I am a research scientist in the Computational User Experiences (CUE)and Visualization and Interaction (VIBE) Groups at MSR. My research background is in Human-Computer Interaction, with an emphasis on interface design and interaction techniques for mobile devices, and particularly those that support one-handed thumb interaction with touchscreens. My current research focus is on bringing mobile phones into the fold of personal and productivity computing by enabling more seamless user experiences between phones and traditional computing platforms, as well as developing effective interfaces and metaphors for accessing a wide variety of information from the mobile phone.
Project Areas
Cross-Device User Experiences
We are exploring how to better support tasks and activities as people transtion between PCs and mobile phones throughout their day. (Project Page)
Mobile Phone Interaction Techniques
Mobile phones impose unique constraints upon computing activities which inspire the development of novel ways to interact with data and devices. (Project Page)
- Shaun K. Kane, Amy K. Karlson, Brian R. Meyers, Andy Jacobs, Paul Johns, and Greg Smith, Exploring Cross-Device Web Use on PCs and Mobile Devices, in INTERACT 2009, Springer Verlag, August 2009
- Adrienne Andrew, Amy K. Karlson, and A.J. Bernheim Brush, Investigating the Use of Voice and Ink for Mobile Micronote Capture, in INTERACT 2009, Springer Verlag, August 2009
- Amy K. Karlson, Brian R. Meyers, Andy Jacobs, Paul Johns, and Shaun K. Kane, Working Overtime: Patterns of Smartphone and PC Usage in the Day of an Information Worker, in Pervasive Computing, Springer Verlag, May 2009
- Amy K. Karlson and Benjamin B. Bederson, One-handed touchscreen input for legacy applications, in Proceedings of CHI 2008, Association for Computing Machinery, Inc., 2008
- Amy K. Karlson and Benjamin B. Bederson, ThumbSpace: Generalized One-Handed Input for Touchscreen-Based Mobile Devices , in Proceedings of Interact 2007, Springer Verlag, 2007
- Jerry Alan Fails, Amy K. Karlson, Layla Shahamat, and Ben Shneiderman, A Visual Interface for Multivariate Temporal Data: Finding Patterns of Events across Multiple Histories, in Proceedings of VAST 2006, IEEE Computer Society, 2006
- Pekka Parhi, Amy K. Karlson, and Bejamin B. Bederson, Target size study for one-handed thumb use on small touchscreen devices, in Proceedings of MobileHCI 2006, Association for Computing Machinery, Inc., 2006
- Amy Karlson, George Robertson, Daniel Robbins, Mary Czerwinski, and Greg Smith, FaThumb: A facet-based interface for mobile search, in Proceedings of CHI 2006, ACM Press, January 2006
- Amy K. Karlson, Benjamin B. Bederson, and John SanGiovanni, AppLens and launchTile: two designs for one-handed thumb use on small devices, in Proceedings of CHI 2005, Association for Computing Machinery, Inc., 2005
- Amy K. Karlson, A.J. Bernheim Brush, and Stuart Schechter, Can I Borrow Your Phone? Understanding Concerns When Sharing Mobile Phones, pp. 1647-1650, Association for Computing Machinery, Inc., April 2009
- Andy Cockburn, Amy K. Karlson, and Benjamin B. Bederson, A Review of Overview+Detail, Zooming, and Focus+Context Interfaces, Association for Computing Machinery, Inc.
- Amy Karlson, Greg Smith, Brian Meyers, George Robertson, and Mary Czerwinski, Courier: A Collaborative Phone-Based File Exchange System, no. MSR-TR-2008-05, 2008
- Amy K. Karlson, Benjamin B. Bederson, and Jose Contreras-Vidal, Understanding One Handed Use of Mobile Devices, in Handbook of Research on User Interface Design and Evaluation for Mobile Technology, pp. 86-101, IGI Global, 2007
Interns
- Dave Dearman, Univeristy of Toronto (Summer 2009)
- Shaun Kane, University of Washington (Summer 2008)
- Adrienne Andrew, University of Washington (Spring 2008)
Short Bio
I hold a B.A. and an M.S. in Computer Science from Johns Hopkins University, and an M.S. and Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Maryland, College Park. At the University of Maryland, College Park, I was a member of the Human Computer Interaction Lab, and was advised by Dr. Ben Bederson. Prior to earning my Ph.D., I worked for several years as a research scientist in the Milton Eisenhower Research Center of the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory.
