Abigail Sellen is a Principal Researcher at Microsoft Research Cambridge in the UK and co-manager of Socio-Digital Systems, an interdisciplinary group with a focus on the human perspective in computing. As a group, Socio-Digital Systems is interested in simple technologies, and in learning from everyday life to inform the design of systems which are both useful and compelling.

Abigail joined Microsoft in June 2004 from Hewlett Packard Labs, Bristol. She spent 6 years at HP researching many different kinds of topics ranging from appliance design to web use to mobile technologies. Prior to HP, she spent 7 years at Xerox's research lab in Cambridge UK (EuroPARC), was cross-appointed to the MRC Applied Psychology Unit, Cambridge, and was a Research Fellow at Darwin College, Cambridge. Before moving to England, She also worked for other corporate IT labs such as Xerox PARC, Apple Computer, and Bell Northern Research.

Abigail has a doctorate in Cognitive Science from the University of California, San Diego where she was supervised by Don Norman. She also has an M.A.Sc. in Industrial Engineering from the University of Toronto. She spent some formative years as a post doc working with Bill Buxton, Ron Baecker and Marilyn Tremaine at the Computer Science Research Institute at U of Toronto. Her other main academic influence was her stepfather, John Senders, one of the pioneers of Human Factors research.

Abigail has published on many topics including: computer input, help systems, reading, paper use in offices, videoconferencing design, and computer support for human memory. This includes two books, “Video-Mediated Communication” and “The Myth of the Paperless Office”, which won an IEEE award for distinguished literary contribution to engineering. She holds 23 patents and was recently elected a Fellow of the British Computer Society.  In August, 2009, she became a Special Professor of Interaction at the University of Nottingham.

Abigail Sellen|Publications | Patents