Stephen (Steve) Voida

Research Interests:

I conduct research in human- computer interaction (HCI), at the intersection of personal management, user interface design, ubiquitous computing, and computer- supported cooperative work. The focus of my research is to better understand and develop solutions for the widespread problem of information overload. As the ubiquitous computing visions of computation everywhere and pervasive access to electronic information become more of a mainstream reality, it is now possible for people to make use of electronic information across multiple forms factors, in more places, as apart of more activities, and in more social contexts than ever before. This is the crux of the information overload problem: with a vast increase in exposure to information, there is a corresponding increase in the amount of extra work needed to keep up with the demands of perceiving, sense making, organizing , utilizing, and managing that data over long term. 

I take two complimentary approaches in my research: First, I design and implement interfaces and interaction techniques to support information work, re-examining the metaphors employed in existing computing technologies. Second- and more directly relevant to my application for affiliation with CU's Institute of Cognitive Science - I ground my design research in theories of human cognition )e.g.. activity theory, distributed cognition) and empirical studies of real-world work practices, and I conduct new empirical studied in the pace of information management and collaborative sense making.