Abstract

Collaborative activities such as boardgaming or reading play an important role in people’s social experience, in both in-person and remote settings. Especially during computer-mediated communication, these activities can improve the quality of connection and help overcome barriers such as lacking common context when using traditional communication technology. My research focuses on using technology to support collaborative activities through multimodal technologies, and I present examples from my recent research work that focus on social settings. First, I investigated how people adapted to technology-facilitated tabletop gaming with their family members and friends during the COVID-19 pandemic. Second, after understanding the community’s needs for intergenerational connections, I built and evaluated a tablet-based collaborative reading system to further the understanding of technology needs. With these examples, I will discuss directions for future research in designing technologies to support people’s collaborative activities and social connections.

Bio

Dr. Irene Ye Yuan is a postdoctoral fellow with Connections Lab at Simon Fraser University in the School of Interactive Arts and Technology. She received her Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Minnesota and her Master’s degree in Human-Computer Interaction and Design from the University of Washington. Her research falls primarily in the area of Human-Computer Interaction, focusing on Social Computing and Computer-Supported Cooperative Work. Her papers have received two CHI Honorable Mention awards, an IMWUT Distinguished Paper award, and an IDC Best Paper award. Her work involves designing technological interventions that address real-world needs and evaluating them using a balance of qualitative and quantitative methods. Some of her recent work focuses on supporting technology-facilitated collaborative reading and play for social connections.