Blogs

Juan Hourcade

Juan Pablo Hourcade is an associate professor in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Iowa, focusing on human-computer interaction.


Designing the cognitive future, part iii: attention

Posted: Mon, January 13, 2014 - 12:37:38

In twoprevious postings, I began discussing how interactive technologies are affecting cognitive processes, and how they may do so in the future. I already discussed perception and memory. In this post, I discuss attention. Attention is a topic that has received a fair amount of notice recently, especially when it comes to interactive technologies and their role in distractions and…

CHI 2013 HCI for Peace Ideathon summary

Posted: Fri, August 02, 2013 - 2:56:52

For the past three years, members of the human-computer interaction community interested in using computing technologies to promote peace and prevent conflict have been meeting as part of HCI for Peace, a grassroots initiative. Our aim is to highlight and celebrate work already done to this end and to encourage further work with peace as its explicit goal. We hope…

Designing the cognitive future, part II: memory

Posted: Fri, April 05, 2013 - 2:59:01

In these posts I’ve been discussing how interactive technologies are affecting our cognitive processes, and exploring how they may do so in the future. In the previous post I discussed perception. In this post I discuss memory. Interactive technologies are already changing the things we need to remember. Phone numbers, email addresses, and directions can now be easily retrieved. The…

Designing the cognitive future (part I)

Posted: Tue, March 05, 2013 - 10:26:08

We are designing the cognitive future and most of the time we don’t even realize it. We are changing the way cognitive processes work in people who use the technologies we design, from perception to memory, attention, learning, communication, and social cognition. In fact, we may be seeing the beginnings of one of the largest shifts in cognition brought about…

Communicating with young people suffering from stress

Posted: Fri, December 21, 2012 - 2:28:21

Part of the discussion in the days following the horrible massacre in Newtown, Connecticut has involved how to manage the behavior of young people who feel anxious or stressed. This can be particularly difficult when the young women and men have trouble communicating due to a developmental disorder. The overwhelming majority of these teens and young adults will never physically…