Jennifer Rode
Location: (Philadelphia, PA)
Personal Research Web Page: http://www.ischool.drexel.edu/faculty/jrode
Keywords: Human Computer Interaction, Ubiquitous Computing, Ethnography, Theory, Values, Gender, Homes, Privacy, Security, User Experience, Participatory Design, Children, Usability Evauation
Posted on: Thursday, May 27th, 2010
Broad Research Area: HCI / CSCW, Information Assurance / Security / Privacy / Cryptography, Social Computing / Social Informatics
Research Interests:
My work centers on two areas:
1. Often domestic interactions involve technology and center around gender norms, which makes homes highly gendered spaces. Gender is critical not just in our interpersonal relationships but in how we interact with our environment. The objects and technologies in our homes themselves are gendered, and we respond to social norms regarding gender in our interactions with them. We have additional gender norms surrounding programming of technology devices in the work place, which in turn affect programming of these gendered technologies in the home. As we increasingly introduce programmable technologies into the home, gendered attitudes become enmeshed in how we discuss and use these technologies.
I use ethnographic approaches to create grounded theory that examine gender and domestic end-user programming for computer security, amongst other things. My work discusses how the relationship between technology and identity is negotiated, especially gendered identity and the presentation of an individual’s technical ability. Further, I explore what this negotiation process means for design and evaluation of new technologies.
2. I enjoy working with teams to engage in participatory design in the ubicomp and tangible computing space trying to take the next step beyond fieldwork to create prototypes and engage in iterative interface design. I believe there is work to be done to discuss how the UCD process for ubicomp differs from GUI design, and this needs to be documented and discussed further in the academic literature. This innovative work has led me to recognize the limited applicability of existing usability evaluation methods (UEM), which were largely developed for GUIs. Thus I have developed a strong interest in adapting existing techniques and establishing new methods for evaluating these emerging technologies.
Contact Information:
Via email please jar394@drexel.edu. Please email me a CV and a letter as to why you would like to work with me. Thank you!
