https://cayley.info Cayley MacArthur Fri, 18 Dec 2020 15:13:34 +0000 https://cayley.info en https://cayley.info/Home-Image-Scroll Tue, 25 Jun 2019 17:32:38 +0000 Cayley MacArthur https://cayley.info/Home-Image-Scroll ︎Teaching Philosophy Research Statement Curriculum Vitae I am an Assistant Professor in Interaction Design and User Experience Research at the Stratford School of Interaction Design and Business, University of Waterloo. I recently received my PhD in Systems Design Engineering, where I specialized in Human-Computer Interaction, from the University of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. I am also a User Experience Researcher with over 6 years’ experience in industry and freelancing contexts. No content on this site has been updated since 2021. Just saying. Want to know what I’m up to? Get in touch! <img width="1406" height="931" width_o="1406" height_o="931" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/9a4a7f0357f1897442198b12665a364b5b45da674b1f329057219a8686aceae8/Screen-Shot-2023-03-21-at-11.06.23-AM.png" data-mid="173428855" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/9a4a7f0357f1897442198b12665a364b5b45da674b1f329057219a8686aceae8/Screen-Shot-2023-03-21-at-11.06.23-AM.png" /> https://cayley.info/Info Tue, 25 Jun 2019 17:32:39 +0000 Cayley MacArthur https://cayley.info/Info Oh, hello — Thanks for stopping by. So glad you could make it. If you’re here because I sent you a résumé, you can access my sample projects to the left. If you need a password, it’s been set as&nbsp;your organization’s location&nbsp;(for example, Toronto, or Waterloo, or Stratford). Lost my CV? It happens. You can download a copy right here, or use the links to the left to navigate to all of my materials. <img width="1406" height="936" width_o="1406" height_o="936" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/03bbc013074c4516bdc7dcb647a20b2850ec59447e0ecc0c852db21196154e97/Screen-Shot-2023-03-21-at-11.07.44-AM.png" data-mid="173428966" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/03bbc013074c4516bdc7dcb647a20b2850ec59447e0ecc0c852db21196154e97/Screen-Shot-2023-03-21-at-11.07.44-AM.png" /> I am a human-computer interaction researcher, designer, and educator. I hold a PhD in Systems Design Engineering with a focus on Human-Computer Interaction from the University of Waterloo (2021). I hold a Bachelor of Knowledge Integration (Hons.) (2013), and a Master of Arts in English (Rhetoric &amp; Communication Design) and Systems Design Engineering, Co-op (2015). I’m an active member of both the Touchlab and the Games Institute at the University of Waterloo, and a member of the international collective fempower.tech. I’m a neurodivergent, first-generation university student, thriving in a supportive, inclusive academic community, and this informs the experience I wish to make available to others through teaching, leadership, and research. I began working as a User Experience Researcher in 2014. Since then, I have conducted studies with companies on almost every continent, remotely and in-person. I have also had the pleasure of helping to hire and train other UXRs, some of which have gone on to full-time permanent roles at companies including Google, Scotiabank, and Yelp. Due to continued demand for my services while I focussed on my PhD, I incorporated my own company in 2020, and continue to learn and grow as a researcher myself.&nbsp; I am deeply committed to service, and my research work often intersects with my service through implementation of new programs that build on what we are learning about how to make the HCI community a better place for all.&nbsp; Interdisciplinarity is the spice of my life, and I have been treated to some wonderful experiences along the way. I make a conscious effort to balance my artistic, scientific, creative, and athletic endeavours to keep all parts of my brain active, because I believe that making connections is what generates the richest ideas and lines of inquiry.Some nice things written about me/including me — 2021: “CHI PLAY 2020: Doing Justice to the Virtual Conference Experience” SIGCHI Blog: Link. Highlighting some contributions as Inclusion &amp; Accessibility co-chair for CHIPLAY.&nbsp;2018: “GI Members organizing ‘Gaming with the Subaltern’: Workshop at CHI Play 2018” Games Institute: Link. Highlighting our workshop on intersectional identities in play.&nbsp;2018: “Spotlight on the GI members at Interactive Surfaces and Spaces (ISS) 2018” Games Institute: Link. A nod to my work as a Student Volunteer co-chair in Tokyo among the contributions of GI members.2018: “GI Jam event brings gaming to a whole new level” Games Institute: Link. Coverage of 2018 Global Game Jam at UW.(This list is new - more links to come!) A few favourite adventures — A strange propensity for ending up on Japanese television (3 times in one month!) and meeting their larger-than-life mascots.&nbsp;日本語が下手です。The pilot allyship program that I worked to develop for CHI 2019 attracted over 900 potential allies, which is a highlight for me. Afterwards, a number of different conferences in and outside of the ACM asked how they could implement something similar. We are working with members of the SIGCHI Executive Committee to explore how this initiative can be sustainable and scaled in the future (SIGCHI has 23 conferences). My contributions to codes of conduct and tips for respectful behaviour have also been adopted at multiple conferences and are being evaluated for use at the SIGCHI level. I was the first Equity co-chair for the CHI conference series, a role which since has been institutionalized and adopted in most of the family of conferences.&nbsp;I’ve appeared on CTV News to represent the Women in Engineering committee at the University of Waterloo. I am always looking for ways to improve inclusion across all axes, where ever I am.I was voted captain of my roller derby team, the Total Knock Outs, which is Tri City Roller Derby’s farm team. I started derby in August 2018, skated on the Travel B team as well. To find out my derby name, you’ll have to ask me in person!I was named to Team Canada 1, the national Senior Synchronized Figure Skating team (2010-2011 season). I skated Varsity for my university, too. I have my level 1 coaching certification, and have taught very small children to skate for a very long time, as well as teaching the introductory set of ice dance patterns. I started “skating” (i.e., crying while standing on skates) when I was 13 months old; my mother is a coach herself.&nbsp;I love to make obscure techno jokes. I covered SXSW 2012, many years of Mutek, and a number of other events as a music journalist, and wrote for outlets like Truants (my #1), Resident Advisor, and URB magazine. I played piano up to grade 10 in the RCM, and last year I pushed myself out of my shell and started taking voice lessons, and was working on my grade 6 vocal exam! I am becoming more confident with being louder and taking up space. However, my ability to increase volume remains debatable depending on who you ask.&nbsp; Enough about me. Would you like to check out some of my past UX research projects, or academic pursuits?&nbsp; &nbsp; https://cayley.info/Research-Statement Fri, 18 Dec 2020 15:07:57 +0000 Cayley MacArthur https://cayley.info/Research-Statement Research StatementYou may download a PDF copy of my Research Statement, or read the full text below. — I research human-computer interaction (HCI), situated between inclusive technologies and inclusion in technology. Working on inclusion, diversity, equity, and accessibility in HCI requires interrogating perspectives, assumptions, methods, and artifacts encountered in our approaches to research, design, and development of new and existing technologies. I argue that a lack of equal access and representation in today's tech ecosystem works in a negative feedback loop: the people who have difficulty using tools that are supposed to be “natural” and “intuitive,” whose understandings of the world are not present in the realities reflected back to them, are presented with implicit cues that they do not belong or these tools are not “for them.” Over time, the marginalization of diverse experiences and the loss of identities from the pipeline of talent is often framed as a missed economic opportunity, but stands for much more: without making space for the impact of marginalized voices on technology, our understanding of what interactive technologies can be will be limited. Engaging deeply with marginalization and oppression in HCI has taught me how to recognize, acknowledge, negotiate, and accept my own identity as a queer-, woman-identifying person with an invisible disability. Not only do we all deserve this opportunity for growth, but a failure to engage with systemic barriers in modern technology stands in the way of individuals’ realization of their full potential. Addressing this injustice is at the core of my motivation. Without improved understanding of the barriers to engagement with technologies along the whole cycle — from ideation as a maker, to using a product as a consumer — new technologies will continue to be limited in their reach and impact. My long-term goal is to build a research program based in reflexive praxis, continuing to engage in the forefront of HCI research while bringing a critical lens to understanding the ways in which what we make and how we make it affects access, engagement, and adoption along all points of the “diversity pipeline.” Summary &amp; Link Shortcuts — In my first full paper publication (1), I focussed on gender and the false implication of “neutrality” in how we envision and talk about “users” of technology. Understanding that denials of identity can impact agency and belonging, I used the “diversity pipeline” concept to frame proposed projects for my PhD. However, there are numerous opportunities here stretching far beyond the scope of one PhD, and thus informs my vision of a research program. In my PhD thesis work (2), I focussed on entry points to tech careers in the form of informal learning environments (ILEs) such as makerspaces and game jams. This work highlighted narrow avenues for self-determination in these spaces that particularly demotivated equity-seeking participants wanting to explore and improve their skills. At the other end of the pipeline are the products made by homogeneous teams: when technologies are studied in environments that also lack diversity, we fail to pick up on red flags.&nbsp;In my most recent publication (3), I dig deeper into the issue of gender and cybersickness which disproportionately affects women, people of colour, and other minoritized groups: something that is well-known in the virtual reality (VR) research community, but often only mentioned as an aside in publications, if at all. This work is only a small step to addressing the widespread inaccessibility of VR technology. I am currently unofficially co-supervising a master's student who is taking this work forward by exploring how researchers can improve capturing and reporting of cybersickness data.As a future faculty member (4) I will apply for funding, specifically the NSERC Discovery Grant to support the development of a research program around the numerous manifestations of inequality faced in VR research among other emerging technologies, which I outline below. References found at the bottom of this page. (1) Is “user” neutral? A provocation for HCI research &amp; design — Adam Bradley, Cayley MacArthur*, Mark Hancock, and Sheelagh Carpendale. 2015. Gendered or neutral?: Considering the language of HCI. In Proceedings of the 41st Graphics Interface Conference, 163-170. http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=2788919 As a student in both English (Rhetoric &amp; Communication Design) and Systems Design Engineering, I bridged human-computer interaction, rhetoric, semiotics, and feminist philosophy, and was skeptical of the reliance on the term “user” in academic and industrial contexts: when working in industry, I noticed that “user” was pejorative, implying that difficulties were their problem and not the responsibility of design teams. My mentor, Adam Bradley (who shares the same joint degree designation; now a postdoctoral researcher in information visualization and analysis at UOIT) shared that previous arguments based in the humanities had not resonated with the HCI community. I knew I needed to communicate in the language of the larger HCI community at that time, by further investigating humanistic issues within HCI using a study as the vehicle. Prior work had problematized the idea of a “genderless” user that does not reflect the realities of technology use [1]. In this work, we were able to show that Butler's concept of the “false universal” [2] held true: despite good intentions to use “neutral” terms to avoid specifying a gender, in a patriarchal society we are more likely to assume the “universal” figure is masculine, which subconsciously impacts who we really think we're designing for. At the time of its first submission in 2013, feminist work was not common in HCI, although the call was growing: Shaowen Bardzell’s treatise for feminist HCI was published in 2010 [3]. While there are full sessions of feminist HCI work at the CHI conference today, our work was met with resistance from reviewers. One reviewer questioned our motives for not considering what they felt was the real alternative that women were not envisioned as “users” of technology because they were, in fact, less capable than others, thus arguing that what we observed was reflecting reality. We published this work at the Graphics Interface (GI) conference which is the oldest Canadian HCI conference, with a history of impact and influencing conferences like CHI and SIGGRAPH. GI gave the opportunity for this work to have continuing impact and further reach. Most recently, it was highlighted in the closing keynote of IEEE VIS 2020 entitled Data VIS for Empowerment &amp; Inclusion, was included in a conceptual review of gender-inclusive HCI research &amp; design by some of the field's most influential voices, and has been cited across a wide variety of domains, from human-robot interaction to data visualization. The takeaway from this research was not as much the numbers, the drawings, and the specific terms that were investigated, but our success in demonstrating a disconnect between how people see “users” and how they see themselves. This raised a larger issue of agency, as in, to whom it is awarded and to whom it is denied through an inability to see oneself as the intended user. As technologies become integral parts of our daily lives, whether in the classroom, for professional training, or for leisure, the question of one's access to self-determination and empowerment is not an inconsequential side-effect of marginalization through design. Instead, it becomes a question of justice: who will get ahead, and who will be left behind? * Note that I was not first author on this paper because I was completing my co-op degree requirement at the time of final submission, at which point my co-author took the lead on preparing this publication. The problem statement, research questions,&nbsp;study design, and analysis were my contributions and this work formed the centrepiece&nbsp;of my master's thesis. (2) Why are they leaving? Understanding motivations of makers in informal STEM learning environments — Cayley MacArthur, Caroline Wong, and Mark Hancock. 2019. Makers and Quilters: Investigating Opportunities for Improving Gender-Imbalanced Maker Groups. Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction 3, CSCW: 1-24. https://doi.org/10.1145/3359131 See also: Project page In my early work I explored how rhetorical patterns could represent power dynamics in digital systems, and demonstrated how the organization of people’s relations exerted through architecture [4,5] could be reproducible in a digital environment such as through information architecture (IA) and other layers of&nbsp;UX design. This informs a common thread of my research, where I examine the intersections between interaction with technologies, inclusion, and environments or spaces. During my PhD, I focussed on the beginning of the “diversity pipeline,” specically the informal learning environments (ILEs) such as makerspaces, hackathons, or game jams. Maker groups offer an early opportunity to foster an interest and intent to pursue careers in designing technology [6], and because they are still emerging, we can benefit from an understanding of what interventions can support self-determination to foster longer-term engagement, and to potentially engender more inclusive design from such groups. Research on ambient belonging cues in physical spaces demonstrates the negative gendered impact of stereotypical elements being built into an environment on women's participation in computer science [7]. In general, ILEs provide an entrypoint into STEM, but can also be the place where these ambient belonging cues are internalized and a person decides that there is no place for them in this domain in the future [7]. The first project in this line of research began when I captained the Waterloo Game Jam and calculated a 70% attrition rate among the women who attended that weekend. In many ways, this reflects the way that my service and research become intertwined: I was able to notice the issue, and after completing this project, I was able to directly apply the work to future game jams as well as advising others organizing similar events. By looking outside of STEM-focussed ILEs and studying technically skilled maker groups that were female-dominated — quilters — I drew connections between communities that, on the surface, seem very different. At the same time, a limitation of this work was studying groups that were opposite in their gender composition but each had exclusionary factors of their own such as little variability in race and socioeconomic status. In my ongoing work I strive to engage with intersecting identity factors, which reflect the real lived experiences of individuals occupying such spaces. The importance of the connection between people, their craft, and their space became apparent over the&nbsp;course of this study, as did the importance of having multiple avenues for self-determination to support diverse personal goals among members of the group. I am currently studying the impacts of remote&nbsp;making on these groups in the context of computer-supported cooperative work (CSCW). This includes questions like: What is the impact on the maker community (and sense of community), and the individual&nbsp;construction of a maker identity, in the absence of a maker space? In what ways have these groups adapted&nbsp;their working practices, and what can we do as HCI researchers and designers to support these makers&nbsp;through e.g., development or modification of new tools? Whether or not there is a future mandate against in-person gatherings as there is now, there will always be people who cannot physically access maker groups; I am excited to determine how we can improve access for all in the long term. (3) “You're Making Me Sick”: Investigating the relationship between gender and cybersickness in virtual reality — Cayley MacArthur, Daniel Harley, Arielle Grinberg, and Mark Hancock. 2021. “You're Making Me Sick”: Investigating the relationship between gender and cybersickness in virtual reality. In press, CHI 2021. My latest publication which has recently been accepted to CHI 2021 was inspired by a peculiar pattern during volunteering. As a representative of the Women in Engineering committee, I volunteered in an outreach event where we tried to engage with incoming female undergraduate students by getting them to try out the new (at the time) Google Cardboard viewer, which offered a low-cost way to explore Virtual Reality (VR) powered by just a smartphone. To my surprise, the vast majority of the female-identifying students declined, saying that they would feel sick. At that time, the major brand names we recognize today (e.g., Oculus Rift, HTC Vive) were not available commercially to the extent that these students would have had prior access. I wanted to know more about this pervasive belief that VR was not “for them” from Day 1. VR technologies, whether head-mounted displays (HMDs), controllers, or the experiences designed for them, are an example of products emerging from a dysfunctional version of the talent pipeline where the final product reflects the realities of a limited group of its makers. Despite numerous reports in both popular media and scientific literature of disproportionate impacts of cybersickness on women and people of colour, “(dis)comfort” remains prominent in design guidelines. This discomfort is present insofar as how to mitigate its effects, but very little work has been done to ameliorate the issue altogether. Experiencing cybersickness has been positioned as a deficit of people, and not of systems, despite its pervasiveness: this has lead to researchers using this as justification for excluding women from VR studies altogether, even going so far as to also limit their samples to exclusively white men for “control” purposes. As VR is increasingly used for professional training situations, for teaching, for therapy, and other real-world applications, an inability to use this technology without serious physical (e.g., disorientation, nausea, headache, dizziness) or psychological (e.g., anxiety, distress, “fogginess”) side effects acts as a barrier to equal access and opportunity. The first step towards designing and testing changes for measurable improvements in cybersickness outcomes in VR technology is first isolating the factors that we can control. Our systematic review of 71 eligible VR publications pertaining to gender and cybersickness revealed a number of confounding factors (e.g., a variety of technical specifications, tasks, content), a lack of demographic data, and a bias in participant recruitment. If findings cannot be validated across studies, developing a better understanding of the relationship between gender and cybersickness will remain elusive. Based on the gaps identified in this systematic review, I contributed study design recommendations for future work, arguing that gender considerations are necessary at every stage of VR study design, even when the study is not ‘about’ gender. (4) Extensions and Intersections: Longer-term vision for a research program — As a researcher, supervisor, educator, and collaborator, I will contribute to advancing diversity and inclusion in the design of novel interactive technologies. At the beginning of my career, I became the local expert on gender issues in HCI, but now the sensitivity to how gender impacts our research has been adopted more widely. My background in rhetoric, communication, and knowledge integration helps to take on challenging problems facing our research community, which is why I am interested in the role intersecting identities play in HCI: not just gender, not just race, not just ability, but rather situated and complex everyday realities. Taking these into account poses challenges for our current research methods, but a starting point is working in a framework of anti-oppressive and social justice-oriented interaction design [8,9] which is positioned for today's wicked problems [9]. I will continue to push the margins in my work, into new venues that are developing a consciousness about power and equity, as I have with exploring emergent areas such as fabrication and extended reality (sections 2 and 3 above, respectively). During my work on cybersickness in VR, I generated a number of further research questions for exploration into this issue. I am currently co-supervising in an unofficial capacity a master's student who is extending this work for his thesis project. Below are a selection of research areas that are included in my vision for a research program that interrogates the various manifestations of how individual empowerment through access to technology is hindered in research, in design, as well as in social settings. How might we more accurately capture cybersickness data in a way that reflects the experiences of all&nbsp;participants? — In a forthcoming publication (see section 3, above), I discuss the bias encoded in the most commonly used measurement of cybersickness: the Simulator Sickness Questionnaire (SSQ). This measure was developed on naval aviation trainees at a time when women were not permitted to participate, but is the dominant means of describing sickness to this day. In order for this work to be both useful and usable by our community, the work being undertaken by the master's student aims to develop improved, or even brand new tools to more accurately capture the spectrum of symptoms experienced by those who were not able to participate in the original development of the SSQ. Whether this takes the form of an extension to the SSQ or a new validated scale, it will have achieved two main goals: first, exposing serious flaws that had gone unquestioned in past work, calling for reflection on assumptions of validity and generalizability (and what other measurement tools might have similar problems), and second, it contributes the development of an artifact itself, the new tool and reflections on the process: a tool that is forthcoming about who it represents as well as its limitations. What experimental factors can be manipulated to enhance or reduce the symptoms of cybersickness?&nbsp; — Despite the number of confounds documented in our systematic review, patterns in the existing research indicate areas where controlled interventions may show effects across gender as it pertains to experiences of cybersickness. Prior to lockdown, I was designing and implementing a series of lab studies based on hypotheses exploring factors including, but not limited to: perspective (first-person, third-person, bird's eye view); navigational reference frames (egocentric, exocentric); and manipulation techniques (abstraction&nbsp;of the controllers in comparison to passive haptics which simulate 1:1 interaction with the physical world). When it is safe to do so, I look forward to applying recommendations from our systematic review in order to execute these studies to provide usable information from a controlled study of specific factors, for other researchers who are also concerned about the confounding effects of cybersickness on VR study outcomes. What interventions could create a more level playing field for people with differing spatial abilities?&nbsp; — Spatial reasoning skills, more commonly referred to as spatial abilities or spatial skills, are associated with students' success in STEM disciplines such as their ability to learn programming and perform complex mathematics. Research suggests that these abilities are plastic, that is, they are highly responsive and changeable given an appropriate intervention. Additionally, women, people of colour, and people from lower socioeconomic backgrounds typically have poorer spatial reasoning skills. I would like to explore&nbsp;potential applications of interventions to improve spatial abilities over time, in different settings, whether in the classroom, through playful interactions, or potentially as a priming activity before engaging in an activity demanding spatial reasoning. While a number of identity factors seem linked to a tendency to have poorer spatial abilities, there is no reason it has to stay this way: I want to investigate creative and engaging ways to activate this part of the brain to improve learning outcomes in STEM environments. References — [1] Shaowen Bardzell, Elizabeth Churchill, Jeffrey Bardzell, Jodi Forlizzi, Rebecca Grinter, and Deborah Tatar. 2011. Feminism and interaction design. In CHI'11 Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems, 1-4. [2] Judith Butler. 2004. Undoing gender. Routledge, New York; London. [3] Shaowen Bardzell. 2010. Feminist HCI: taking stock and outlining an agenda for design. In Proceedings&nbsp;of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, 1301-1310. [4] Elliot Gaines. 2006. Communication and the Semiotics of Space. Journal of Creative Communications 1, 2: 173-181. [5] Michel Foucault. 1993. Space, Power, and Knowledge (Interview by Paul Rabinow). In Simon During (ed.), The cultural studies reader, 161-69. London: Routledge. [6] Allan Fowler. 2016. Informal STEM Learning in Game Jams, Hackathons and Game Creation Events. In Proceedings of the International Conference on Game Jams, Hackathons, and Game Creation Events (GJH&amp;GC '16). ACM, New York, NY, USA, 38-41. [7] Sapna Cheryan, Victoria C. Plaut, Paul G. Davies, and Claude M. Steele. 2009. Ambient belonging: How stereotypical cues impact gender participation in computer science. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 97, 6 (2009), 1045-1060. [8] Thomas Smyth and Jill Dimond. 2014. Anti-oppressive design. Interactions 21, 6: 68-71. [9] Lynn Dombrowski, Ellie Harmon, and Sarah Fox. 2016. Social Justice-Oriented Interaction Design: Outlining Key Design Strategies and Commitments. In Proceedings of the 2016 ACM Conference on Designing Interactive Systems - DIS '16, 656-671. https://cayley.info/Curriculum-Vitae Fri, 18 Dec 2020 15:13:34 +0000 Cayley MacArthur https://cayley.info/Curriculum-Vitae Curriculum Vitae You can download a PDF copy of my CV here, and my cover letter here. More information on contributions to the community can be found on the Service page. — Education — PhD Candidate. Systems Design Engineering. University of Waterloo.&nbsp;2016 - 2021.&nbsp; Focus area: Human-computer interaction. Research topics include: makerspaces/maker culture; community building; diversity; virtual reality; perception, spatial ability, usability in virtual environments; cybersickness; self-determination. Supervised by: Dr. Mark Hancock. Committee: Drs. James Wallace, Catherine Burns, Jennifer Boger. External: Dr. Michael Muller (IBM Research). MA. English (Rhetoric &amp; Communication Design) and Systems Design Engineering, Co-op. University of Waterloo. &nbsp;2013 - 2015. Thesis: “The Effects of Ambiguity: A Feminist Study of Human Signifiers in Human-Computer Interaction.” Supervised by: Drs. Mark Hancock &amp; Neil Randall. Relevant courses: Cognitive Science, Advanced ANOVA, Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), Global Communication, Transmedia Narrative &amp; Design. BKI. Knowledge Integration, Honours. University of Waterloo. &nbsp;2013 - 2015. Thesis: “An integrative approach to the user experience design of technologically-mediated interactions in a convergent media climate” Supervised by: Dr. Neil Randall. Relevant courses: Critical Thinking, Public Speaking, Semiotics, Ethics, Computing Through Applications, Visual Rhetoric. Activities: Varsity figure skating; Knowledge Integration Student Society founding member. Work Experience —User Experience Researcher. Cayley MacArthur Consulting Corp.&nbsp;2020 - Present. Driving a revamp of a booking, inventory, and business management tool for service providers, and supervising a UX designer. All research is conducted remotely and I am expanding my skillset through the use of new tools to facilitate the evolving work environment. User Experience Research Intern. Shopify Plus. 2019. On the Merchant Growth team at Shopify Plus, I championed an exploratory and tactical research project to determine what data or qualitative questions are best suited to identify New Enterprise merchants. With this group being a priority focus in Plus expansion efforts going forward, UXR first needs to be aligned on how to target them. From here, we will be able to make better supported decisions to support this growing group of next-generation merchants. User Experience Researcher. Genesys Telecommunications Laboratories. 2014 - 2019. Conducted studies with users of Genesys’ B2B products in-person and remotely, from Forbes 100 companies to regional businesses. Built relationships across the company to instil UX research into all stages of the product development cycle. Learned to write product requirements, RFPs, and applied for a patent (US Patent App. 14/726,491); used design tools to communicate insights in multiple modalities. Presented outputs up to C-level executives. Selected Talks &amp; Presentations — Invited Talk, Autodesk Research, March 2021MSCI 630 (Human-Computer Interaction) Invited Lecture: Bias in Design, February 2021HCI Research 101 - Games Institute Research Assistant Training, January 2021ENGL 408C (Visual Rhetoric) Guest Lecture, June 2017Gender &amp; Equity Scholarship Series Invited Talk - University of Waterloo, January 2016English &amp; Innovation Showcase - Communitech, June 2016Presentation: War Games: Fatima Al Qadiri's 'Desert Strike' as X-Reality - “Rhetoric: An Aide-Mémoire” Conference, Waterloo, December 2013 Selected Installations &amp; Demos — Tunnel Divisions - Interactive Surfaces &amp; Spaces 2016 (Niagara Falls); also submitted to Night/Shift art festival in Kitchener, Ontario&nbsp; INTERPLAY: Thinking Through Games (Poster Inclusion) - THEMUSEUM, Kitchener, January 2018Game Changer - Museum exhibit, Ontario Science Centre, 2013 - Visited by over 200,000 people&nbsp;Bukimi no Tani (Uncanny Valley) - Museum exhibit, Knowledge Integration eXhibits (KIX), March 2011 https://cayley.info/Selected-Projects Sat, 14 Nov 2020 16:24:19 +0000 Cayley MacArthur https://cayley.info/Selected-Projects https://cayley.info/Makers-and-Quilters Mon, 16 Jan 2012 21:36:35 +0000 Cayley MacArthur https://cayley.info/Makers-and-Quilters <img width="640" height="484" width_o="640" height_o="484" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/654ba9379fd09cef48214e12c4563aa796822c10d84647c4e037104396b4c229/faithringgold.jpg" data-mid="46383763" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/640/i/654ba9379fd09cef48214e12c4563aa796822c10d84647c4e037104396b4c229/faithringgold.jpg" />Faith Ringgold - The Sunflower Quilting Bee at Arles (1991) (Read more) “Makers and Quilters: Investigating Opportunities for Improving Gender-Imbalanced Maker Groups” is a first-authored research paper accepted for publication in the Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW) Conference (acceptance rate ~30%, a top venue for HCI publication).&nbsp;Download the paper here (PDF, 9.9MB). Abstract: Recent efforts to diversify participation in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering &amp; Math) activities through informal learning environments, such as hackathons and makerspaces, confirm a real desire for inclusion among potential female participants. However, understanding factors that may contribute to longer-term, sustainable diversification of such groups remains a challenge. In this paper, we present the results of a mixed-methods study of two microcosms of making: game development, and quilting. Our findings reveal parallel structures within these groups despite being highly skewed towards male or female participation, respectively. Our results shed light on attitudes, behaviours, and experiences indicating that similar desires for wider community support among other factors exist in both groups, but these needs are not satisfied in the STEM context. We conclude by discussing the implications of our findings as opportunities for rethinking how we design the environments that are meant to support design itself, considering the role of technology in these spaces, and prioritizing nurturing the development of the maker community beyond the maker space. Publication date: November 2019 https://cayley.info/Workshops Thu, 11 Jul 2019 15:20:38 +0000 Cayley MacArthur https://cayley.info/Workshops <img width="2048" height="1510" width_o="2048" height_o="1510" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/e8147470f010374210b74b4e6e50f3b0fac5a19523d0844d4db6af77445f1663/sketchnotes.jpeg" data-mid="47919462" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/e8147470f010374210b74b4e6e50f3b0fac5a19523d0844d4db6af77445f1663/sketchnotes.jpeg" /> Sketchnote documenting the day in our workshop, by the amazing and talented Dr. Miriam Sturdee (Source) “CHInclusion: Working Toward a More Inclusive HCI Community” is a full-day workshop accepted and run at CHI 2019 in Glasgow, Scotland with: Angelika Strohmayer (Newcastle University), Velvet Spors (University of Nottingham), Michael Muller (IBM Research), Morgan Vigil-Hayes (Northern Arizona University), and Ebtisam Alabdulqader (King Saud University &amp; Newcastle University). Abstract:&nbsp;HCI has a growing body of work regarding important social and community issues, as well as various grassroots communities working to make CHI more international and inclusive. In this workshop, we will build on this work: first reflecting on the contemporary CHI climate, and then developing an actionable plan towards making CHI2019 and subsequent SIGCHI events and sister conferences more inclusive for all. Publication: Available on the ACM Digital Library (doi&gt;10.1145/3290607.3299012) <img width="945" height="766" width_o="945" height_o="766" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/bb707b20f0a7205810350cc200bed28cf4ce5529727e406bcc478ee12d7c5337/nocite-Axes-of-dominance-privilege-and-oppression.png" data-mid="47919495" border="0" data-scale="95" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/945/i/bb707b20f0a7205810350cc200bed28cf4ce5529727e406bcc478ee12d7c5337/nocite-Axes-of-dominance-privilege-and-oppression.png" /> Diagram of intersecting axes of privilege, domination, and oppression, which was used to spark discussion and reflection in the workshop. We also brainstormed axes that are not represented here but remain relevant in such dynamics, such as having a criminal record, coming from a stable family environment, and so on.&nbsp;(Source) “Gaming with the Subaltern: Workshop on Diversity and Inclusion in Games” is a full-day workshop accepted and run at CHIPLAY 2018 in Melbourne, Australia with: Cale J. Passmore (University of Saskatchewan), Regan L. Mandryk (University of Saskatchewan), Sarah Schoemann (Georgia Institute of Technology), Daniel Gardner (University of California, Irvine),&nbsp;Mark Hancock (University of Waterloo), Mahli-Ann Butt (University of Sydney), and Josh Tanenbaum (University of California, Irvine). Background: Players, developers, and researchers have long recognized the absence of diversity in digital gaming, development, and research. This lack of diversity (in e.g., game characters, worlds, narratives), reflected in the lack of diversity within developer culture, has been tied to decreased player enjoyment, lasting negative affect, lower cognitive benefits, less agency, and increased prejudice. Though there are myriad benefits of gaming—demonstrating why gaming is so popular—the current lack of diversity makes access to these benefits unequal based on unchanging attributes of self (e.g., gender, ethnicity, ability, age). Players and developers are aware of the negative effects tied to over-representation of gaming’s most prolific protagonist type (i.e., the hypermasculine white male with brown hair saving the day), and calls for corrective action are plentiful. However, attempts at inclusion are often diffused through stereotypical and tokenistic inclusion of people, lacking recognition of complex social power structures around gaming with the subaltern: i.e., populations socially, politically, and geographically outside of the hegemonic power structure of the colonial homeland. Research focused on individual identity axes (e.g., gender, race, neuroatypicality; see diagram above) is gaining momentum in human-computer interaction (HCI); however, these approaches are limited by their singular approach to identity. Although diversity and inclusion are values endorsed by most players and developers, games diverse across several axes remain scarce. The mere variability of human experiences poses hard problems to development teams comprised of 70%+ white men: how can teams overcome biases to accurately represent cultures, peoples other than their own? Further, scientific methodologies prescribe methods for removing “outliers” to increase homogeneity of datasets—a practice that does not translate when the outlier is a marginalized minority. Relatedly, data-driven decision making is, by definition, exclusionary, as focus on majority opinion marginalizes underrepresented groups, as recently evidenced in the twitter response to the CHI 2018 opening keynote. How do individual differences affect results, methods, and gameplay experiences? What perspectives and experiences are shared by people across power axes? Which are unique? What do all game researchers and developers need to understand regarding identity dynamics when gathering data, interpreting results, or presenting information? What does intersectionality (i.e., considering multiple power axes in combination) look like in gaming, game development and research? Our workshop is built around these key questions in the hope that shared insights will allow us to move from simply valuing diversity toward successful intersectional practices in research, development, and play. Our goals include gathering the community of diversity researchers, sharing our knowledge and practices with one another, and collectively understanding the intersections of race, gender, sexuality, ability, neuroatypicality, and cross-cultural issues in games research. Our shared knowledge will begin with the mutual building of known biases, successes, and sites of ongoing oppression. This will form a snapshot of our current strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats to real diversity in games and games user research (GUR). We will map common identity factors to key research areas, revealing shared and unshared dynamics. This map will advance our collective practices and identify current, recurring barriers to diversity, and inform a later document on considerations for researchers and developers when working with diverse populations. The results of our workshop will be published to an online, publicly available website for comment, critique, and information. This living document will help inform future games research and development. Publication: Available on the ACM Digital Library (doi&gt;10.1145/3270316.3271552) Workshop website: subalterngur.wordpress.com https://cayley.info/Tunnel-Divisions Sun, 04 Aug 2019 00:05:56 +0000 Cayley MacArthur https://cayley.info/Tunnel-Divisions “Tunnel Divisions” is an interactive demo created with Stephen Trothen and presented at the ACM Conference on Interactive Surfaces and Spaces (ISS), 2016. <img width="2200" height="3400" width_o="2200" height_o="3400" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/59cdc226ecb0f4653739829492b62e71a8b05db91388fc365ce9b23c58b908c3/posterdraft3.png" data-mid="48031044" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/59cdc226ecb0f4653739829492b62e71a8b05db91388fc365ce9b23c58b908c3/posterdraft3.png" />The above image shows a poster that I created to accompany our demo setup. No, I was not, at the time, considering the accessibility implications of white text on yellow. Abstract:&nbsp;We present Tunnel Divisions, an interactive musical installation designed for ephemeral interaction in public spaces. Informed by concepts from cultural and media studies along with existing literature on interactive public displays, we designed the installation as an intervention meant for the monotonous parts of everyday life. Our demonstration uses low-cost sensors and musical theory to create a generative sound composition unique to the particular space and the people moving through it. By experiencing the installation, we hope to promote critical thinking about the nature and form of interaction with public spaces.︎ Video on YouTube (1:30) Publication: Available on the ACM Digital Library (doi&gt;10.1145/2992154.2996881) https://cayley.info/Gendered-or-Neutral Sun, 04 Aug 2019 00:06:53 +0000 Cayley MacArthur https://cayley.info/Gendered-or-Neutral “Gendered or Neutral?: Considering the Language of HCI” is a research paper co-authored with Adam Bradley (University of Waterloo), Mark Hancock (University of Waterloo), and Sheelagh Carpendale (University of Calgary), presented at the Graphics Interface conference, 2015. This paper was central to my MA thesis, “The Effects of Ambiguity.” <img width="3543" height="4724" width_o="3543" height_o="4724" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/5e17bc76cbc24e9d1f1bd5d0885a1ddc51542756a6300448ad39187253615ebc/take2_flat.jpg" data-mid="48031441" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/5e17bc76cbc24e9d1f1bd5d0885a1ddc51542756a6300448ad39187253615ebc/take2_flat.jpg" />A poster that I created to communicate the results of this research at the English &amp; Innovation showcase held at Communitech, June 2016. Abstract:&nbsp;In this paper, we present a Mechanical Turk study that explores how the most common words that have been used to refer to people in recent HCI literature are received by non-experts. The top five CHI 2014 people words are: user, participant, person, designer, and researcher. We asked participants to think about one of these words for ten seconds and then to draw an image of it. After the drawing was done we asked simple demographic questions about both the participant and the created image. Our results show that while generally our participants did perceive most of these words as predominately male, there were two notable exceptions. Women appear to perceive the terms "person" and "participant" as gender neutral. That is, they were just as likely to draw a person or a participant as male or female. So while these two words are not exactly gender neutral in that men largely perceived them as male, at least women did not appear to feel excluded by these terms. We offer an increased understanding of the perception of HCI's people words and discuss the challenges this poses to our community in striving toward gender inclusiveness. Publication: Available on the ACM Digital Library https://cayley.info/MA-Thesis Sat, 03 Aug 2019 22:21:18 +0000 Cayley MacArthur https://cayley.info/MA-Thesis <img width="798" height="734" width_o="798" height_o="734" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/4e958aac2a82aa583483a1cc70f1d568712c984505db9a654867173a9076dcb5/Screen-Shot-2019-08-03-at-6.22.51-PM.png" data-mid="47918496" border="0" data-scale="85" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/798/i/4e958aac2a82aa583483a1cc70f1d568712c984505db9a654867173a9076dcb5/Screen-Shot-2019-08-03-at-6.22.51-PM.png" />The above image shows the title page of my master’s thesis, completed December 2015. “The Effects of Ambiguity: A Feminist Study of Human Signifiers in Human-Computer Interaction” is a thesis submitted in fulfillment of the thesis requirement for my Master of Arts degree in English Language and Literature (Rhetoric &amp; Communication Design) and Systems Design Engineering (Co-op). Abstract:&nbsp;A lack of diversity in STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) fields has been a popular topic of discussion and a persistent challenge in terms of recruitment, engagement, opportunity and equality spanning decades. It is not well-understood how new technologies created by the human-computer interaction (HCI) community affect identity construction in minorities such as women, people of colour, and persons with disabilities. The Feminist HCI movement calls on the community to engage with broader moral commitments such as empowerment, diversity, identity and equity, as well as epistemologically embracing multiplicity over universality. However, a gap remains between theory and practice. &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; I argue that goals of feminist rhetoric must be met in the community’s discourse habits as an essential step to more inclusivity in HCI; these goals include dismantling certain oppressive language structures. Feminist theory suggests that the abstract, gender-neutral language used to talk about people in male-dominated systems actually elicits imagery perceived to be male, which would function in contrast to the intentions of writers who want to be gender-neutral when using these words. In this thesis, I present a study used to determine whether the human signifiers used in HCI publications have the same effect. Findings suggest that these HCI “people” words do generally have a tendency to be perceived as male. Insights from this study reveal some tendencies in how these words are thought of among a general audience. I recommend a stronger commitment to Feminist HCI in theory and practice, and greater awareness and sensitivity towards the connotations elicited by these falsely universal terms that are not representative of the diverse community within and outside of HCI. Publication: Available on UWSpace (http://hdl.handle.net/10012/10243)