Profile

Prof. Janet C Read

Professor

Computing, Engineering & Physical Sciences

Computing & Technology Building, CM212     

 +44 (0)1772 893285   

jcread@uclan.ac.uk

Janet Read is a Professor in Child Computer Interaction and is the Director of the Child Computer Interaction (ChiCI) research group at UClan.   Internationally known for her work on designing and evaluating technologies for children as well as for her work on text input with digital ink, Prof. Read manages research grants and research students, teaches research methods and advanced HCI and contributes to SET activities in local schools.

Prof. Read joined the University in the late 1990s having previously worked as a Maths teacher in the secondary school sector.  With her change of career she undertook a PhD in handwriting recognition, children and the writing process, and this led her into the research areas that she now populates; namely interaction design for children and general HCI in the area of writing and novel technologies.
Her work with children as users of interactive technology helped to define a new research field and she has authored over 70 articles in the area of child computer interaction.  She is chair of the International IFIP TC13 SIG on Interaction Design and Children and the Child Computer Interaction Community Chair for the prestigious ACM CHI Conference series.   She has co-authored a key Elsevier text on Evaluating Children’s Technologies.
IN the areas of novel interactive technologies, much of her work has also focussed on children, especially on technologies that support the writing process.  Her work on digital ink and children is especially well known and she has a long time collaboration with Vision Objects in France, a company specialising in delivering handwriting recognition solutions. 
At UCLan, Prof. Read directs the ChiCI group and acts as a PI on several European and Research Council projects.  Recent projects include UMSIC (EU FP7), SELEAG (EU LLLP), and Mad4Nrg (RCUK). 

Qualifications:

BSc , Mathematics, University of Manchester
PGCE (Secondary Education), University of Lancaster
PhD (Child Computer Interaction), UCLan

Membership of professional and learned bodies:

Member British HCI Group (since 2001)
Member ACM (since 2003)
Member ACM SigChi (since 2005)
Member EARLI (since 2005)
Member British Computer Society (since 2007)

Research Activities and Projects

Organization of scientific conferences and workshops

General chair or Programme chair
• Programme co-chair, HCIEd2010, Eindhoven, NL
• Demo and Interactive Experiences chair, Interact 2009, Uppsala, Sweden
• Associate chair, IDC2009, Lake Come, Italy
• Posters chair, Fun and Games 2008, Eindhoven, NL
• Student paper chair, HCI2008, Liverpool. UK
• Student paper chair, HCI2007, Lancaster, UK
• Doctoral Consortium Chair. IDC2007, Aarlborg, Denmark
• Programme co-chair:  HCIEd 2006, Limerick, Ireland. 
• Co-chair: HCIEd Workshop 2006, London, UK
• General chair: Fun and Games 2006, Preston, UK.
• Tutorials and Workshops chair, IDC 2005, Boulder, Colorado, US
• General co-chair: Pen Workshop, held at HCI2005, Edinburgh, Scotland, U
• General co-chair; HCIEd Workshop 2005, Edinburgh, Scotland, UK
• General co-chair:  HCIEd 2004, Preston, UK .

 
Conferences organised
• Fun and Games 2006, Preston, UK.
• Interaction Design and Children, IDC 2003, Preston, UK.

Workshops, Tutorials, and SIGs organised (updated 2008)
• Read, J. C., Markopoulos, P., Pares, N., Hourcade, J P and Antle, A N. (2008):  Child Computer Interaction. Special Interest Group (SIG) organised at ACM CHI 2008. pp. 2419-2422.
• Höysniemi, J. and Read, J. C. (2005), Wizard of Oz with Children - ethical dilemmas and experiences from the field, IDC2005, Boulder, Colorado.
• Markopoulos, P., Höysniemi, J., Read, J., and MacFarlane, S. (2005), Workshop: Child Computer Interaction: Methodological Research. In Buono, P., Costabile, M. F., Paternó, F., Santoro, C. I, (Eds.) Interact (2005) Communicating Naturally with Computers, Adjunct Proceedings, Edizioni Giuseppe Laterza, p95-96.
• Read, J. C. and Gray, P. (2005), Workshop: Improving and Assessing Pen-Based Input Techniques. HCI2005, Edinburgh, Scotland
• MacFarlane, S. J., Read, J.C., Höysniemi, J. and Markopoulos, P. (2004) Evaluating Interactive Products for and with Children; Tutorial presented at CHI2004, Vienna, Austria
• MacFarlane, S. J., Read, J.C., Höysniemi, J. and Markopoulos, P. (2004) Evaluating Interactive Products for and with Children; Tutorial presented at IDC2004, Maryland, USA
• MacFarlane, S., J. Read, J. Höysniemi and P. Markopoulos (2004), Tutorial: Evaluating Interactive Products for and with Children. HCI2004, Leeds, UK.
• McManus, B. and Read, J. (2004), 7th Educators Workshop: Effective Teaching and Training in University of Central Lancashire, LTSN Press. ISBN: 0954192753.
• MacFarlane, S. J., Read, J.C., Höysniemi, J. and Markopoulos, P. (2003) Evaluating Interactive Products for and with Children; Tutorial presented at Interact 2003, Zurich, Switzerland

Faisal Hanif - The use of WWW for Transplant Patients – completed 2008
Gavin Sim - The usability of Computer Assisted Assessment – completed 2010
Emanuela Mazzone - Requirements gathering for museum interfaces – to be examined 2011
Diana Xu - Tangible Interfaces for Children – examined 2010 awaiting revisions
Akiyo Kano - Text input and dyslexic users – to be examined 2011
Matt Horton - Multi layered Interfaces for Children – to be examined 2013
Jamin Xu – Harmonious Interfaces Design – completed 2010

Invited Seminars and Talks (updated 2009)

2009 – ‘Children as Designers – Myth or Reason’, Middlesex University, London
2009 – ‘Fun 4 – Usability 0’, Napier University, Edinburgh, UK
2008 – ‘Women and media’, UKRC. UK
2007 – ‘Fun in the User Interface’, University of York, Toronto
2007 – ‘Participation’, Reykjavik University, Iceland
2007 – ‘HCI for Children’, Birmingham University, UK
2006 – ‘Hands up if you like it’ Taking Fun Seriously, Technical University of Eindhoven, NL
2006 – ‘Mightier than the Mouse’, Technical University of Eindhoven, NL
2006 – ‘In the Playground’ Northumbria University
2003 – ‘Research with Children in HCI’ Bath University
2002 – Child Computer Interaction, Tampere, Finland

Best Reviewer; Interacting with Computers (Elsevier) 2009
Oustanding Comtribution to Science Engineering and Technology; SETPoint, 2008
Harris Award for Excellence 2008
Harris Award for Excellence 2004
Best Long Paper; HCI 2004
Best Poster; CAL 2001

External Responsibilities / Consultancy

Vice Chair, International IFIP TC13 SIG on Interaction Design and Children
Membership Chair, British HCI Group
Usability consultant to Vision Objects, France
SETPOINT Science Ambassador to schools
Member MentorSET

Reviewing and Journal Editing

Associate Editor International Journal of Mobile Human Computer Interaction (since 2008)
Reviewer International Journal of Human Computer Studies (since 2008)
Reviewer: Interacting with Computers (since 2005)
Reviewer: International Journal of Human Computer Interaction (since 2006)
Reviewer: Journal of Computer Supported Collaborative Work (since 2007)
Reviewer for several major conferences including: ACM CHI, ACM UIST, ACM CSCW, ACM Nordichi, ACM IDC, BCS HCI, IFIP Interact (since 2003)
Reviewer EPSRC (since 2006)

2010 – 13 RCUK Mad4Nrg ‘Taking on the Teenagers’ (£1.5M - £400K to UClan)
2009 -11  EU Lifelong Learning SELEAG (£250K - £50K to UClan)
2008 -11 EU FP7 UMSIC (£1.5M - £180K to UCLan)
2007 - 09 HEFCE £46K Urban Regeneration (with Dr Pam Qualter, UCLan)
2006 Microsoft / HE Academy £5K for CraSh project
2005  LDDA  £150K. Broadband Enabled Activities for Museums
2003  LTSN £2K Flesca – Flexible Assessment

Publications

(Last Updated – 2009)
Authored Books
[1] Markopoulos, P., Read, J. C., MacFarlane, S. J, and J Hoysniemi, (2008) Evaluating Interactive Products with and for Children, San Francisco: Morgan Kaufmann Publishers (Contribution by Read = 45%)

Volumes Edited
[2] Markopoulos, P., Read, J. C., MacFarlane, S. J, and J Hoysniemi, Eds (2007) Child Computer Interaction – Research Methodology, Special Edition of Computers Technology and Work
[3] Beale, R., Engelfield, P, Read, J. C. and W Wong, Eds. (2006) HCI Educators “The Yellow Book”, Proceedings HCIE2006, London, UK
[4] Hvannberg, E. T., J. C. Read, L. Bannon, P. Kotzé and W. Wong, Eds. (2006). Inventivity: Teaching theory, design and innovation in HCI, Proceedings HCIEd2006 – 1
[5] Read, J. C. and P. Gray (2005). Improving and Assessing Pen-Based Input Techniques. HCI2005, Edinburgh, Scotland.
[6] McManus, B. and Read, J. (2004), 7th Educators Workshop: Effective Teaching and Training in University of Central Lancashire, LTSN Press. ISBN: 0954192753.
[7] MacFarlane, S. J., A. Nicol, J. C. Read and L. Snape, Eds. (2003). 'Small Users - Big Ideas' Interaction Design and Children. Preston, ACM Press.
[8] MacFarlane, S., Nicol, T., Read, J. and Snape, L. (Eds) (2003), Small Users Big Ideas: Proceedings of Interaction Design and Children 2003, New York: ACM.

Invited Book Chapters
[9] Read, J. C, Druin, A (2009) Designing the Future in Mobile Technology for Children, A. Druin (Ed), Elsevier.
[10] Read, J. C (2007) Text Input for the Young and Old in Text Input Systems: Universality and variety. I. S. MacKenzie and K. Tanaka-Ishii (Eds) San Francisco: Morgan Kauffmann Publishers, ,
[11] Read. J. C. (2007) Wizard of Oz Studies in Handbook of Research on User Interface Design and Evaluation for Mobile Technology, J. Lumsden (Ed) Idea Group,

Most Highly Cited Publications
[12] Read, J. C., S. J. MacFarlane and C. Casey (2002b). Endurability, Engagement and Expectations: Measuring Children's Fun. Interaction Design and Children, Eindhoven, Shaker Publishing. (47 citations, 5.88 cites per year)
[13] Read, J. C., S. J. MacFarlane and C. Casey (2001d). Measuring the Usability of Text Input Methods for Children. HCI2001, Lille, France, Springer Verlag. (26 citations, 2.89 cites per year)
[14] Read, J. C., P. Gregory, S. J. MacFarlane, B. McManus, P. Gray and R. Patel (2002). An Investigation of Participatory Design with Children - Informant, Balanced and Facilitated Design. Interaction Design and Children, Eindhoven, Shaker Publishing. (23 citations, 2.88 cites per year)
[15] Read, J. C., S. J. MacFarlane and C. Casey (2002c). Oops!  Silly me!  Errors in a Handwriting Recognition-based Text entry Interface for Children. NordiChi 2002, Aarhus, Denmark, ACM Press. (18 citations, 2.25 cites per year)
[16] Read, J. C., S. J. MacFarlane and A. G. Gregory (2004b). Requirements for the Design of a Handwriting Recognition Based Writing interface for Children. Interaction Design and Children 2004, Maryland, US, ACM Press. (17 citations, 2.83 cites per year)
[17] Read, J. C. and S. J. MacFarlane (2000). Measuring Fun - Usability Testing for Children. Computers and Fun 3, York, England, BCS HCI Group. (16 citations, 1.6 cites per year)
[18] Read, J. C. and S. J. MacFarlane (2006). Using the Fun Toolkit and Other Survey Methods to Gather Opinions in Child Computer Interaction.  Interaction Design and Children, IDC2006, Tampere, Finland, ACM Press. (13 citations, 3.25 cites per year)
[19] Read, J. C., S. J. MacFarlane and C. Casey (2003c). What's going on? Discovering what Children understand about Handwriting Recognition Interfaces. IDC 2003, Preston, UK, ACM Press. (13 citations, 1.86 cites per year)
[20] Read, J. C., S. J. MacFarlane and M. Horton (2004c). The Usability of Handwriting Recognition for Writing in the Primary Classroom. HCI 2004, Leeds, UK, Springer Verlag. (10 citations, 1.67 cites per year)
[21] Read, J. C., S. J. MacFarlane and C. Casey (2002d). Pens Behaving badly - Usability of Pens and Graphics Tablets for Text Entry with Children. ACM UIST'02, Paris, France. (10 citations, 1.25 cites per year)

Other Journal and Quality Conference and Workshop Publications (in Date Order)
[22] Read, J. C. (2009) “Designing Mobile Phones for Children – Is there a difference?’ International Journal of Mobile Human Computer Interaction Volume 1(3) pp. to appear
[23] Read, J.C., (2009) “Warp Speed Design  a Rapid Design Method for use with Children”, CHI2009, Boston, MA, ACM Press, pp. to appear
[24] Sim, G., Read, J. C., Cockton, G. (2009) “An evidence based approach to the design of heuristics for CAA” LNCS pp. to appear
[25] Read, J. C. (2008) “Validating the Fun Toolkit: an instrument for measuring children's opinions of technology. “Cognition, Technology & Work, Volume 10(2), pp. 119-128(10) 
[26] Mazzone, E., Read, J. C., Beale, R (2008) Design with and for disaffected teenagers, Nordichi ’08, Lund, Sweden, ACM Press
[27] Hanif, F., Kumar, A., Willcocks, L., Jolly, E,. Jameson, C., Neville, V., Raaj, K., Goodacre, J. A., Read, J. C., Chaudhry, A., Gibbs, P. (2007) The quality of information about kidney transplantation on the World Wide Web, Clinical Transplantation, Volume 21(3),  May/June 2007 , pp. 371-376(6)
[28] Xu, D., J. C. Read, E. Mazzone, S. J. MacFarlane and M. Brown (2007). Evaluation of Tangible User Interfaces (TUIs) for and with Children - Methods and Challenges. LNCS, Springer.
[29] Kano, A., J. C. Read, A. Dix and I. S. MacKenzie (2007). ExPECT: An expanded error categorization method for text input. British HCI 2007, Lancaster, UK, ACM Press.
[30] MacKenzie, I. S. and J. C. Read (2007). Using paper Mockups for Evaluating Soft Keyboard Layouts. CASCON 2007, Toronto, CA, IBM Canada Ltd.
[31] Read, J. C. (2007). “Children using Digital Ink for Writing” In Proceedings of the First international Workshop on Pen-Based Learning Technologies (May 24 - 25, 2007). PLT. IEEE Computer Society, Washington, DC
[32] Read, J. C. (2007). “A study of the usability of handwriting recognition for text entry by children.” - Interacting with Computers 19 (1) 
[33] Sim, G., S. J. MacFarlane and J. C. Read (2006). “All work and no play: Measuring fun, usability, and learning in software for children.” Computers and Education 46(3): 235 - 248.
[34] Kano, A., Read, J. C, and A, Dix (2006) Children’s Phrase Set for Text Input Method Evaluations. Proceedings of the Fourth Nordic Conference on Human Computer Interaction – NordiChi 2006
[35] Kelly, S. R., Mazzone, E., Horton, M. and J. C. Read (2006) Bluebells: A Design Method for Child-Centred Product Development. Proceedings of the Fourth Nordic Conference on Human Computer Interaction – NordiChi 2006
[36] Read, J. C., E. Mazzone and J. Höysniemi (2005). Wizard of Oz Evaluations with Children - Deception and Discovery. IDC2005, Boulder, Colorado, ACM Press.
[37] Read, J. C., E. Mazzone and M. Horton (2005). “Recognition Errors and Recognizing Errors - Children Writing on the Tablet PC.” Lecture Notes in Computer Science: 1096 - 1099.
[38] Nicol, A., J. C. Read and S. J. MacFarlane (2005). Improving speech recognition in a listening interface for young children. HCI2005, Edinburgh, UK, British HCI Group.
[39] Read, J. C., S. J. MacFarlane and C. Casey (2003). 'Good enough for what? Acceptance of Handwriting Recognition Errors by Child Users. IDC 2003, Preston, UK, ACM Press.

Other Publications
[40] Read, J. C. Mazzone, E. (2008). MESS days,  Interfaces. 71
[41] Read, J. C., Markopoulos, P., Parés , N., Hourcade J. P., Antle, A. N. (2008). Child Computer Interaction, CHI2008, Florence, Italy., ACM Press
[42] Read, J. C. Markopoulos, P (2008) Understanding children’s interactions: evaluating children’s interactive products, Interactions (15) 6
[43] Read, J. C., (2008) Jabberwocky: children's digital ink story writing from nonsense to sense, DIMEA’08, Athens, Greece, ACM Press
[44] Horton, M., J. C. Read and G. Sim (2007). Playing With Words: Evaluating Word processors with Children. Ed Media 2007, Vancouver, CA, AACE.
[45] Read, J. C. (2007). Guest appearance on BBC Click technology programme
[46] Read, J. C., S. J. MacFarlane, S. R. Kelly, E. Mazzone and M. Horton (2006). The ChiCI Group. CHI2006, Montreal, Ca, ACM Press.
[47] Read. J. C., and I. S. MacKenzie (2006). HCI Comes Alive with the Keyboard. HCIEducators Workshop, London, UK
[48] Read, J. C. and M. Horton (2006). When Teenagers tType, HCI2006, London, UK
[49] Read, J. C., S. R. Kelly and S. Birkett (2006). How Satisfying is Gaze Tracking for Children? Gaze Tracking Workshop, CHI 2006, Montreal, Ca.
[50] Read, J. C., S. R. Kelly and G. Sim (2006). 'In it to win it - at it to get it' Low - tech interactions for motivation and Learning in HCI. HCIEd2006 – 1 Limerick, Ireland.
[51] Sim, G., J. C. Read and P. Holifield (2006a). Evaluating the User Experience in CAA Environments, what affects user satisfaction. CAA 2006, Warwick, UK.
[52] Sim, G., J. C. Read and P. Holifield (2006b). Using Heuristics to Evaluate a Computer Assisted Assessment Environment. Ed Media 2006, Florida, USA.
[53] Read, J. C. (2005a). The Usability of Digital Ink Technologies for Children and Teenagers. HCI2005, Edinburgh, UK, Springer.
[54] Read, J. C. (2005b). “The ABC of CCI.” Interfaces 62: 8 - 9.
[55] Read, J. C. (2005c). “Change, Caps Lock and creativity.” Interfaces 63: 10.
[56] Read, J. C., M. Horton and E. Mazzone (2005). The Design of Digital Tools for the Primary Writing Classroom. EdMedia'05, Montreal, CA.
[57] Read, J. C., S. R. Kelly and G. Sim (2005). Student Choice and Involvement in an Undergraduate HCI Course. HCIEd-8, London, UK.
[58] Sim, G., S. J. MacFarlane and J. C. Read (2005). All work and no play: Measuring the effects of fun on learning in software for children. CAL'05, Bristol, UK.
[59] Read, J. C. (2005d). When Worlds Collide - Digital Ink and the QWERTY Keyboard. Less is More, Cambridge, UK, Microsoft.
[60] Read, J. C., S. J. MacFarlane and C. Casey (2004a). CobWeb - a Handwriting Recognition Based Writing Environment for Children. Writing04, Grenoble, Switzerland, EARLI SIG Writing.
[61] Read, J. C. (2004c). Reading, Reflection, and the Toolkit Approach. HCIE'04, Preston, UK, LTSN.
[62] Read, J. C., A. Newell, M. Zajicek, H. Petrie and A. Edwards (2004). Extreme HCI? - Challenges and Opportunities. HCI2004, Leeds, British HCI Group.
[63] Read, J. C., G. Sim, A. G. Gregory and K. Taylor (2004). Using a Web Based Tool to Innovate Assessment Practices. EdMedia'04, Geneva, SCH, AACE.
[64] Read, J. C. and M. Horton (2004a). Demonstrating CobWeb - An Innovative Writing Environment for Children. EdMedia2004, Lugano, AACE.
[65] Read, J. C. and M. Horton (2004b). The Usability of Digital Tools in the Primary Classroom. EdMedia2004, Lugano, AACE.
[66] Read, J. C. (2003). Reflections on the State of HCI as it reaches 17. Interfaces.
[67] Read, J. C., S. J. MacFarlane and C. Casey (2003a). A Comparison of two on-line Handwriting Recognition Methods for Unconstrained Text Entry by Children. HCI 2003, Bath, Research Press International, Bristol.
[68] Gregory, A. G. and J. C. Read (2003). What Makes them Stay? The Survivors' Tale. LTSN-ICS 4th Conference, Galway, LTSN-ICS.
[69] Read, J. C. and A. G. Gregory (2003). The How Can I (HCI) Toolkit. LTSN-ICS, Galway, EI, LTSN.
[70] Read, J. C., P. Gregory, G. Sim and K. Taylor (2003). FleSCA - A la carte assessment. LTSN-ICS 2003, Galway, Ireland, LTSN.
[71] Gilutz, S., Bekker, M.M., Druin, A., Fisch, S., Read. J. C., (2003). Children’s online interfaces: is usability testing worthwhile? IDC 2003, Maryland, USA.., ACM Press.
[72] Read, J. C., S. J. MacFarlane and C. Casey (2002a). Designing a Handwriting Recognition Based Writing Environment for Children. 8th International EARLI SIG Writing Conference, Staffordshire, England.
[73] Read, J. C. (2002a). Optimising Text Input for Young Children using Computers for Creative Writing Tasks. HCI 2002, London, England.
[74] Read, J. C. and A. G. Gregory (2002). FleSCA - Flexible Student Centred Assessment. LTSN 3rd Annual Conference, Loughborough, England.
[75] MacFarlane, S. J., B. McManus, J. C. Read, J. James and J. Dempsey (2002). User Needs Analysis. LTSN HCI Education Conference, Plymouth, UK.
[76] Read, J. C., S. J. MacFarlane and C. Casey (2001a). Describing disobedient interfaces. UCLan Department of Computing Conference, Preston, England.
[77] Read, J. C., S. J. MacFarlane and C. Casey (2001b). Expectations and Endurability - Measuring Fun. Computers and Fun 4, York, England.
[78] Read, J. C. and A. J. Gregory (2001). Using Groupwise to Stimulate Academic Discussion with Computing Students. 2nd Annual Conference of LTSN Centre for Information and Computer Science, London, England.
[79] Read, J. C., S. J. MacFarlane and C. Casey (2001c). Can Natural Language Recognition Technologies be used to enhance the Learning experience of Young Children? Computers and Learning, Warwick, UK.
[80] Gregory, P. and J. C. Read (2001a). Positive perspectives - using web page development to change student attitudes to learning maths. Computers and Learning, Warwick, UK.
[81] Gregory, P. and J. C. Read (2001b). Using Web CT as a tool for Mathematical Discussion. 1st Web CT Conference of UK and Ireland, Warwick, England.
[82] Gregory, P. and J. C. Read (2001c). Web based Maths - A Comparison of Different Approaches to using Web Page Development for Learning. 2nd Annual Conference of the LTSN Centre for Information and Computer Science, North London.
[83] Gregory, P. and J. C. Read (2000). Making Maths Matter: Using Active Learning to improve Student Motivation. 1st Annual Conference of the LTSN Centre for Information and Computer Sciences, Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, LTSN-ICS.
[84] Read, J. C., S. J. MacFarlane and C. Casey (2000a). 'Postcards to Grandad'- A study of Handwriting Recognition with Young Children. HCI 2000, Sunderland, England.
[85] Read, J. C., S. J. MacFarlane and C. Casey (2000b). Where's the 'm' on the keyboard, mummy? Womens' Engineering Society, Preston, Lancs

Teaching

Teaching

Critical Analysis
Advanced Topics in HCI
Interaction Design and Evaluation