Research Scientist/Design Researcher
Contact: michael_muller@us.ibm.com
Research Interests:
Participatory design
Communities of practice
Methods for analysis, design, and assessment
Ethnocritical analyses of the roles of people in human-computer interaction
Human-computer interaction work as cultural and linguistic translation
Michael works as a Research Scientist / Research Staff Member in the Collaborative User Experience (CUE) Group. He is an internationally recognized expert in participatory design, having co-developed participatory practices such as PICTIVE, CARD and Participatory Heuristic Evaluation. His current research is concerned with human-to-human coordination and collaboration in complex work activities. Michael also serves on the Lotus Patent Review Board. Previous work at in the company includes co-developing concepts for activity-centric work and computing, studying designers as a community of practice, and designing for accessibility. Michael usually serves on the annual Take Our Daughters And Sons to Work Day committee. Michael joined Lotus in 1998.
In May 2005 Michael was appointed to the National Academy of Sciences Committee on Human System Design, which was established in response to a request from the Army Research Laboratory. Over the next two years, the committee will evaluate the current human-computer design methods, technologies, and tools; develop a vision for an integrated, interdisciplinary design methodology and toolset; and recommend ways to achieve that vision.
Before coming to Lotus, Michael worked in research and practice in usability, user-centered design, and work analysis at Microsoft, U.S. West Advanced Technologies, Bellcore, and IBM.
The formal part of Michael's background includes a Ph.D. in Cognitive Psychology from Rutgers University. In addition, he finds his informal experience in conflict resolution a useful tool for helping the groups he works with reach consensus.
Projects:
Unified Activity Management
Instant Collaboration / ActivityExplorer
Enhanced Wikis / Wikis Ready for Business
Designers Community of Practice
Design Speakers Series
Diversity Advisory Group
Publications:
Brownholtz, B., Geyer, W., Muller, M.J., Wilcox, E., and Millen, D.R. (2004). Explorations in an activity-centric collaboration environment. Demonstration at CHI 2004.
Dave, K., Wattenberg, M., and Muller, M.J. Flash forums and forumreader: Navigating a new kind of large-scale online discussion. Proceedings of CSCW 2004.
Geyer, W., Cheng, L.-T., Vogel, J., and Muller, M.J. (2004 anticipated). Personal peer-to-peer collaboration based on shared objects. Book chapter to appear in Subramanian, R., and Goodman, B., (eds.), Peer-to-peer computing: The evolution of a disruptive technology.
Geyer, W., Witt, A.J., Wilcox, E., Muller, M.J., Kerr, B., Brownholtz, B., and Millen, D.R. Chat spaces. Poster at DIS 2004.
Millen, D.R., Muller, M.J., and Ehrlich, K. (2004). Understanding patterns of media use in an activity-centric collaborative environment. Position paper in CSCW workshop, Social networks for design and analysis: Using network information in CSCW.
Muller, M.J. (2004). Activity graphs of the microstructure of complex work. Poster at CSCW 2004.
Muller, M.J. (2004). HCI as translation work: How translation studies can inform HCI research and practice. Position paper at CHI 2004 workshop, Reflective HCI.
Muller, M.J. (2004). Multiple paradigms in affective computing. Interacting with Computers, in press.
Muller, M.J. (2004). “Readness” – A design exploration of personal document management in historical and collaborative context. Poster at CHI 2004.
Muller, M.J., Geyer, W., Brownholtz, B., Wilcox, E., and Millen, D.R. (2004). One-hundred days in an activity-centric collaboration environment based on shared objects. Proceedings of CHI 2004.
Muller, M.J., Kuchinskaya, O., Minassian, S.O., Tang, J., Danis, C., Zhao, C., Harrison, B., and Moran, T.P. (2004). Shared landmarks and articulation infrastructures in complex collaborative environments. Position paper in CSCW 2004 workshop, Exploring the role of information, information tools, and information environments in collaboration.
Zeller, M., Kogan, S.L., Muller, M.J., and Morse, M. (2004). Story lifecycle in a product development organization. Poster at CHI 2004.
Geyer, W., Vogel, J., Cheng, L.-T., and Muller, M.J. (2003). Supporting activity-centric collaboration through peer-to-peer shared objects. In Proceedings of GROUP 2003. Sanibel Island FL USA: ACM.
Harker, S., Lund, A., Marsden, G., Dray, S., and Salzman, M. (2003). A review of the interactions magazine. Report submitted to SIGCHI Executive Committee and ACM Publications Board.
Muller, M.J. (2003). Collecting and validating stories from and with end-users. Position paper in CHI 2003 workshop on Scenarios in practice.
Muller, M.J. (2003). Participatory design: The third space in HCI. In J. Jacko and A. Sears (eds.), Handbook of HCI. Mahway NJ USA: Erlbaum.
Muller, M.J. (2003). Requirements specification (section introduction). In J. Jacko and A. Sears (eds.), Handbook of HCI. Mahway NJ USA: Erlbaum.
Muller, M.J., Raven, M.E., Kogan, S., Millen, D.R., and Carey, K. (2003). Introducing chat into business organizations: Toward an instant messaging maturity model. In Proceedings of GROUP 2003. Sanibel Island FL USA: ACM.Druin, A.D., and Muller, M.J., with Bratteteig, T., Gaver, B., John, B., and Rettger, M.B. (2002 in press). Panel: What kind of work is HCI work? CHI 2002 Extended Abstracts. Minneapolis MN USA: ACM..
Millen, D.R., Fontaine, M., and Muller, M.J. (2002 anticipated). Understanding the benefits and costs of communities of practice. To appear in Communications of the ACM.
Muller, M.J. (2002 in press). Participatory design: The .third space in HCI. In J. Jacko and A. Sears (eds.), Handbook of HCI.
Muller, M.J. (2002 in press). Task analysis (section introduction). In J. Jacko and A. Sears (eds.), Handbook of HCI.
Muller, M.J., and Carey, K. (2002). Design as a minority discipline in a software company: Toward requirements for a community of practice. Proceedings of CHI 2002. Minneapolis MN USA: ACM.
Kaindl, H., Constantine, L., Karat, J., and Muller, M.J. (2001). Methods and modeling: Fiction or useful reality? (panel). In CHI 2001 Extended Abstracts. Seattle: ACM.
Millen, D.R., and Muller, M.J. (2001). Computer-supported communities of practice. Position paper at ECSCW 2001 workshop on Actions and identities in virtual communities of practice. Bonn.
Muller, M.J. (2001). Layered participatory analysis: New developments in the CARD technique. In Proceedings of CHI 2001. Seattle: ACM.
Muller, M.J. (2001). A participatory poster of participatory methods. In CHI 2001 Extended Abstracts. Seattle: ACM.
Muller, M.J., and Carey, K. (2001). Design as a minority discipline in a software company: Toward requirements for a community of practice. Plenary presentation at Human Computer Interaction Consortium, Winter Park CO USA, February 2001.
Muller, M.J., Christiansen, E., Nardi, B., and Dray, S. (2001). Spiritual life and information technology: Do they intersect? Communications of the ACM (in press).
Muller, M.J. (2000). Designing for and with a community of designers: Minority disciplines and communities of practice. Proceedings of PDC 2000.
Muller, M.J. (2000). Models of the social construction of knowledge and authority in business organizations. Presented at HCIC 2000.
Muller, M.J., Christiansen, E., and Nardi, B. (2000). Can we have spiritual experiences on-line? Adjunct Proceedings of CHI 2000.
Muller, M.J., and Friedman, J. (2000). Electronic communities: Places and spaces, borders and boundaries. Workshop at CHI 2000. Adjunct Proceedings of CHI 2000.
Muller, M.J., and Kuhn, S. (2000). Introduction to participatory design. Proceedings of CSCW 2000.
Muller, M.J., Pohs, W., and Friedman, J. (2000). Issues in the design of software systems to support voluntary electronic communities. Position paper in workshop, Classification schemes, at CSCW 2000.
Cohen, A.L., Cash, D., and Muller, M.J. (2000). Designing for adversarial collaboration. Proceedings of CSCW 2000.
Carotenuto, L., Etienne, W., Fontaine, M., Friedman, J., Muller, M.J., Newberg, H., Simpson, M., Slusher, J., and Stevenson, K. (1999). CommunitySpace: Towards flexible support for voluntary knowledge communities. Presented at Changing Places workshop, London UK, April 1999.
Lafrenière, D., Dayton, T., and Muller, M.J. (1999). Variations on a theme: Card-based methods in participatory analysis and design. Tutorial at CHI 99. Repeated at CHI 2000.
Muller, M.J. (1999). Dimensional analysis of awareness technologies: Reducing risks for non-consensual computer users. Presented at Affective Computing workshop, London UK, April 1999.
Muller, M.J. (1999). Invisible work of telephone operators: An ethnocritical analysis. Computer-Supported Cooperative Work (special issue on invisible work), 8(1-2), 31-61.
Scholtz, J., Muller, M.J., Novick, D., Olson, D.R., Shneiderman, B., and Wharton, C. (1999). An international HCI research agenda (workshop). To appear in CHI 99 Companion. Druin, A.D., and Muller, M.J., with Bratteteig, T., Gaver, B., John, B., and Rettger, M.B. (2002 in press). Panel: What kind of work is HCI work? CHI 2002 Extended Abstracts. Minneapolis MN USA: ACM..