Speaker: Miriah Meyer, Associate Professor, School of Computing, University of Utah

When: 11:00AM ~ 11:50AM, April 30, 2018

Where: CSB130

Contact: Sangmi Pallickara (sangmi@colostate.edu )

Abstract:Designing effective visualizations requires a careful consideration of factors beyond aesthetics and functionality — it requires deeply understanding the needs, intuitions, and goals of target users. Visualization design studies are a methodical approach for acquiring this understanding. In this talk I’ll discuss the way we conduct design studies in my lab, which has a focus on designing visualization tools for domain experts. I’ll also layout open challenges in design study research along with a several proposed solutions that we’ve developed.

Bio:Dr. Miriah Meyer is an associate professor in the School of Computing at the University of Utah and a faculty member in the Scientific Computing and Imaging Institute. She co-directs the Visualization Design Lab, which focuses on the design of visualization systems for helping analysts make sense of complex data, as well on the development of design methods for helping visualization designers make sense of real-world problems. She obtained her bachelors degree in astronomy and astrophysics at Penn State University, and earned a PhD in computer science from the University of Utah. Prior to joining the faculty at Utah Miriah was a postdoctoral research fellow at Harvard University and a visiting scientist at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard. Miriah is the recipient of a NSF CAREER grant, a Microsoft Research Faculty Fellowship, and a NSF/CRA Computing Innovation Fellow award. She was named a University of Utah Distinguished Alumni, both a TED Fellow and a PopTech Science Fellow, and included on MIT Technology Review's TR35 list of the top young innovators. She was also awarded an AAAS Mass Media Fellowship that landed her a stint as a science writer for the Chicago Tribune.