Author: John C. Thomas
John received a Ph.D. in psychology from the University of Michigan in 1971 and managed a research project in the psychology of aging for two and a half years at Harvard Medical School before joining IBM Research. He spent a dozen years doing research in various areas of human computer interaction including query languages, natural language processing, design problem solving, audio systems, and speech synthesis. He also spent two years at Corporate Headquarters in the Chief Scientist's office, primarily getting IBM to pay more attention to usability.
In 1986, he began and led the Artificial Intelligence Laboratory at NYNEX Science and Technology. The laboratory did work in expert systems, machine vision, human computer interaction, intelligent tutoring systems, robotics, speech recognition and advanced tools for software design. John was active in the formation of ACM's Special Interest Group in Computer Human Interaction and has served in various capacities including general co-chair of the CHI conference in 1991. He rejoined IBM Research in 1998 to work on knowledge management, the business use of stories, and e-learning. John's current work is in designing tools to support Component Business Modeling.
John has taught at a variety of institutions of higher education including courses in cognitive psychology, problem solving and creativity, the psychology of aging, and human factors in information systems. He has over 130 publications and invited presentations in computer science and psychology and is a licensed psychologist in New York State. His primary hobbies are writing and golf.
Publications
Co-authors
Productive Colleagues
- Mary Beth Rosson
- John M. Carroll
- Ben Shneiderman
- 142
- 209
- 225
Publications
Thomas, John C., Lee, Alison, Danis, Catalina (2002): Enhancing creative design via software tools. In Communications of the ACM, 45 (10) pp. 112-115. https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/570907.570944
Miller, Lance A., Thomas, John C. (1999): Behavioral Issues in the Use of Interactive Systems. In International Journal of Human-Computer Studies, 51 (2) pp. 169-196.
Kellogg, Wendy A., Thomas, John C. (1995): HCIL\'s 12th Annual Symposium and Open House. In ACM SIGCHI Bulletin, 27 (4) pp. 53-55.
Kellogg, Wendy A., Thomas, John C. (1993): Cross-Cultural Perspectives on Human-Computer Interaction: A Report on the CHI\'92 Worksho. In ACM SIGCHI Bulletin, 25 (2) pp. 40-45.
Butler, Keith A., Kieras, David E., Thomas, John C., Price, Chuck, Allen, Thomas (1990): Collaboration for Technology Transfer -- or "How Do So Many Promising Ideas Get Lost?. In: Carrasco, Jane, Whiteside, John (eds.) Proceedings of the ACM CHI 90 Human Factors in Computing Systems Conference , 1990, Seattle, Washington,USA. pp. 349-351.
Carroll, John M., Thomas, John C. (1988): Fun. In ACM SIGCHI Bulletin, 19 (3) pp. 21-24.
Thomas, John C., Brown, John Seely, Buxton, Bill, Curtis, Bill, Landauer, Thomas K., Malone, Thomas W., Shneiderman, Ben (1986): Human Computer Interaction in the Year 2000. In: Mantei, Marilyn, Orbeton, Peter (eds.) Proceedings of the ACM CHI 86 Human Factors in Computing Systems Conference April 13-17, 1986, Boston, Massachusetts. pp. 253-255.
Thomas, John C., Rosson, Mary Beth, Chodorow, Martin (1984): Human Factors and Synthetic Speech. In: Shackel, Brian (eds.) INTERACT 84 - 1st IFIP International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction September 4-7, 1984, London, UK. pp. 219-224.
Schneider, Michael L., Thomas, John C. (1983): Introduction: The Humanization of Computer Interfaces. In Communications of the ACM, 26 (4) pp. 252-253.
Carroll, John M., Thomas, John C. (1982): Metaphor and the cognitive representation of computing systems. In IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics, 12 (2) pp. 107-116.
Malhotra, Ashok, Thomas, John C., Carroll, John M., Miller, Lance A. (1980): Cognitive Processes in Design. In International Journal of Man-Machine Studies, 12 (2) pp. 119-140.
Thomas, John C., Carroll, John M. (1979): The psychological study of design. In Design Studies, 1 (1) pp. 5-11.
Carroll, John M., Thomas, John C., Malhotra, A. (1979): A clinical-experimental analysis of design problem solving. In Design Studies, 1 (2) pp. 84-92.
Thomas, John C. (1978): A Design-Interpretation Analysis of Natural English with Applications to Man-Computer Inte. In International Journal of Man-Machine Studies, 10 (6) pp. 651-668.
Miller, Lance A., Thomas, John C. (1977): Behavioral Issues in the Use of Interactive Systems. In International Journal of Man-Machine Studies, 9 (5) pp. 509-536.
Thomas, John C., Ellis, Robert A., Kriloff, Harvey Z. (eds.) Proceedings of the 7th annual conference on Computer graphics and interactive techniques July 14 - 18, 1980, Seattle, Washington, United States.
Thomas, John C., Stuart, Rory (1992): Virtual Reality and Human Factors. In: Proceedings of the Human Factors Society 36th Annual Meeting , 1992, . pp. 207-210.
Desurvire, Heather, Thomas, John C. (1993): Enhancing the Performance of Interface Evaluators Using Non-Empirical Usability Methods. In: Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society 37th Annual Meeting , 1993, . pp. 1132-1136.
Sambasivan, Nithya, Ho, Melissa, Kam, Matthew, Kodagoda, Neesha, Dray, Susan M., Thomas, John C., Light, Ann, Toyama, Kentaro (2009): Human-centered computing in international development. In: Proceedings of ACM CHI 2009 Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems , 2009, . pp. 4745-4750. https://doi.acm.org/10.1145/1520340.1520731
Thomas, John C. (2001): Quantitative and Qualitative Measures: Myths of the Culture. In: HICSS 2001 , 2001, . https://csdl.computer.org/comp/proceedings/hicss/2001/0981/05/09815032abs.htm
Farrell, Robert G., Liburd, Soyini D., Thomas, John C. (2004): Dynamic assembly of learning objects. In: Proceedings of the 2004 International Conference on the World Wide Web , 2004, . pp. 162-169. https://doi.acm.org/10.1145/1013367.1013394
Best, Mike, Dearden, Andrew M., Dray, Susan M., Light, Ann, Thomas, John C., Buckhalter, Celeste, Greenblatt, Dan, Krishnan, Shanks, Sambasivan, Nithya (2007): Sharing Perspectives on Community-Centered Design and International Development. In: Baranauskas, Maria Cecília Calani, Palanque, Philippe A., Abascal, Julio, Barbosa, Simone Diniz Junqueira (eds.) DEGAS 2007 - Proceedings of the 1st International Workshop on Design and Evaluation of e-Government Applications and Services September 11th, 2007, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. pp. 696-697. https://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-74800-7_88
Dearden, Andrew M., Dunckley, Lynne, Best, Mike, Dray, Susan M., Light, Ann, Thomas, John C. (2007): Socially Responsible Design in the Context of International Development. In: Baranauskas, Maria Cecília Calani, Palanque, Philippe A., Abascal, Julio, Barbosa, Simone Diniz Junqueira (eds.) DEGAS 2007 - Proceedings of the 1st International Workshop on Design and Evaluation of e-Government Applications and Services September 11th, 2007, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. pp. 694-695. https://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-74800-7_87
Bonanni, Leonardo, Busse, Daniela K., Thomas, John C., Blevis, Eli, Turpeinen, Marko, Nunes, Nuno Jardim (2011): Visible -- actionable -- sustainable: sustainable interaction design in professional domai. In: Proceedings of ACM CHI 2011 Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems , 2011, . pp. 2413-2416. https://dx.doi.org/10.1145/1979742.1979572
Trewin, Shari, Richards, John T., Hanson, Vicki L., Sloan, David, John, Bonnie E., Swart, Cal, Thomas, John C. (2012): Understanding the role of age and fluid intelligence in information search. In: Fourteenth Annual ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Assistive Technologies , 2012, . pp. 119-126. https://dx.doi.org/10.1145/2384916.2384938
Pan, Yue, Roedl, David, Thomas, John C., Blevis, Eli (2012): Re-conceptualizing fashion in sustainable HCI. In: Proceedings of DIS12 Designing Interactive Systems , 2012, . pp. 621-630. https://dx.doi.org/10.1145/2317956.2318049