This is a page of notes, presentations and various things I've put together for friends and colleagues.
I work at Google.
I write. I analyze. I experiment. I do field studies and I try to understand what makes Google users tick.
Why do they sometimes query Google for [ first ], and then not click on anything?
Why do some Google users only ask one query, while others can go on and on? What's different about their search experiences?
Why?
How do Google users measure success? What constitutes failure? How can the search engine know in order to make the next time you search that much better?
Me, having fun, diving with a video camera, Utila, Bay Islands, Honduras
Most Recent Work (i.e., right now...)
I've been creating a Workshop for CHI 2008 on the topic of Sensemaking.
Official CHI 2008 Sensemaking Workshop Page
Recent Presentations
Basics of Internet Search. A hands-on class I give at Bay Area libraries, schools, etc. (2008)
Library Internet Search Skills presentation (PDF 3.5Mb)
How to be a super internet searcher--advanced. Presented at NASA Ames. (April 16, 2008)
Advanced Search Techniques (PDF 5.6Mb)
Presentation at FOO Camp in Sebastopol, CA (June 23, 2007) -
session on human attention, with Kathy Sierra and Linda Stone
How humans behave under high task interruption loads (PDF 1.1Mb)
Slides from my keynote at the Joint Conference on Digital Libraries (JCDL) (June 20, 2007)
Searching for the mind of the searcher (PDF 2.3Mb)
Slides from the Killam Lecture, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia (October 4, 2006)
What do people think about when they use search engines? (PDF 8.0Mb)
A presentation I gave at Stanford (PCD) on March 10th, 2006.
What do Google Searchers Think About? (PDF. 5.3Mb)
I co-chaired a minitrack for HICSS 2007 with Jonathan Grudin. Here's the CFP:
HICSS 40 CFP for New Information Technology: Ways & Means (link)
For 2008, Fernanda Viegas and Karrie Karahalios have picked up this minitrack. Please see:
HCISS 41 Minitrack on "Social Spaces: Production and consumption of good in digital collectives"
Essays
Running the Boston Marathon-1993 Running a marathon isn't just about pain,
but it makes a different way of seeing the world
Trip report from CSCW 2006 My thoughts about the conference (PDF 3.5Mb)
Diving the Channel Islands Diving the Channel islands as ecstatic experience
Visiting Falling Water Seeing Frank Lloyd Wright's house for the first time
Life dot plots A simple visualization of your life--one day = 1 dot. It all fits on 1 slide.
Book Recommendations
I seem to have become the scribe for irregularly scheduled book club meetings. Here are the last few times I've sat down with good friends in a nice restaurant and we've talked about books.
HICSS Book Club Recommendations 2005 (Kona, Hawaii)
HICSS Book Club Recommendations 2006 (Poipu Hawai'i)
HICSS Book Club Recommendations 2007 (Kona, Hawai'i)
HCIC Book Club Recommendations 2007 (Tabernash, CO)
INTERACT Book Club Recommendations 2007 (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil)
Recent & Interesting Papers
Beymer, D., Russell, D. M., Orton, P.Z. An Eye Tracking Study of How Font Size and Type Influence Online Reading, HCI 2008 Conference, Liverpool, UK (September, 2008) PDF-202Kb
Summary: An eye tracking study of how font size and font type affect online reading. A between-subjects design (N= 82) comparing a variety of point sizes, san serif, and serif fonts. Reading statistics such as reading speed were computed, and post-tests of comprehension were recorded. For smaller font sizes, fixation durations are significantly longer, resulting in slower reading – but not significantly slower. While there were no significant differences in serif vs. san serif fonts, serif reading was slightly faster. Significant eye tracking differences were found for demographic variables such as age group and whether English is the subject’s first language.
Beymer, D., Russell, D. M., Orton, P.Z. An Eye Tracking Study of How Pictures Influence Online Reading, INTERACT Conference, Rio de Janerio, Brazil (September, 2007) PDF-515Kb
Grimes, C., Tang, D., Russell, D. M. Query logs alone are not enough WWW 2007, Workshop on Query Logs Analysis: Social and Technological Challenges, Banff, Canada (May, 2007) PDF-288Kb
Lam, H., Russell, D. M., Tang, D.,Munzner, T., “Session Viewer: supporting visual exploratory analysis of web session logs” Accepted to VAST-2007, Sacramento, CA. (October, 2007)
Orton, P. Z., Beymer, D., Russell, D. M., “Computer text line lengths affect reading and learning” Training and Development Journal (2007)
Russell, D. M., Grimes, C. Assigned and self-chosen tasks are not the same in web search Proceedings of the 40th Annual International Conference on Systems & Software, HICSS 2007, Kona, Hawai’i, (Jan, 2007)
Russell, D. M., Card, S., Pirolli, P., Stefik, M. The cost structure of sensemaking, Proc. of CHI 1993 (1993) (PDF 237Kb)