About
I am a sociologist of communication technology and human-computer interaction (opens in new tab), exploring remote and hybrid work in the Collaborative Intelligence (opens in new tab) theme at Microsoft Research Cambridge (UK).
My research group
I currently lead the Blended Reality for Effective Workflows (BREW) (opens in new tab) research group. We investigate how remote/hybrid teams can feel present and achieve goals throughout the workday, from meetings and events to ambient awareness and spontaneous encounters.
Approach
My training is ethnomethodological, drawing on video-recorded conversations and ethnographic data, and analysing that data using qualitative methods such as conversation analysis and membership categorisation analysis. I specialized in field research but also conduct interview, diary, and survey studies, as well as lab-based studies of prototypes. Increasingly, however, I combine qualitative with quantitative approaches, such as surveys and telemetry, to answer questions at scale.
Hackathons
I have been a member of 5 global category first-place winning projects in Microsoft OneWeek Hackathons, including one global Grand Prize winner. You can read about one of these that became a feature in our Garage Wall of Fame post Mobile Sharing and Companion Experiences for Microsoft Teams Meetings (opens in new tab). One day I might even be able to say what the other ones were! 😉
Academic
I received my PhD in 2010 in the field of Sociology specializing in Communication, from the University at Albany, State University of New York (opens in new tab). My dissertation was chaired by Professor Emerita Anita Pomerantz with committee members Professor Teresa Harrison, Professor Glenna Spitze, and Professor Ronald Jacobs.
Prior to working at Microsoft, I was a Lecturer in Strategic Communication at The University of Queensland (opens in new tab), Brisbane, Australia.
I have been a PC member of CHI and CSCW several times and review for many major HCI, communication, and technology journals and conferences. I was the Senior Editor of the Communication Technology section of the online Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Communication. I have guest-edited special issues of Human Computer Interaction, the Electronic Journal of Communication. and the Australian Journal of Communication. I co-chaired the Microsoft 2020 New Future of Work Symposium (opens in new tab) (with Gloria Mark) and the 2012 conference of the Australasian Institute of Ethnomethodology and Conversation Analysis (with Richard Fitzgerald).
Digital Advocacy
I am the former Chair and a former Board Member of Electronic Frontiers Australia, a non-profit group advocating for digital access, freedom, and privacy.
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Featured Content
Work video meetings in the traditional grid interface have inclusion, effectiveness, and fatigue problems, due in part to the difficulty of directing or communicating attention. Virtual 3D meeting spaces have value, but representing people in them is a challenge. Avatars face resistance, and 2D video is limited to near-frontal views, constraining the spatial layout. We present a novel experimental system for virtual meeting rooms that predicts 3D video of users in real-time from a standard webcam, positions them in a shared 3D space, and renders a controllable first-person view. We report study results comparing this system to a traditional grid, and to 2D video of people in the same 3D space. While spatial layouts fared better in terms of attention and co-presence, the traditional grid was more comfortable and professional. This is likely due to unsettled 3D design, the need for manual control, and a preference for the familiar.
Facial animation noise levels affect the acceptance of avatars in communication systems. However, there is no standard for evaluation, especially with regard to ecological validity. We investigate low and high ecological validity on two within-subjects experiments conducted in Augmented Reality on a Hololens2. We simulated facial-expression noise introduced on stylized cartoon avatars, and found that in the high ecological validity experiment, subjects were less sensitive to noise parameters, but their judgement was more influenced by empathy scores and gender biases. This highlights the importance of considering both technical parameters and user experience when designing communication systems. We make some general recommendations for evaluating issues of avatar acceptance given the trade-offs between the approaches, and propose the ‘Triple C’ factors of Context, Culture and Character as an important set of ecological factors to consider.