Research

My research interests encompass:

• design of technologies for the home,
• ambient information visualization for sustainability,
• communication and aging in place,
• computer supportd collaborative work,
• technology probes, and
• large time-based data.

Look below for more information on these topics, including my contributions and publications.

Ambient Information Visualization for Sustainability

I am investigating how to design an ambient information visualization system to help people adopt and maintain sustainable behaviors, and in particular electricity. While most people have some interest in saving energy, either economical or environmental reasons, the lack of available information about one's energy consumption impeds people's ability to adopt sustainable behavior. This project explores explores the ambient information visualization paradigm to bring this type of information in the home, unobotrusively and efficiently.

Ph.D. thesis : Communication appliances for Aging in Place

Current status: Completed in Oct. 2008
My Ph.D. work seeks alternative to existing monitoring and assistive technologies to support seniors desire to "age in place". Moving beyond existing paradigms for helping elders by helping caregivers, I study how communications (in particular Communication Appliances) can improve seniors well-being.

For my PhD I have conducted both user-centered and participatory design studies to gain a better understanding of the problem at hand. I have conducted interviews and group discussions to refine potential applications for communications, which led to the concept of PeerCare, the peer reciprocal care approach that I advocate. I have also conducted participatory design workshops to gain seniors perspective on the problems at hand.

You can read the abstract of my Ph.D. dissertations and download the whole document here.

markerClock

For my thesis, I have designed a communication device called markerClock which is intended to help raise mutual awareness of seniors. markerClock is a communication appliance, an always-on, easy-to-use device dedicated to connecting seniors with their friends and/or family members. It makes use of the current shared knowledge amongst people to raise their respective awareness of each others' routines and provides a feeling of presence.

You can find more information about markerClock on the page dedicated to it: markerClock.

Computer Supported Collaborative Work

My general interest lies in the role of communications in collaborative situations, from Home environments to Work environments. Going beyond a mere "efficient" point of view, I am interested in studying the design of communication solutions to support the underlying social bindings of work practices.

Technology Probes

For realizing my work, I use both user centered and participatory design approaches. Grounding the designs and findings in the complex environments found in reality allows for better ecological validity of the findings. In this context, I am studying the role of Technology Probes as a way to capture data in the field while engaging users in a participatory design process and conducting field observations.

Large Time Based Data

One of the challenge of technology probes, is exploiting the various, numerous data collected by the device deployed in the field. For explopring and analyzing this data, I am studying the use of various tools, from visualization to interaction in collaboration with the AVIZ research project.