Alex Thayer, PhD Candidate in Human Centered Design & Engineering and advisee of CSC Lab Director Charlotte P. Lee, recently presented the results of an ethnographic, qualitative research study into how people use Google Calendar at Google Headquarters in Mountain View, CA. The goal of the study was to better understand Google Calendar users’ practices of calendar sharing as relationship work, the continually negotiated practice of managing friendships and intimacy. The results of the study were previously published as part of the CSCW 2012 conference, which took place in February 2012 near Seattle, WA.

Thayer delivered his presentation to User Experience Designers and Researchers. Thayer was also able to meet with members of the Google Calendar development team to discuss study findings in greater detail. Thayer said, “It was fantastic to have the opportunity to present relevant research to the people who actually develop Google Calendar! The goal of the presentation was not to provide specific  feature requests, but to help develop a richer foundation for future design concepts and directions.”

The CSC Lab also conducted a second, complementary study of Google Calendar users, for which Professor Lee received a Google Research Award. Thayer looks forward to presenting the results of that study at Google in Zurich, Switzerland and hopefully at CSCW 2013 in San Antonio, TX next February.