I was awarded a travel grant through the Informatics Women in Science Program!

This grant will aid in funding my trip to Austin, TX for CHI2012 where I will be attending the Technology for Today’s Family workshop to discuss my work on divorce.

Indiana University wrote up a very nice release about my NSF Fellowship award. Pretty awesome! You can read it here.

So much to say! So much to do! So little time!

The end of the semester always seems to be a mad rush to finish papers and projects and wrap everything up before graduation and the start of the semester. This April is proving to be no different! The spring weather here has been pretty typical for Indiana — beautiful some days and cold and rainy others. The good days seem to make it even harder to focus on the mountain of work I have to do. There are only 23 days until graduation (21 until my capstone presentation)!

Undergraduate Graduation. Had to stand out from the other several thousand students graduating that day!

I don’t have time to give a full update on everything, and I have an entire list and several outlines of posts I am meaning to make. It might be difficult to get to before the end of the semester but here is a quick run down on things that have happened or that I want to write in depth about in the future:

• Have I *officially* announced that I am joining IU’s PhD program for HCI? I don’t think I have…well, I am and I couldn’t be happier!
• I attended the CRA-W Graduate Cohort in Boston. I have so so so much to say about this event and about Boston. I tend to have some pretty strong, and sometimes controversial, opinions about women in computing groups. This came up a bit while at the event but I truly enjoyed it. I learned a ton and was able to meet some incredible women. I’ll write an extended post on this (hopefully) soon.
• Lots of capstone progress but lots more work to be done! Expect to start seeing more on this as well. If you are in Bloomington, my presentation is scheduled for May 4th at 7pm in Informatics.
• Decided that trying to set up meetings with researchers you admire is a bit like dating. I sent out some emails to a professor and some graduate students doing work related to mine that I would like to meet with at CHI; I’ve never met any of them before but I figured reaching out couldn’t hurt. After sending out emails to these people, I sat at my inbox just staring, waiting, and hoping for a reply. I felt like I was waiting by the phone for my crush to call and ask me to prom or something. Hitting refresh on the page every few minutes could be compared to picking up the phone receiver to be sure there was a dial tone. I’m beyond excited that I am meeting with some of these researchers; I won’t lie, I was pretty giddy throughout the whole process.
• Still coming down from Cloud 9. The reality of receiving an NSF Fellowship still doesn’t seem quite real.
• You should probably read this: Don’t be a Chicken. Samantha has it right. Not being a chicken is something I’ve been trying to work on in all aspects of my life lately.
• I’m trying to figure out my summer plans. I know I’ll be spending some time back in Cincinnati taking care of some family stuff but other than that I am not sure. I know I’ll be continuing to look at divorce/HCI — the question is where? Bloomington? Cincinnati? Florida? Bay Area? All seem to be options right now; all are lovely choices to have.
• I have a love/hate relationship with Facebook chat. Longer post on this later. (maybe).
• I’ve ordered some really great products off of Etsy recently; I’ve been on a total lavender kick lately. I hope to review them here at some point. In the mean time check out Urban Kitchen and Oak Street Candles
• Lots of other projects going on as well. I was thinking about typing something up on each of them but then I realized that I should get back to work instead of just talking about them and what I have to do.
• Speaking of to-do…I usually dislike electronic to-do lists. I prefer paper based lists and I tend to have list of lists. Yes, I am that sort of list-maker. However, I LOVE Droplist. It is fantastic and it can sync with my Dropbox. If you aren’t using either/both of these services, you should be!

Well, there you have it. I successfully was able to procrastinate for a good 20 minutes by writing this post! I am still trying to get about one post in a week but with all the other writing due at the end of this month I might just have to make up for it later.

This morning I received an email from the National Science Foundation (NSF) awarding me a Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP) Fellowship.

The fellowship will be used to further my exploration of domestic technologies and family communication with in post-divorce families. It will build on the work I have done with my capstone and include cross-cultural studies. The fellowship will begin this summer and include 3 years of funding, totaling approximately $90,000.

I am so excited and grateful for this opportunity. A big thanks to my wonderful advisor, Dr. Shaowen Bardzell, for all of her help and support . Also thanks to Dr. Jeffery Bardzell, Dr. Eli Blevis, Dr. Erik Stolterman, Dr. Marty Siegel, my family, and my friends (especially CJ Page) who gave me coffee and moral support while writing the application.

Lucky me! I was able to visit two places for Spring Break this year. First Las Vegas and then New York/New Jersey.

View of the city from CJ's apartment

My good friend, CJ Page, recently took a job in Hoboken, NJ. Spring break seemed like a great time to go visit him, other friends, and a new city! It seemed like everyone was in the area for spring break: several students from my HCI/d program were there, some HCI/d alum, friends from high school, friends from my freshman year dorm — crazy! I was able to spend 3.5 days visiting the area and packed a lot into the weekend. I stayed on the New Jersey side but went to the city pretty much every day I was there.

I bet you can’t guess what comes next. Yep, that’s right – my list of things I did on my trip:

• Got in the night of St. Patrick’s Day. Ate mexican food and drank a margarita. How very Irish of me.
• Navigated public transportation to meet up with my friend Paul, who knows New York quite well and took me on a walking tour all over Manhattan. I’m not even going to attempt to list everything I saw…
• Ate some amazing mac and cheese at The Green Table inside Chelsea Market
• Went to Times Square, of course!
  

  Times Square with Paul

• Walked along the High Line – A great use for an elevated, abandoned train route
• Saw the main library which had an absolutely beautiful reading room
• Got lost in Brooklyn, twice. Was given directions from a wonderful woman named Lisa who owns Brooklyn Nuts. We talked for a while about Etsy.
• Spent a good 2 hours meeting with people at Etsy Headquarters. I can’t tell you how amazing this was. We met to talk about the work we are doing on Etsy in HCI/d. Their offices are amazing; even all of the desks are handmade by Etsy sellers. I’m really looking forward to working with them as we move forward in our research.
  

  Etsy walls are crafty!

• Was able to attend the Etsy & NASA Space Craft Contest where I saw some amazing pieces and met some astronauts!
• Since Etsy was right around the corner from his office at Big Spaceship, I met up with with HCI/d alum, Thalith Nasir . Played with a 3d printer and was introduced to “The Most Awesomest Thing Ever”. Pretty cool offices!
• Ate some fancy pizza at Franny’s with CJ
• CJ and I met up with Thalith, and Apurva Pangam for drinks. Lots of HCI talk, lots of fun. This included a quest for more pizza.
  

  IU HCI/d meet up over pizza

• Did some shopping in Chinatown. I had to buy another one of my infamous, obnoxiously large pink purses. My first wore out after being well-loved for over a year and the second, although in good shape, did not fit my laptop. So now I have 2 of my signature accessories!
• Took the Staten Island Ferry
  

  Hudson River with my wonderful host, CJ

• Drank some fancy tea at Ele
• Ate a huge and fantastic burger with CJ at Smith’s Bar
• Went to the Hershey store in Times Square. Fed my Reeses obsession.
• Saw the Statue of Liberty
  

  Chilly day to be sailing!

• Checked out Tiffany’s (and other shops) on 5th ave. I’m just a sucker for Tiffany’s Frank Gehry Collection, (specifically the Torque Rings).
• Saw the outskirts of little Italy
• Ate some more great food, of course
• Took a really nice walk in Central Park
• Explored MoMA, twice. The first time CJ and I got there 30 minutes before they closed so we saw the contemporary arts floor. I still don’t see how blinds on the floor is art, but thats just me. Contemporary art just isn’t my thing. We also did a quick walk through the design floor. The second time, I went with Paul and we saw some of the other exhibits.
• Saw 30 Rock. I love that show!
• Here is a good story for you: If you’ve been to NYC, I am sure you’ve seen people selling knock-off bags on the street laid out in sheets which then work to carry the bags. Thalith, CJ, and I had just eaten at Kati Roll and were walking to the tea shop. It is around 9pm. We come across a group of these sellers at an intersection. As we are walking buy, a man runs up to these sellers yelling “The cops are coming!!” The sellers start frantically scoping up the purses into the sheets, slinging them over their shoulders, and running. Purses start falling out of one seller’s sheet-bag as he runs through the intersection. The next thing we know he has dropped his entire sheet of bags. Louis Vuitton and Channel knock-offs are scattered in the middle of the crosswalk and the man has disappeared, sprinting down the street. About 30 seconds pass and everyone around has stopped and is staring at the pile of purses. The next thing you know, women are scrambling in the street picking up these purses! I did not get one of them but it was pretty crazy and hilarious!

Oh, I am sure there are many many things I missed on this list. It is a very fast-paced city! The one thing I wanted to do but didn’t get a chance to do was see a Broadway show. Having been a huge theatre geek most of my life, seeing a show will be top priority for next trip!

Thank you so much to all my friends who took me around your city. You guys are great and I can’t wait until my next visit to the Big Apple!

My youngest sister, Erin, pointed out to me that I am now in the “18th grade”. That’s a lot of school! One of the best parts about being a student is the the breaks we get.

Homecoming 2003

John and I met around Summer 2003 while working our high school jobs at local pizza place in Cincinnati called Italianette. We quickly became extremely close and dated for the second half of high school.

By 2005, we each went our separate ways. John  joined the Air Force as a firefighter and was deployed overseas for several years whileI left for school at IU. We remain really close friends, visit each other when possible, and have yet to get into an argument.

John moved to Las Vegas a few months ago for a firefighting job when his Air Force contract was up and he decided to work as a civilian. Having never been to the city and seeing as I was long over due to visit him, it seemed like a perfect weekend trip.

So, much like I did for San Francisco, here is a list of some of what I experienced in my 2.5 short days in Las Vegas:

• Attended Brew’s Best Beer Fest. We sampled a good number of beers, saw some local art/crafts, and listened to some bands play. My favorite beers of the afternoon include: Big Dog’s Brewing Company’s Dog House Dunkelweizen, Gordon Biersch Brewery’s Hefeweizen, and Chicago Brewing Company’s Weizenheimer Wheat South Germen Hefeweizen.
  

  Brew's Best

• Ate at Brazilian Steakhouse, Texas de Brazil. You can’t beat a filet wrapped in bacon…
• Experienced a SmashBurger.
• Ate chocolate frozen yogurt with Reese’s for breakfast. Who needs Wheaties when you can have chocolate?!
• Walked up and down the strip stopping in many of the casinos
• Read through old love letters we wrote each other in high school. Pretty hilarious stuff.
• Lots and lots of window shopping
• Some actual shopping
• Went to Fremont Street
• Took photos with street performers
  

  Pretty awesome

• Took photos with wax figures
• Took other really cheesy, embarrassing, and touristy photos
• Saw Cirque du Soleil’s Zumanity at New York, New York
• Ate at an amazing tapas restaurant – Firefly
• Didn’t loose any money gambling
• Didn’t win any money gambling. I was lucky enough to break even!
• Went swimming!

I loved wandering around and in the casinos. In our HCI program we’ve talked a lot about designing experiences, particularly in venue’s such as museums. I think casinos are another great case study for looking at designing experiences.

The trip was so much fun. Las Vegas is an exhausting city but I am so glad I was able to visit.

When I started my capstone project on divorce I knew it would be a difficult space in which to work. Divorce it self has so many subtopics, and even in narrowing my project scope to scheduling the topic can still be viewed as a “Wicked Problem.” This is also the first large and independent research project for me; I am still inexperienced and only beginning my journey as a researcher.

Although I assumed recruiting participants would be difficult, I underestimated the challenge. I have reached out to over 400 families in hopes of willing participants without much luck at all. I also expanded my target group to reach similar demographics as my initial participant group was unreasonably narrow for this project. I also limited the methods I would be using for my study to a more reasonable and manageable plan. Despite this, my recruiting attempts have, for the most part, been frustrating and felt like failures. Having been working on this project for some time now, I’ve come across a number of difficult issues, but from them I have learned a lot about recruiting and research in general that will help me move forward in this, and other, research projects:

1. Never take participants for granted: As an undergraduate and throughout the first year of the master program here, I was grateful for anyone who would spare some time to help with a research or usability test. However, having struggled to find participants I see each person willing to take the time to help a researcher, particularly a graduate student without the means to give many incentives, as a gift. It really is wonderful that there are people, especially those who have no obligation to you, to help with research. I am so grateful for each person who is generous enough to help with my study and will continue to treat each one as a gift.
2. Reach out to advisors: As I mentioned earlier, I am still relatively inexperienced in terms of being a researcher, particularly on an independent project. I am so fortunate to have Dr. Shaowen Bardzell as my advisor for this project. She has been invaluable to me as I’ve been working on this project. Keeping open lines of communication with her has helped me overcome many of these issues. Additionally, Dr. Erik Stolterman and Dr. Marty Siegel, as the professors in charge of the masters capstone course, have given me great advice. I feel extremely fortunate to be in a program that has such supportive, knowledgeable, and available faculty members. The other faculty members, Dr. Jeff Bardzell and Dr. Eli Belvis have also been extremely supportive. I think some of the issues I faced could have been lessened had I reached out to them a bit sooner than I did. This is a good lesson moving forward: be sure to keep communication with those more experienced than you open, and don’t be afraid to ask questions!
3. Always be planning ahead: As with most any project, there will be roadblocks, unforeseen issues, and difficulties. I did not anticipate the amount of time it would take to get my research plan approved through the Institutional Review Board or the recruiting roadblocks I have faced. In the future, I’ll try and consider these difficulties in advance and plan for them. Having a “plan B” and now having gone through the process will help me in the future.
4. Don’t underestimate the resources needed to recruit: Recruit early, recruit often, and recruit constantly. It is unreasonable to think that sending an email to a listserv is all you need to do. I’ve learned that recruiting takes a lot of resources: time, effort, materials, and networking. Although I knew I would have to be proactive and work to recruit, I underestimated how much it would take. In the future, I’ll be sure have my “30-second research commercial” ready to go at the drop of a hat, I will plan for the amount of resources needed to be proactively recruiting. I will be sure to reach out to my network, as you never know who has connections and resources to assist you.

I now have a new plan for recruiting and some modified methods. I am quite happy with my recent progress, despite some set backs. Some of my initial goals have been revisited and made a bit more…realistic. I have had some recent luck in finding participants and with my new plan I am confident that I can get back on track and finish this year (and degree!) with a strong, successful project that will help lay the ground work as I pursue a Ph.D.

Fail Early, Fail Often!

At many points, I have felt frustrated, defeated, and like a failure. However, although these feelings might be valid at certain points, I’ve learned an incredible amount. I am grateful for those who have supported me and helped me along the way. I know that moving forward I now have some great experience under my belt and I feel more confident as a direct result of my “failures.” I’m excited to continue on this journey.

In high school, I kept and updated a blog daily for over 3 years. As other things crept into my life, I no longer wrote about the drama and events of my teenage days. The habit died and so did my angst-filled livejournal account.

Towards the end of my undergraduate career, I thought about starting a blog again. I wanted a blog that touched on both personal and more professional topics; I wanted it to be part of my online identity. However, I never really got back into regular writing like I had in high school. I tried multiple times on multiple platforms. In some classes it was a requirement to blog for coursework. However, it’s always seemed like a requirement or chore.

I took some time to reflect on why writing in a blog is so difficult for me want to do. Once I write a post, and it is published, I feel good! I like reading blogs, especially blogs that are updated regularly. I am at no shortage of ideas for blog posts, and sometimes I star class notes that spark an and I’ll write outlines on post-it notes. Although writing might not be my strongest skill, I don’t necessarily struggle with it. I just struggle to sit down and actually do it. Blogging regularly has been a goal for me at multiple points in my college and graduate school career. Honestly, it is something I really do want to do. So why? Why does it seem to still be a challenge for me?

I was brainstorming a few roadblocks, but they all just seemed like lame excuses:

• “I don’t have time” – Sure, as a graduate student I am busy. I have a habit of saying “Yes” to most opportunities that come my way and am actively working to prioritize and not overextend myself. That being said…I could stand to spend a bit less time on social networks, or watching hulu, or looking at cute kitten videos on youtube. Writing and reflection is important, especially due to my recent decision to pursue a Ph.D.I also used this excuse to get out of working out on a regular basis. However, when I started training for a triathlon and had a goal I was really excited about working towards, I was able to make the time. All it takes is making a goal a higher priority. Lame excuse, Katie.
• “No one cares what you write” – This one might be true; there are probably a very limited number of people who are honestly interested in the same topics I am. There are probably a handful who are curious or interested. Either way, so what?Writing should be for me.

  Even if writing is meant primarily for me, I think putting it in the public domain is helpful as well. By blogging about my research or about other things that interest me, I’ve been able to connect to people who are interested in similar topics. I’ve been able to share projects with others quickly, been introduced to related resources and topics, and some posts have been catalysis for some great conversations.

  I doubt many people really care about what I post as my Twitter and Facebook statuses, but goodness knows I update those multiple times a day!

• “You’ll embarrass yourself” – Probably, but I do that in real life everyday anyway! I am sure I do (and will) have posts with awful spelling and grammar errors. I am sure I’ll say something where I am completely wrong, ill-informed, or misinformed.

  A few years out of high school I went back and looked at my high school blog. Now that was embarrassing. I was full of angst and sharing details about dramatic breakups, friend fights, struggles getting along with my parents, and confessing my love about high school boyfriends (because, you know, I was definitely going to get married to each and every one of them). As an undergrad, I shared my desire to get back into blogging with my (now ex) boyfriend who responded, “Only lonely, friendless, unhappy, and pathetic girls blog. No one cares and they dont see how badly they are embarrassing themselves. I just laugh at them.” Unfortunately, this (completely erroneous) perception of bloggers kept me from wanting to blog for quite sometime.

  My response to this now is the same as above: who cares, so what, and there are some great benefits I get from blogging.

So, really, there is no good reason I am not blogging on a more regular basis. I’ve decided to get a goal for myself to update at least weekly.

I have a bunch of projects going on right now and can talk for hours on each of them. There is no shortage of content for me to ramble on about for paragraphs at a time. I’ve also made some big decisions in the last several months that are quite exciting.

I give you full permission to harass me if I don’t keep up with my goal.

For the last few days, I have been escaping the unpleasant Midwest winter by traveling to Orlando for Blur. In this post, I’d like to reflect on what I’ve learned and realized over the last two days and share my insights. Blur, an HCI conference focusing on technological innovation and hands-on interactions, was an amazing experience. Topics addressed at Blur were quite diverse including, but not limited to robotics, neuroergonimics, biometric inputs, affective and emotional computing, Kinect hacks, whole-body interaction, augmented reality, interactive museum design, geolocation, natural user interfaces (NUI), and commercialization of HCI projects. Attendees were a mix of industry and academia, startups and corporations. This allowed for diverse experiences and great conversation; I was exposed to many ideas, technologies, and people I otherwise would not have.

I definitely want to thank The Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation for the generous scholarship they awarded me and several other students to attend. Without them, I would’ve have had the opportunity to experience Blur. Additionally, the organizers of the event did a fantastic job. It ran so smoothly for being the first Blur Conference!

A new perspective on HCI

Really, this section could be about 20 pages long but I’ll try to keep it short!

Having been involved in HCI at Indiana University for the last 6 years as a student, I took for granted my understanding of HCI. Being in a university setting students and faculty often share a common understanding of the general principles of HCI. Since being introduced to the field, I’ve always tightly paired user centered design (UCD) and human computer interaction. However, in attending this conference, I’ve discovered that the community here has very different ideas about HCI. Seeing these different perspectives was really interesting and make me step back; defamiliarization anyone? I had a lot of questions about how other members of the community defined HCI. It was a question I wish I had asked other attendees. So, if you are reading this I’d really like to know how do you define HCI? What does HCI mean to you? Comments, please!?

There were some very interesting technologies and demos at this conference. I had a good number of conversations with those demoing these technologies about their design process and how their projects evolved. However, there was also a lot of products and demos that seemed to be technology rather than user driven. One of my favorite quotes from the conference was “Sometimes it feels like we’ve created a solution and are looking for a problem when we should take a problem and from there find a solution.” This struck a cord with me. I will evangelize user centered design any day and I find it to be extremely important. What role does technology-centered innovation or even hacking (such as Kinect hacks) play in HCI, specifically UCD? At IU, we talk a lot about the 3 paradigms (waves) of HCI [pdf]. I remember learning about this in class and wondering how much of these jumps stem from primary user research and how much stems from technological advancements, innovation, and capabilities? How can we leverage both of these approaches for the best possible products, research, and overall outcomes? I’d love to get a discussion going on this topic.

Number of female speakers

At the conference, I’d been following #blurcon on twitter. Brad Feld made a great observation:

@bfeld: very excited and intrigued by the # of women involved in HCI #ncwit #blurcon

Many of the keynote speakers were very inspiring women. I was particularly drawn to the work done by the women at MIT due to the connections I could make with my own research interests. Speakers I personally saw were:

• Dr. Kay Stanney from Design Interactive
• Dr. Cynthia Breazeal from the Personal Robotics Group at MIT
• Dr. Rosalind Picard from Affective Computing at MIT

In addition to speakers, there were some other amazing women that I met working in both industry and academia. It’s always good to see a good representation of both genders in technology and science fields! I hope this is a trend we continue to see in this field.

IU is awesome

I love IU, this is not a secret. I really feel so privileged and lucky to be a part of the School of Informatics and Computing and even more so the Human Computer Interaction Design program. I’m not going to go on about this but being at Blur gave me a renewed sense of pride about our school and program.

Some possible suggestions for future conferences

Again, I’d like to stress what a great program Blur had this year. Here are a few suggestions that I might like to see at a conference like Blur in the future:

• A discussion or panel on defining and understanding HCI: What are different perspectives of the field? Where is it going? How do we define it? We don’t need to come to an agreement, but it would be interesting to discuss different perspectives and ideas about the field.
• A discussion or panel on considering the ethical and social implications of technology: This actually comes about from a discussion had after the first day of the conference, so I can’t take credit for it although I think it is extremely important. Any technology or design is likely to be used for unintended purposes. How can we consider these? Can we design to help control or minimize abuse and negative consequences of technology? Who is responsible for these uses? Investors? Designers? Engineers? Users? All of the above? What does that mean for each of these roles?
• User Centered Design and Design process: I’d love to see more on this! Some of the speakers and panels definitely talk about it this year. What if there were some keynotes or breakout sessions on the 3 waves of HCI, user centered design process, etc?

Quotes to note

“Our business model is that we sell things to customers and they pay us money”

“Any tool can be used for good or evil, but we shouldn’t stop trying to make the tools for good”

“location is currency”

“What if your computer could apologize?
if (user.frustrated == true>)
{
Apologize ();
}”

I had a great time at Blur. Thanks to everyone who made it such a great experience!

I went out in downtown Indianapolis to celebrate New Years with friends. It was a great time. One of my favorite things about holidays and special occasions is seeing what other people wear. While out, I fell in love with a ring that a woman out with us was wearing. It was simple, silver, and unique. It was a cube.

Cube Metal Ring by Cheap Monday (for purchase here or here)

I’ve always loved unique silver rings. One of my favorite accessories is a square band ring from Tiffany and Co. I absolutely adore it and it fits better than most of my normal round band rings. I’m also a huge fan of the torque rings from the Frank Gehry collection.

I was curious to see what other square band rings I could find so I turned to my dear friend, Etsy. Here are a few of my favorite finds:

Sterling Circle on Square Ring by JenLawlerDesigns:

Sterling Circle on Square Ring

Silver Personalized Square Rings by JenLawlerDesigns:

Silver Personalized Square rings

Double Squared Silver Band byJenLawlerDesigns:

Double Squared Silver Band

Square Diamond Ring in Sterling Silver by JulietJewlery:

Square Diamond Ring in Sterling Silver

Geometric Square Ring by tamaraengel

Geometric Square Ring

CMD-R00029 by Colleen Mauer Designs:

CMD-R00029

If you’re thinking about buying a square ring, be sure to consider the size carefully. Usually with uniquely shaped bands I tend to go up 1/2 to a full a ring size.

Also, if you are looking for more on fashion and/or Etsy finds, check out The Buescher Project. Hannah’s great at finding unique pieces and trends.