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CV of Blair Nonnecke
Room 314, Reynolds Building
Dept. of Computing and Information Science
University of Guelph
Guelph, ON N1G 2W1
email: nonnecke@cis.uoguelph.ca
www: http://www.uoguelph.ca/~nonnecke
phone: (519) 824-4120 ext. 56407
fax: (519) 837-0323
PROFILE
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Blair
Nonnecke is an academic and usability professional with a
particular interest in user-centred design (UCD) and online
communities. In 1998, he joined the faculty of the University
of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC) as a Research Assistant
in the Information Systems department. His research focused
on lurkers in online communities and became the basis of his
Ph.D. A two-pronged approach was taken to understand lurking.
The first studied lurking through a series of open-ended interviews
with online group members and focused on why lurkers lurk
and what they do. The second provided insight into how many
lurkers are out there and consisted of a three month demographic
survey of 109 email-based discussion lists.
After leaving UMBC
in April 2000, Blair became the Director of Usability at Maptuit
Corp. A partial list of his responsibilities included: WAP
user-interface architecture, requirements analysis, competitive
reviews, discount usability, expert review, and research into
online maps and directions.
Prior to joining
UMBC, Blair consulted in human-computer interaction (HCI),
first with IF InterFace in Ottawa (1992) and then as a partner
in Convivia Interaction Design, Inc. (1995). During this time,
he worked on a wide variety of projects ranging from user-interface
evaluation and design (Nortel) to UCD process review (Bank
of Montreal). He is well acquainted with the issues of incorporating
HCI into software engineering and marketing processes. Essential
to incorporation is understanding the needs of the various
players (end-users, developers, marketing, support, technical
writers, and maintainers) and effectively communicating their
needs through reports, facilitation, tutorials and presentations.
His interest in people and his training in the technical aspects
of both computers and HCI were invaluable to this process.
After completing an undergraduate
degree in computer science (1983), Blair worked as a software
engineer specializing in both C and assembler development
of real-time software in telephony systems (ITT). He then
joined the HCI Design Lab (University of Guelph) as a researcher
and lab manager. During this time, he also worked as a teaching
assistant and started a part-time M.Sc. Research focused on
the study of navigation in IBM's suite of online document
tools. This work contributed to the ongoing evolution of the
products being studied and became the basis for his thesis.
As a result of this work, Blair received an IBM Research Fellowship
in 1991. This was followed by a Visiting Research Fellowship
at The Open University (UK). On returning to the HCI Design
Lab on a part-time basis, he investigated character entry
on pen-based computers.
Blair is a team player who has effectively
taken on leadership roles on numerous occasions. This ties
in strongly with his primary goal of being involved in a thriving
and creative community. Apart from his personal and professional
interests in HCI, Blair is passionate about photography, carpentry
and mountain biking. He has bicycle toured in Europe, North
America and New Zealand, and hopes to canoe the Mackenzie
River sometime in the future.
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EDUCATION
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Ph.D.
Computer Science, South Bank University, London, UK (March
2000) Lurkers in email-based discussion lists
M.Sc. Computer Science,
University of Guelph (1992)
Usage monitors as exploratory tools in the study of online
documentation
Honours B.Sc. Equivalent.
Computer Science, University of Guelph (1983)
Honours B.Sc. Physical Science, minor in Chemistry, University
of Guelph (1979)
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POSITIONS HELD
Education:
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Associate Professor
Computing and Information Science., University of Guelph
(2001-present)
- web surveys of online communities and their lurkers
- taught Systems Analysis and Design, Software Engineering,
and HCI
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Visiting Researcher
Information Systems, University of Maryland Baltimore County
(1998-2000)
- researched lurkers in online communities (towards Ph.D.)
- lectured on usability and design as applied to online
communities
(course consisted of M.Sc. and Ph.D. students)
- evaluated online-community projects developed by graduate
students
- tutored Ph.D. students in the area of HCI and provided
guidance for their special topics courses
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Corporate:
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Director
of Usability
Maptuit Corp., Toronto, Ontario (2000-2001)
- responsible for UI design and usability of Web and mobile
services
- integration of usability into software development process
- application of a wide range of usability techniques
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HCI Consulting:
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Partner
Convivia Interaction Design Inc., Guelph, Ontario
(1995-1998)
- completed a wide range of HCI projects (see list of projects
below)
- clients included Nortel, IBM, Televitesse & BMO
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User-Interface
Consultant
IF InterFace Consulting Inc., Ottawa, Ontario
(1992-1995)
- carried out a wide range of HCI projects for a variety
of clients (see list of projects below)
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Research:
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Visiting
Research Fellow
Computer Science Dept., The Open University, UK (1992-1993)
- reviewed current design practices in multimedia
- investigated design methods for multimedia-based teaching
materials that incorporate users' questions
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IBM
Research Fellow
IBM's Center for Advanced Studies, Toronto (1991)
- designed and implemented keystroke logging for IBM's
online document tools
- carried out a series of usability studies of IBM's online
document tools
- developed recommendations for technical writers having
to create online content
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HCI
Design Lab Manager
Computing and Information Science, University of Guelph
(1987-1992)
- researched usability of online documentation
- researched input methods for pen-based computers
- worked as a teaching assistant in software engineering
and HCI courses
- mentored undergraduate and M.Sc. students
- coordinated research projects
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Development:
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Software
Engineer
ITT, PBX Design Group, Guelph, Ontario (1983-1986)
- analyzed and designed real-time software systems (private
branch telephone exchanges)
- worked in Intel assembler, C & PLM
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PUBLICATIONS
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Online
Communities
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Nonnecke, B., & Preece, J. (2002). Silent participants: Getting
to know lurkers better. In C. Lueg & D. Fisher (Eds.),
From Usenet to CoWebs: Interacting with Social Information
Spaces, Springer.
Andrews, D., Nonnecke, B., & Preece, J. (revised and submitted) Electronic
Survey Methodology: A Case study in Reaching Hard-to-Involve
Internet Users. International Journal of Human-Computer
Interaction.
Nonnecke, B., & Preece, J. (2001). Why lurkers lurk. Americas Conference
on Information Systems 2001. 1520-1530. Boston.
Andrews, D., Nonnecke, B, & Preece, J. (2001). Web Based Surveys:
Exploring Design and Implementation Issues. 2nd International Conference of the Association of Internet Researchers.
50-64. Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota.
Nonnecke, B., & Preece, J. (2000). Lurker demographics: Counting the
silent. Proceedings of CHI 2000. 73-80. The Hague,
Netherlands: ACM.
Nonnecke, B., & Preece, J. (2000). Persistence and lurkers: A pilot
study. Proceedings of HICSS-33. 367-377. Maui, Hawaii
Nonnecke, B., & Preece, J. (1999). Shedding light on lurkers in online
communities. Proceedings of Ethnographic Studies in Real
and Virtual Environments: Inhabited Information Spaces and
Connected Communities, 123-128. Edinburgh.
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Design
Methods
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Nonnecke, B., Jacques,
R., McKerlie, D., & Preece, J. (1995). Video-based hypermedia:
Guiding design with users' questions. The New Review of
Hypermedia and Multimedia: Applications and Research,
1, pp 185-197.
Jacques, R., Nonnecke,
B., McKerlie, D., & Preece, J. (1993). Current designs
in HyperCard: What can we learn? Journal
of Educational Multimedia and Hypermedia , 2, 219-238.
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Input
methods
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MacKenzie, S., Nonnecke,
B., McQueen, C., Riddersma, S., & Meltz, M. (1994). A
comparison of three methods of character entry on pen-based
computers. Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society 38th Annual
Meeting, pp 330-334. Santa Monica, CA: Human Factors Society.
MacKenzie, S., Nonnecke,
B., Riddersma, S., McQueen, C., & Meltz, M. (1994). Alphanumeric
entry on pen-based computers. International Journal of
Human-Computer Studies, 41, 775-792.
McQueen, C., MacKenzie,
S., Nonnecke, B., & Riddersma, S. (1994). A comparison
of four methods of numeric entry on pen-based computers. Proceedings
of Graphics Interface '94, pp. 75-82. Toronto: Canadian
Information Processing Society.
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Online
documents
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Lungu,
D., Nonnecke, B., Carey, T., & Mitterer, J. (1992). The
role of indices in online information, Proceedings of IEEE
International Professional Communication Conference, Santa
Fe, NM.
Carey,
T., Nonnecke, B. , Mitterer, J. & Lungu, D. (1992). Prospects
for active help in online documentation.
Proceedings of ACM SIGDOC Conference, Ottawa.
Hendry,
D., Nonnecke, B., Carey, T., Mitterer, J., Sobiesiak, R.,
& Lungu, D. (1991). How people use softcopy documentation:
A case study. Proceedings of International
Professional Communication Conference, Vol. 2, pp. 221-224.
Orlando, Florida: Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers,
Inc.
Hendry,
D., Nonnecke, B., Lungu, D., Carey, T., Mitterer, J., and
Sobiesiak, R., (1990). Writing with the BookManager program
in mind: Examples, summary of use and writing advice. IBM
Technical Report TR 74.063. Toronto. IBM Canada Ltd.
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HCI
CONSULTING PROJECTS
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Education
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Developed usability
content for an in-house HCI training tool, Learning About
User-centered Design (LAUD) for Bank of Montreal (1997)
Developed evaluation
criteria for multimedia-based training materials for Knowledge
Connection Corporation (1996)
Edited and developed
HCI training materials for the European Union COMETT project
at South Bank University and the Art of Memory (1995)
Evaluated multimedia
authoring packages for Knowledge Connection Corporation (1995,
1996)
Developed and carried
out one-day design tutorial on form-based user interfaces
for Bank of Montreal (1994)
Developed and carried
out one-day tutorial on usability methods for Bank of Montreal
(1994)
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Requirements
analysis
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Analyzed and developed
requirements for the University of Waterloo's Distance Education
Web site (1998)
Analyzed user requirements
and provided design input for the Tri-University Group of
Libraries home page (1998)
Determined usability
requirements and high level design for a Web-based course
calendar (Office of Open Learning, University of Guelph).
Implementation of the design incorporated iterative evaluation
based on usage scenarios developed during the usability requirements
phase (1996)
Developed usability
requirements and high level design for Creative Options' Web-based
marketing site for safety and loss prevention (1996)
Assessed requirements
and developed user-interface specification for a set-top box
email system for Canada Post Corporation (1994-95)
Assessed usability,
and co-created the requirements definition and user-interface
design of multi-point capabilities for Nortel's VISIT Voice/Video
product (1993)
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Process
review
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Reviewed the user-centered
design process at the Bank of Montreal, with special emphasis
on improving current practice (1997-1998)
Reviewed user-interface
design process, facilitated requirements gathering, and provided
expertise in setting the user-interface standards for the
New York City 911 emergency call taking system for SHL System
House Corp (1995)
Prototyped an application
style guide and assessed the usability of user-interface prototypes
for the Bank of Montreal (1993)
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UI
evaluation
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Provided expert
usability review and user evaluation of Air Canada's Web-based
user interface for the sale of airline tickets (1997)
Performed user-interface
evaluation of an automated digital assistant designed to monitor
television signals for Televitesse Systems Inc. Assessment
concentrated on notification mechanisms, navigation models,
and end-user templates for automated filters (1996)
Assessed usability
of a form-based user interface for Nortel's Corporate Design
Group (1994)
Performed usability
assessment of hand-held portable computers and dispatch system
used by telephone installers and service technicians at Maritime
Telephone and Telegraph and New Brunswick Telephone, for Architel,
Mississauga (1993)
Assessed usability
and provided recommendations for a re-design for the Windows
version of the user interface of Omnipost, a service offered
by Canada Post Corporation combining email, fax, and long
distance laser printing (1993)
Assessed usability
of Nortel's VISIT Voice/Video product version 1.0 (1992)
Performed usability
assessment and made recommendations for re-design of the DOS
version of the user interface of Omnipost (1992)
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Design
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Performed a facelift
of the Canadian Medical Association's Web site, with primary
emphasis on improving navigation and visual design (1997)
Restructured, designed,
and produced work for IBM's Web internal sales/marketing Web
site (1996-1997)
Designed user interface
for CrossKeys Intranet Web site (1996)
Designed and produced
user interface for CrossKeys Internet Web site (1995)
Designed user interface
for network management tools for Oasis Technologies Ltd. (1995)
Evaluated the usability
and co-developed a user-interface specification for the Windows
version of Omnipost (1993)
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