I am currently a Master's student under supervision of Michael Terry in the Human-Computer Interaction Lab at the University of Waterloo. In September 2010 I will be starting a PhD at the University of Washington in Computer Science & Engineering (also studying Human-Computer Interaction).
Much of my research to date has focused on developing alternative interfaces for software license agreements. Less than 2% of people read software license agreements, despite the potential negative effects this can have on their machine (for example, adverse effects on privacy and security caused by the installation of spyware). One of my projects, textured agreements, attempts to address this issue by using visual design to improve readability and compel people to read.
Translation and localization of license agreements presents additional issues, particularly for researchers with limited resources who are conducting studies over the Internet. Another of my projects, narrative pictograms, is a near-wordless pictorial technique designed to supplement text-based software agreements in order to help communicate agreement terms to a linguistically diverse audience.
