact with slides. In this paper, we conducted two exploratory studies to investigate the mobile digital presentation needs and current experience of K-12 teachers when using mobile companion apps. We identify that current solutions fall short of addressing these needs and suggest potential design implications to better align with the in-classroom experience. Findings suggest improvements could be made by allowing teachers to capture teachable moments-through text and annotations on slides-improving these.

ACM CHI 2019, 2019

Over the past decade, there has been an increase in educational software use within classrooms as... more Over the past decade, there has been an increase in educational software use within classrooms as well as continuing demand on K-12 teachers extending beyond in-class activities. Yet, we still do not have a deep understanding of current teacher behaviors outside the classroom. Our paper presents insights on how to better design for technology use in this space by reporting on key themes such as communication, privacy and student technology at home. These findings translate into design implications to increase transparency with student data, the need to design first for technology students have access to in the home (e.g. mobile) and designing for the teacher need of setting personal boundaries within communication tools.

Our research looks to understand how to best design manipulatives within a mixed-reality (MR) sys... more Our research looks to understand how to best design manipulatives within a mixed-reality (MR) system for the classroom. This paper presents insights around how teachers currently use physical manipulatives to inform future MR designs in the K-5 classroom. Manipulatives are physical objects used for teaching; Examples include, coins, blocks, puzzles markers etc. K-5 teachers have been using physical manipulatives to help illustrate abstract concepts for decades. Physical manipulatives have proven high value for students [7] and their high level of adoption by grade school teachers makes them a potential candidate for introducing MR into the classroom. In this research, we use participatory design, journey maps and interviews to identify teacher challenges with current physical manipulatives and explore potential design directions for MR manipulatives in the classroom. Our preliminary findings suggest that MR could help improve autonomy around student learning and increase opportunity for collaboration between peers, as well as between teacher and student.

Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems

In this paper we present lessons learned from a diary study completed for Electronic Arts' AAA vi... more In this paper we present lessons learned from a diary study completed for Electronic Arts' AAA video game NHL16 in August 2015. Key findings suggest that while there is high risk to use the method, there is also great benefit in terms of impact via actionable data and ability to collect rich artifacts to tell the users' stories. To reduce the risk, this work presents a series of suggested guidelines for conducting a diary study in games user research, which has not been investigated in past work. We lay a foundation for diary methods in GUR and how to further improve the method by providing examples and real results through an AAA game example.

In this paper we present the Tumblr analytics dashboard, tApp. tApp is designed based on findings... more In this paper we present the Tumblr analytics dashboard, tApp. tApp is designed based on findings from a study we completed on Tumblr and fandoms. Within, we describe an overview of seven sections of the dashboard, reasoning behind the design, current prototype screen shots, one use case scenario and proposed future work.

PhD Dissertation, Simon Fraser University.

eCommerce has dramatically changed over the last several years, leaving a gap of knowledge around... more eCommerce has dramatically changed over the last several years, leaving a gap of knowledge around what these changes mean to-and how they affect-the user and their experiences. To address this gap, I collected empirical evidence through three studies. The first looks at mobile web commerce, and focuses heavily on the issue of trust. The second looks at group shopping sites, an example of social commerce. The third study investigates mobile payment systems and user challenges and successes. Although each study introduces specific design implications, together they expand extant work in traditional eCommerce to include social and mobile aspects and thus contribute new knowledge toward a more ubiquitous commerce (ubicommerce) experience.

Proceedings of the Conference on Designing Interactive Systems, Jun 21, 2014

A growing trend is the participation in online fandom communities through the support of the blog... more A growing trend is the participation in online fandom communities through the support of the blogging platform Tumblr. While past research has investigated backchannels—chatter related to live entertainment on micro-blogging sites such as Twitter—there is a lack of research on the behaviours and motivations of Tumblr users. In our study, we investigate why fandom users chose Tumblr over other social networking sites, their motivations behind participating in fandoms, and how they interact within the Tumblr community. Our findings show that users face many user interface challenges when participating in Tumblr fandoms, especially initially; yet, despite this, Tumblr fandom communities thrive with a common sense of social purpose and exclusivity where users feel they can present a more authentic reflection of themselves to those sharing similar experiences and interests. We describe how this suggests design directions for social networking and blogging sites in order to promote communities of users.

ACM Conference on Computer Human Interaction (CHI) 2014, May 1, 2014

As smartphones continue to increase in popularity in North America so too does the opportunity to... more As smartphones continue to increase in popularity in North America so too does the opportunity to expand their use and functionality. Our study looks at one of these new opportunities, Mobile Payment Services (MPSs). This study investigates user behaviours, motivations and first impressions of MPS in Canada and the United States through interviews with veteran users and interviews and diaries with new users. Participants used a variety of MPSs, including: Google Wallet, Amazon Payments, LevelUp, Square and company apps geared towards payments (e.g., Starbucks). Our preliminary findings are presented as user successes and challenges.

ACM Conference on Computer Human Interaction (CHI) 2014, May 1, 2014

Personal informatics applications are increasingly available for amateur endurance athletes to re... more Personal informatics applications are increasingly available for amateur endurance athletes to record and monitor their performance and training. This information can be valuable for coaches who tailor training programs based on this data. Despite this, it is not clear if the information provided by such tools map to the real needs of the amateur athletic community. To address this, we conducted interviews with eight amateur athletic coaches of endurance athletes. Our results show that athlete-specific contextual factors can be important to track and monitor in relation to performance-based metrics. This information can be difficult to capture, analyze, and share. This suggests design opportunities for personal informatics applications for amateur athletes and coaches.

Workshop on Financial Interactions, Digital Cash, Capital Exchange and Mobile Money (#CHIMoney), May 1, 2014

eCommerce has dramatically changed over the last several years with the increased adoption of sma... more eCommerce has dramatically changed over the last several years with the increased adoption of smart phones and social networking, leaving a gap of knowledge around what these changes mean to—and how they affect—the user and their experiences. To address this gap, we collected empirical evidence through three studies. The first looks at mobile web commerce, and focuses heavily on the issue of trust. The second looks at group shopping sites, an example of social commerce. Finally, the third study investigates mobile payment services and user challenges and successes. While each study has introduced specific design implications, together we hope to expand the work in traditional eCommerce to include social and mobile aspects and thus contribute new knowledge towards a more ubiquitous commerce (ubi-commerce) experience.

ACM Conference on Computer Human Interaction (CHI) 2013, May 1, 2014

We report the findings of an ethnographic study exploring how 13 participants from rural and slum... more We report the findings of an ethnographic study exploring how 13 participants from rural and slum regions of Kenya communicated with remote family members using technology. We focus on communication practices that enabled family members to support economic sustenance activities and also investigate the social aspects of using technology to provide or receive moral, emotional or other forms of support from distributed family members.

Video Proceedings of the CSCW Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work and Social Computing , Feb 2014

A growing trend is the participation in online fandom communities through the support of the blog... more A growing trend is the participation in online fandom communities through the support of the blogging platform Tumblr. We investigated Tumblr fandom users’ motivations behind participating in fandoms, and how they interacted within the Tumblr community. Our results show that fandom users feel their Tumblr experience is ‘always-on’ where they participate at nearly any point in the day. They have also adopted a unique set of jargon and use of animated GIFs to match their desired fandom activities. Overall, our results show that Tumblr fandom users present a unique culture, much different from other social networking sites.

Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, ACM Press (CHI2013), Apr 2013

Group-shopping sites are beginning to rise in popularity amongst eCommerce users. Yet we do not k... more Group-shopping sites are beginning to rise in popularity amongst eCommerce users. Yet we do not know how or why people are using such sites, and whether or not the design of group-shopping sites map to the real shopping needs of end users. To address this, we describe an interview study that investigates the friendship networks of people who participate in group-shopping sites (e.g., Groupon) with the goal of understanding how to best design for these experiences. Our results show that group-shopping sites are predominently used to support social activities; that is, users do not use them first and foremost to find ‘deals.’ Instead, group-shopping sites are used for planning group activities, extending and building friendships, and constructing one’s social identity. Based on these findings, we suggest improved social network integration and impression management tools to improve user experience within group-shopping sites.

ABSTRACT Mobile devices are increasingly being used in a variety of new contexts, including situa... more ABSTRACT Mobile devices are increasingly being used in a variety of new contexts, including situations at home or work where one might previously have used a computer. One area in which this is increasingly occurring is mobile shopping termed mCommerce. To understand this space better, we conducted a diary and interview study with mCommerce shoppers who have already adopted the technology and shop on their mobile devices regularly.

ABSTRACT When a patient has a chronic illness, such as heart disease or cancer, it can be challen... more ABSTRACT When a patient has a chronic illness, such as heart disease or cancer, it can be challenging for distributed family members to stay aware of the patient's health status. A variety of technologies are available to support health information sharing (eg, phone, video chat, social media), yet we still do not have a detailed understanding of which technologies are preferred and what challenges people still face when sharing information with them.

Teenagers are increasingly using video chat systems to communicate with others, however, little r... more Teenagers are increasingly using video chat systems to communicate with others, however, little research has been conducted to explore how and why they use the technology. To better understand this design space, we present the results of a study of twenty teenagers and their use of video chat systems such as Skype, FaceTime, and Google Hangouts. Our results show that video chat plays an important role in helping teenagers socialize with their friends after school and on weekends where it allows them to see emotional reactions and participate in activities like shared homework sessions, show and tell, and performances over distance. Yet video chat is also used to engage in more private activities such as gossiping, flirting, and even the viewing of sexual acts. This presents an interesting design challenge of supporting teen use of video chat while mitigating privacy and parental concerns.