Alex Thayer

Alex Thayer Presents CSC Lab Research at Google HQ

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…

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Professor Lee Quoted in Consumer Reports Article on Buying E-readers for Use at School

As kids get ready to head back to school, and as college students get ready to move back to their dorms and apartments, Consumer Reports has published an article discussing whether an e-reader is the right student purchase to make.  The exciting part is they base the entire article around our study of e-reader usage among grad students. Two things in this article are exciting to me. First, they quote Professor Charlotte Lee making a pretty clear statement about whether…

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Chicago Tribune column on the future of printed books cites CSC Lab research

This column in today’s Chicago Tribune theorizes about what will happen to printed books and physical bookstores in the coming years.  I have to say that I agree with many of the points made, particularly when Keilman talks about printed books having a future. He also rightly points out that big-box bookstores may not be around forever, or at least competing big-box bookstores (Borders’ demise is sort of the premise/focus of the column). The column is exciting, however, because Keilman…

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CSC Lab study of e-reader use among students continues to receive notable press coverage

Earlier this week, Amazon announced that they would begin renting out textbooks on Kindle devices.  What’s cool is that two of the articles (on CNET and GeekWire) cite our research on e-reader use among university students. The CNET article in particular has some actual commentary on elements of our findings, particularly cognitive mapping; it’s nice to see at least one comment lauding the CNET article for bringing this up. It’s particularly fun to see your academic research get referenced in…

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CSC Lab study of e-reader use among students gets worldwide press coverage

As we reported last month, our accepted paper “The Imposition and Superimposition of Digital Reading Technology: The Academic Potential of E-readers” won an Honorable Mention award at CHI 2011.  On Monday, we issued a press release through the UW that described the highlights of our research. Happily, that press release was picked up by a number of other folks that very same day: PCMag – Study: E-Readers Need Work Before Schools Toss Out Textbooks GeekWire – UW study of Kindle usage…

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The Apple iPad Is Finding Big Success In Schools…Is That A Good Thing?

Apparently the Apple iPad stands to become the replacement for those bulky printed textbooks that kids have to lug around. This New York Times article has some particularly interesting and illuminating quotes on the benefits of the iPad as a textbook replacement. For example: “The iPads cost $750 apiece, and they are to be used in class and at home during the school year to replace textbooks, allow students to correspond with teachers and turn in papers and homework assignments,…

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Presenting on E-readers at World Usability Day 2010 and Microsoft HCDE Alumni event

Alex Thayer, CSC Lab member, recently gave two presentations on the Lab’s study of students’ use of e-readers. For World Usability Day at Microsoft, Alex presented “Supporting Students’ Reading Practice through E-reader Interfaces,” which focuses on how people build cognitive maps of the texts we read. You can view a photo of the presentation here.  Over 100 people were in attendance for the talk, and a number of excellent follow-up conversations occurred as a result of this presentation. Later that…

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Futures of the Book – NPR story

I found this story interesting but not necessarily visionary when it comes to seeing the future(s) of the paper book.  For example, I still think hardcover books will go the way of vinyl records in terms of finding a niche audience willing to collect them and pay for their intentional scarcity.  The article is worth reading regardless….

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New exemptions to law on copyright and technology

Buried deep in this article, which mainly discusses how iPhones can be legally unlocked, was this tidbit: “In addition to jailbreaking, other exemptions announced Monday would…allow blind people to break locks on electronic books so that they can use them with read-aloud software and similar aides.” I find this quite interesting, in part because the government is recognizing that some of the copyright protections that companies have put in place actually hinder legitimate uses of content.  Similarly, this tidbit also…

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CSC Lab is located in “Studio 425” with two other labs in the Department of Human Centered Design & Engineering on the fourth floor of Sieg Hall in room 425.

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For general inquiries please e-mail:
Dr. Charlotte Lee
cplee – at – uw dot edu

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University of Washington
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