Mark Zachry

Current Research in Social Computing 

This reading group, designed for doctoral students preparing to conduct research related to social computing, meets weekly to discuss recently published research in the area. Group participants nominate articles for discussion and take turns leading discussions. The group is co-facilitated by Professor Mark Zachry (HCDE) and Professor David McDonald (iSchool).

Group size is limited. If you would like to participate, please contact Mark Zachry (zachry@uw.edu) with a statement about your research interests. The group will meet Fridays, 2-3. 

Design and Development for Social Translucence: The Re:Flex Project

Join our research group in spring 2013 to participate in the development of Re:Flex, a social behavior visualization tool attached to Wikipedia. This tool is at an advanced stage of development, and we are preparing to invite developers and UX specialists to participate in the next phase of the research project. Project opportunities in the spring quarter include development of new plug-ins for the tool bar and user experience design. You can learn more about Re:Flex from our recent research poster.

Individuals interested in joining the group should have proven experience with some aspect of website or tool design, from conception to completion (a portfolio showing finished products is preferred).

Development Roles

Individual interested in participating in a development role related to the project should have either:

  • At least one year of experience with relevant web technologies (Javascript, jQuery, HTML, CSS), or
  • Experience with interactive visualization of large data sets, using tools like D3, Protovis, etc.

UX/UI Roles

Individuals interested in participating in a ux/ui roles may either be involved in toolbar modeling from conception to high-fidelity prototype (design), or the set up an evaluation test of the toolbar using something like Mechanical Turk (theory/operations). Prior experience in one or the other of these areas is needed.

Individuals should also have experience with frequently used design applications (including Photoshop, inDesign, etc), or experience with prototyping full-featured web applications using tools like Axure, Balsamiq, etc.

Meeting Time

The research group will meet Wednesdays, 5–6 pm.

Joining the Group

If interested in joining the group, please contact me via email (zachry@uw.edu) with a statement about your interests and your qualifications to participate in a development or ux/ui oriented role. Space in the group is limited so if there are more people interested in participating than we have room to accommodate, I will prioritize based on relevant skill sets.

Current Research in Social Computing (Winter 2013)

This reading group, designed for doctoral students preparing to conduct research related to social computing, meets weekly to discuss recently published research in the area. Group participants nominate articles for discussion and take turns leading discussions. The group is co-facilitated by Professor Mark Zachry (HCDE) and Professor David McDonald (iSchool).

Group size is limited. If you would like to participate, please contact Mark Zachry (zachry@uw.edu) with a statement about your research interests. Meeting time and location will be announced.

Haystack Exchange: Designing a Technology to Support New Forms of Social Interaction (Spring 2012)

Overview

In spring quarter, the Haystack Exchange research group will focus on iteratively designing a new web-based technology for encouraging transactions of services among groups of people who are socially linked. The goal for the quarter is to engage the research group participants in a design conversation about a newly deployed technology that they will all be using during the quarter. Following techniques of participatory design, all research group participants will have opportunities to engage in ideation, sketching, and prototyping activities related to the new system. Together, we will develop new ideas for how the system design should be developed to support desirable forms of social interaction.

Motivation

Recognizing the potential for social media to transform human relationships, this project seeks to explore the characteristics of a system that would help facilitate mutually beneficial transactions among people who are willing to share expertise with each other. Our challenge this spring quarter will be developing our system in such a way that it supports these kinds of transactions in a useful way, reflecting the values of people who want to interact with one another around their different forms of expertise.

The Experience

During the quarter, everyone in the research group will use the Haystack Exchange system to trade skills (e.g., editing, tutoring, image production) with others in the research group Periodically during the quarter, the group will engage in design discussions about the system, including conversations about its functionality and interface. At the end of the quarter, all participants will present an alternate system design, repositioning the technology in a new use-case scenario. These designs will be evaluate for appropriateness and technical feasibility.

Meeting Time

The group will meet from 3:30–4:30 on Wednesdays in Sieg Hall. Meetings are mandatory for all registered students.

Registration

Students will register for 2 credit hours of credit/no credit grade of either HCDE 496 or HCDE 596. Enrollment is limited. To register, please send a short message with a brief biographical introduction to the instructor.

Communicative Practices in Virtual Workspaces (CPVW)

The Communicative Practices in Virtual Workspaces research group investigates emergent uses of digital technologies to coordinate work activities. Specifically, the group is concerned with developing knowledge about novel applications and integration of such technologies in the work of organizations—whether those organizations be corporations, project-based federations of knowledge workers, or affiliated contributors to social media projects. Adopting and extending ideas from computer supported cooperative work, technical communication, human-computer interaction, and related fields, the group uses varied methods to explore communicative practices in virtual workspaces.

Participants will have the opportunity to work on existing projects and to propose work in complementary areas of inquiry. All research will support the group's overarching goals of investigating best practices and designing virtual tools associated with work activities in contemporary organizations. Projects for the group include:

  • Development of techniques for understanding social maneuvers (e.g., identity formation, regulation of behavior) in online interactions
  • Exploration of methods for using computer-use data to create visualizations that support reflective knowledge work
  • Development of tools for sensemaking about online work activities

The group will meet once per week to share results and discuss ongoing projects. The size of the research group is limited. People interested in participating should contact Mark Zachry (zachry [at] u.washington.edu) with a message explaining their interest in the group and indicating what types of activities they might like to work on during the quarter. Students with strong backgrounds in Web 2.0 technologies, visual design, and/or programming are particularly encouraged to apply. Participants in this research group will enroll for 1-3 credits (graded cr./no cr.) through HCDE 596 (for graduate students) or HCDE 496 (for undergraduate students).

Social Perspectives on the Design of Online Communities

Social psychology research and theory can improve our understanding of the adoption and use of social media. This research group will explore the connections researchers have made between social psychology theories of individual behavior and behavior in group settings and the design of social media technologies. The group will consider the impact of social psychological theories such as theories of collective effort, interpersonal bond formation, goal setting, social comparison, persuasion, group identity formation, technology diffusion, and technology acceptance on research methodologies and design considerations of social media technologies. The group will read works by such researchers as Kraut, Resnick, Rogers, and Venkatesh, to identify themes, underlying compatibilities, and tensions among the different authors’ applications of social psychology theory to social media.

 

Questions to be considered include:

  • In what ways are social psychology studies and theories applicable to individual and group behavior in online social media contexts?
  • What impacts do social psychology theories have on HCI research methodologies and design of systems supporting online communities?
  • How do specific theoretical lenses help reveal (or obscure) invisible work, issues of in/exclusion, and organizational power dynamics?

The research group will meet weekly for seminar-style discussions of assigned readings. Participants will be responsible for reading all assigned materials, analyzing ideas across texts, contributing to an annotated bibliography, and actively participating in discussions. Meetings will be held Mondays, 3:30–4:30. Participants will enroll for 2 credits.

The group is designed for graduate students who have already completed HCDE 501. Group size is limited. To request an add code, please contact Professor Zachry.

Networks and Ecologies

Researchers have long conceptualized human interactions with (and through) technology using varied theoretical frameworks to account for the roles and relationships of people, information, genres, and infrastructures. This research group will explore major contributions in two of the most notable frameworks: networks and ecologies. Examining the work of researchers from Human-Computer Interaction, Computer-Supported Cooperative Work, Rhetoric, and Science and Technology Studies, the group will systematically consider the role that different conceptualizations of the human/technology relationship play in driving theory development, empirical research, and design. The group will read works by Nardi, Star, Spinuzzi, and Latour, identifying themes, underlying compatibilities, and tensions among the different authors' network- and ecology-based theories.

Questions to be considered include:

  • How are human actions constrained or enabled by the technologies they use?
  • What do different understandings of human and technology interactions potentially contribute to designs that would improve computer-mediated collaborations?
  • How do specific theoretical lenses help reveal (or obscure) invisible work, issues of in/exclusion, and organizational power dynamics?

The research group will consist of a small, weekly 2-credit discussion seminar. Participants will be responsible for reading all assigned materials, analyzing ideas across texts, and actively participating in discussions.

The group is designed for graduate students and would be most appropriate for those who have already completed HCDE 501. Group size is limited. Meetings will be held Thursday afternoons. To request an add code, please contact Professor Zachry.