John Zimmerman

Author: John Zimmerman

MDes

John Zimmerman holds interdisciplinary appointments as associate professor both in Carnegie Mellon's School of Design and its Human-Computer Interaction Institute (HCII). He teaches interaction design, training students to translate the needs and desires of people into products and services with a heavy focus on invention. In addition, he sometimes teaches HCI methods including formal methods for requirements gathering and usability testing.
His research focuses on how people interact with intelligent systems looking at both how families control smart homes and how workers engage with intelligent productivity software. I am also exploring how interaction design research can produce knowledge that has impact in the HCI research community.
Before joining Carnegie Mellon University, Zimmerman was a senior researcher at Philips Research, where he designed interactive television products and intelligent devices for the home consumer market.
Zimmerman holds an MDes in Interaction Design from Carnegie Mellon's School of Design.

Research Areas
Design Research, Enabling Technologies, Human Assistance, Social Computing

Research Interests
Design Research, Ubicomp, Social Computing, Cloud Computing, Service Design, Mixed-initiative Interaction, End-user programming, Possession Attachment

Projects
Design Research in HCI
Designing for the Self
Tiramisu
Virtual Possessions

Courses Taught
Interaction Design Studio
Graduate Design Seminar
User-Centered Research and Evaluation
Special topics: Designing mobile services

Publications

Publication period start: 2012
Number of co-authors: 89

Co-authors

Number of publications with favourite co-authors
Scott Davidoff
8
Anind K. Dey
8
Jodi Forlizzi
18

Productive Colleagues

Most productive colleagues in number of publications
Anind K. Dey
71
Jodi Forlizzi
90
Brad A. Myers
154

Publications

Karapanos, Evangelos, Zimmerman, John, Forlizzi, Jodi, Martens, Jean-Bernard (2010): Measuring the dynamics of remembered experience over time. In Interacting with Computers, 22 (5) pp. 328-335. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/B6V0D-4YV82HP-1/2/cb72b36603d5e880279878cc5dfc55f7

Zimmerman, John, Forlizzi, Jodi, Evenson, Shelley (2007): Research through design as a method for interaction design research in HCI. In: Proceedings of ACM CHI 2007 Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems , 2007, . pp. 493-502. https://doi.acm.org/10.1145/1240624.1240704

Zimmerman, John, Tomasic, Anthony, Simmons, Isaac, Hargraves, Ian, Mohnkern, Ken, Cornwell, Jason, McGuire, Robert Martin (2007): Vio: a mixed-initiative approach to learning and automating procedural update tasks. In: Proceedings of ACM CHI 2007 Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems , 2007, . pp. 1445-1454. https://doi.acm.org/10.1145/1240624.1240843

DiSalvo, Carl, Forlizzi, Jodi, Zimmerman, John, Mutlu, Bilge, Hurst, Amy (2005): The SenseChair: The lounge chair as an intelligent assistive device for elders. In: Proceedings of the Conference on Designing for User Experiences (DUX05) November, 2005, San Francisco, CA, USA.

Chung, Yuan-Chou, Zimmerman, John, Forlizzi, Jodi (2005): Monitoring and managing presence in incoming and outgoing communication. In: Proceedings of ACM CHI 2005 Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems , 2005, . pp. 1284-1287. https://doi.acm.org/10.1145/1056808.1056897

Hurst, Amy, Zimmerman, John, Atkeson, Christopher, Forlizzi, Jodi (2005): The sense lounger: establishing a ubicomp beachhead in elders\' homes. In: Proceedings of ACM CHI 2005 Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems , 2005, . pp. 1467-1470. https://doi.acm.org/10.1145/1056808.1056943

Jafarinaimi, Nassim, Forlizzi, Jodi, Hurst, Amy, Zimmerman, John (2005): Breakaway: an ambient display designed to change human behavior. In: Proceedings of ACM CHI 2005 Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems , 2005, . pp. 1945-1948. https://doi.acm.org/10.1145/1056808.1057063

Tomasic, Anthony, Zimmerman, John, Simmons, Isaac (2006): Linking messages and form requests. In: Proceedings of the 2006 International Conference on Intelligent User Interfaces , 2006, . pp. 78-85. https://doi.acm.org/10.1145/1111449.1111472

Zimmerman, John, Dimitrova, Nevenka, Agnihotri, Lalitha, Janevski, Angel, Nikolovska, Lira (2003): Interface Design for MyInfo: a Personal News Demonstrator Combining Web and TV Content. In: Proceedings of IFIP INTERACT03: Human-Computer Interaction , 2003, Zurich, Switzerland. pp. 41.

Tomasic, Anthony, Simmons, Isaac, Zimmerman, John (2007): Learning information intent via observation. In: Proceedings of the 2007 International Conference on the World Wide Web , 2007, . pp. 51-60. https://doi.acm.org/10.1145/1242572.1242580

Davidoff, Scott, Lee, Min Kyung, Yiu, Charles, Zimmerman, John, Dey, Anind K. (2006): Principles of Smart Home Control. In: Dourish, Paul, Friday, Adrian (eds.) Poceedings of the 8th International Conference on Ubiquitous Computing September 17-21, 2006, Orange County, CA, USA. pp. 19-34. https://www.springerlink.com/content/w5020352216617p2/?p=e74586ef0dac4963b5e9a6aa913b5bfe&pi=0

Davidoff, Scott, Lee, Min Kyung, Dey, Anind K., Zimmerman, John (2007): Rapidly Exploring Application Design Through Speed Dating. In: Krumm, John, Abowd, Gregory D., Seneviratne, Aruna, Strang, Thomas (eds.) Proceedings of the 9th International Conference on Ubiquitous Computing September 16-19, 2007, Innsbruck, Austria. pp. 429-446. https://www.springerlink.com/content/w174666l525j2741/?p=e74586ef0dac4963b5e9a6aa913b5bfe&pi=1

Forrest, Matthew, Forlizzi, Jodi, Zimmerman, John (2008): Driving the family: empowering the family technology lead. In: Proceedings of ACM CHI 2008 Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems April 5-10, 2008, . pp. 2913-2918. https://doi.acm.org/10.1145/1358628.1358783

Jeong, Hee Young, Park, Sun Young, Zimmerman, John (2008): Opportunities to support parents in managing their children\'s health. In: Proceedings of ACM CHI 2008 Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems April 5-10, 2008, . pp. 3225-3230. https://doi.acm.org/10.1145/1358628.1358835

Forlizzi, Jodi, DiSalvo, Carl, Zimmerman, John, Mutlu, Bilge, Hurst, Amy (2005): The SenseChair: the lounge chair as an intelligent assistive device for elders. In: Proceedings of the Conference on Designing for User Experiences DUX05 , 2005, . pp. 31. https://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1138235.1138272

Sterling, Rhiannon, Zimmerman, John (2007): Shared moments: opportunities for mobile phones in religious participation. In: Proceedings of DUX07 Designing for User eXperiences , 2007, . pp. 15. https://doi.acm.org/10.1145/1389908.1389928

Zimmerman, John (2009): Designing for the self: making products that help people become the person they desire to . In: Proceedings of ACM CHI 2009 Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems , 2009, . pp. 395-404. https://doi.acm.org/10.1145/1518701.1518765

Karapanos, Evangelos, Zimmerman, John, Forlizzi, Jodi, Martens, Jean-Bernard (2009): User experience over time: an initial framework. In: Proceedings of ACM CHI 2009 Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems , 2009, . pp. 729-738. https://doi.acm.org/10.1145/1518701.1518814

Zimmerman, John, Rivard, Kathryn, Hargraves, Ian, Tomasic, Anthony, Mohnkern, Ken (2009): User-created forms as an effective method of human-agent communication. In: Proceedings of ACM CHI 2009 Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems , 2009, . pp. 1869-1878. https://doi.acm.org/10.1145/1518701.1518988

Zimmerman, John, Forlizzi, Jodi, Koskinen, Ilpo (2009): Building a unified framework for the practice of experience design. In: Proceedings of ACM CHI 2009 Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems , 2009, . pp. 4803-4806. https://doi.acm.org/10.1145/1520340.1520745

Tomasic, Anthony, Simmons, Isaac, Zimmerman, John (2006): Processing information intent via weak labeling. In: Yu, Philip S., Tsotras, Vassilis J., Fox, Edward A., Liu, Bing (eds.) Proceedings of the 2006 ACM CIKM International Conference on Information and Knowledge Management November 6-11, 2006, Arlington, Virginia, USA. pp. 856-857. https://doi.acm.org/10.1145/1183614.1183765

Davidoff, Scott, Lee, Min Kyung, Yiu, Charles, Zimmerman, John, Dey, Anind K. (2006): Principles of Smart Home Control. In: Dourish, Paul, Friday, Adrian (eds.) UbiComp 2006 Ubiquitous Computing - 8th International Conference September 17-21, 2006, Orange County, CA, USA. pp. 19-34. https://dx.doi.org/10.1007/11853565_2

Davidoff, Scott, Lee, Min Kyung, Dey, Anind K., Zimmerman, John (2007): Rapidly Exploring Application Design Through Speed Dating. In: Krumm, John, Abowd, Gregory D., Seneviratne, Aruna, Strang, Thomas (eds.) UbiComp 2007 Ubiquitous Computing - 9th International Conference September 16-19, 2007, Innsbruck, Austria. pp. 429-446. https://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-74853-3_25

Zimmerman, John (2003): Exploring the role of emotion in the interaction design of digital music players. In: DPPI 2003 - Proceedings of the 2003 International Conference on Designing Pleasurable Products and Interfaces June 23-26, 2003, Pittsburgh, PA, USA. pp. 152-153. https://doi.acm.org/10.1145/782896.782937

Spencer, Herbert, Evenson, Shelley, Zimmerman, John (2007): MediaFranca: ubiquitous computing for youth engagement. In: Koskinen, Ilpo, Keinonen, Turkka (eds.) DPPI 2007 - Proceedings of the 2007 International Conference on Designing Pleasurable Products and Interfaces August 22-25, 2007, Helsinki, Finland. pp. 429-433. https://doi.acm.org/10.1145/1314161.1314200

Ozenc, Kursat F., Brommer, James P., Jeong, Bong-keum, Shih, Nina, Au, Karen, Zimmerman, John (2007): Reverse alarm clock: a research through design example of designing for the self. In: Koskinen, Ilpo, Keinonen, Turkka (eds.) DPPI 2007 - Proceedings of the 2007 International Conference on Designing Pleasurable Products and Interfaces August 22-25, 2007, Helsinki, Finland. pp. 392-406. https://doi.acm.org/10.1145/1314161.1314196

Lee, Min Kyung, Davidoff, Scott, Zimmerman, John, Dey, Anind K. (2007): Smart bag: managing home and raising children. In: Koskinen, Ilpo, Keinonen, Turkka (eds.) DPPI 2007 - Proceedings of the 2007 International Conference on Designing Pleasurable Products and Interfaces August 22-25, 2007, Helsinki, Finland. pp. 434-437. https://doi.acm.org/10.1145/1314161.1314201

Snyder, Max, Zimmerman, John, Forlizzi, Jodi (2007): Your dinner\'s calling: supporting family dinnertime activities. In: Koskinen, Ilpo, Keinonen, Turkka (eds.) DPPI 2007 - Proceedings of the 2007 International Conference on Designing Pleasurable Products and Interfaces August 22-25, 2007, Helsinki, Finland. pp. 485-489. https://doi.acm.org/10.1145/1314161.1314209

Sterling, Rhiannon, Zimmerman, John (2007): Shared moments: opportunities for mobile phones in religious participation. In: Koskinen, Ilpo, Keinonen, Turkka (eds.) DPPI 2007 - Proceedings of the 2007 International Conference on Designing Pleasurable Products and Interfaces August 22-25, 2007, Helsinki, Finland. pp. 490-494. https://doi.acm.org/10.1145/1314161.1314210

Forlizzi, Jodi, Zimmerman, John, Mancuso, Vince, Kwak, Sonya (2007): How interface agents affect interaction between humans and computers. In: Koskinen, Ilpo, Keinonen, Turkka (eds.) DPPI 2007 - Proceedings of the 2007 International Conference on Designing Pleasurable Products and Interfaces August 22-25, 2007, Helsinki, Finland. pp. 209-221. https://doi.acm.org/10.1145/1314161.1314180

Agnihotri, Lalitha, Dimitrova, Nevenka, Kender, John R., Zimmerman, John (2003): Music videos miner. In: Rowe, Lawrence A., Vin, Harrick M., Plagemann, Thomas, Shenoy, Prashant J., Smith, John R. (eds.) Proceedings of the Eleventh ACM International Conference on Multimedia November 2-8, 2003, Berkeley, CA, USA. pp. 442-443. https://doi.acm.org/10.1145/957013.957103

Dimitrova, Nevenka, Agnihotri, Lalitha, Jasinschi, Radu S., Zimmerman, John, Marmaropoulos, George, McGee, Thomas, Dagtas, Serhan (2000): Video scouting demonstration: smart content selection and recording. In: ACM Multimedia 2000 , 2000, . pp. 499-500. https://doi.acm.org/10.1145/354384.376423

Dimitrova, Nevenka, Jasinschi, Radu S., Agnihotri, Lalitha, Zimmerman, John, McGee, Thomas, Li, Dongge (2001): Personalizing video recorders using multimedia processing and integration. In: ACM Multimedia 2001 , 2001, . pp. 564-567. https://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=500141.500243

Odom, William, Zimmerman, John, Forlizzi, Jodi (2010): Designing for dynamic family structures: divorced families and interactive systems. In: Proceedings of DIS10 Designing Interactive Systems , 2010, . pp. 151-160. https://doi.acm.org/10.1145/1858171.1858199

Zimmerman, John, Stolterman, Erik A., Forlizzi, Jodi (2010): An analysis and critique of Research through Design: towards a formalization of a research. In: Proceedings of DIS10 Designing Interactive Systems , 2010, . pp. 310-319. https://doi.acm.org/10.1145/1858171.1858228

Odom, William, Zimmerman, John, Forlizzi, Jodi (2010): Virtual possessions. In: Proceedings of DIS10 Designing Interactive Systems , 2010, . pp. 368-371. https://doi.acm.org/10.1145/1858171.1858240

Yoo, Daisy, Zimmerman, John, Steinfeld, Aaron, Tomasic, Anthony (2010): Understanding the space for co-design in riders' interactions with a transit service. In: Proceedings of ACM CHI 2010 Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems , 2010, . pp. 1797-1806. https://doi.acm.org/10.1145/1753326.1753596

Davidoff, Scott, Zimmerman, John, Dey, Anind K. (2010): How routine learners can support family coordination. In: Proceedings of ACM CHI 2010 Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems , 2010, . pp. 2461-2470. https://doi.acm.org/10.1145/1753326.1753699

Ozenc, Fatih Kursat, Kim, Miso, Zimmerman, John, Oney, Stephen, Myers, Brad A. (2010): How to support designers in getting hold of the immaterial material of software. In: Proceedings of ACM CHI 2010 Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems , 2010, . pp. 2513-2522. https://doi.acm.org/10.1145/1753326.1753707

Park, Sun Young, Zimmerman, John (2010): Investigating the opportunity for a smart activity bag. In: Proceedings of ACM CHI 2010 Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems , 2010, . pp. 2543-2552. https://doi.acm.org/10.1145/1753326.1753712

Faulring, Andrew, Myers, Brad A., Mohnkern, Ken, Schmerl, Bradley, Steinfeld, Aaron, Zimmerman, John, Smailagic, Asim, Hansen, Jeffery, Siewiorek, Daniel (2010): Agent-assisted task management that reduces email overload. In: Proceedings of the 2010 International Conference on Intelligent User Interfaces , 2010, . pp. 61-70. https://doi.acm.org/10.1145/1719970.1719980

Davidoff, Scott, Ziebart, Brian D., Zimmerman, John, Dey, Anind K. (2011): Learning patterns of pick-ups and drop-offs to support busy family coordination. In: Proceedings of ACM CHI 2011 Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems , 2011, . pp. 1175-1184. https://dx.doi.org/10.1145/1978942.1979119

Odom, William, Zimmerman, John, Forlizzi, Jodi (2011): Teenagers and their virtual possessions: design opportunities and issues. In: Proceedings of ACM CHI 2011 Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems , 2011, . pp. 1491-1500. https://dx.doi.org/10.1145/1978942.1979161

Zimmerman, John, Tomasic, Anthony, Garrod, Charles, Yoo, Daisy, Hiruncharoenvate, Chaya, Aziz, Rafae, Thiruvengadam, Nikhil Ravi, Huang, Yun, Steinfeld, Aaron (2011): Field trial of Tiramisu: crowd-sourcing bus arrival times to spur co-design. In: Proceedings of ACM CHI 2011 Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems , 2011, . pp. 1677-1686. https://dx.doi.org/10.1145/1978942.1979187

Lindqvist, Janne, Cranshaw, Justin, Wiese, Jason, Hong, Jason, Zimmerman, John (2011): I'm the mayor of my house: examining why people use foursquare -- a social-driven location. In: Proceedings of ACM CHI 2011 Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems , 2011, . pp. 2409-2418. https://dx.doi.org/10.1145/1978942.1979295

Wiese, Jason, Kelley, Patrick Gage, Cranor, Lorrie Faith, Dabbish, Laura, Hong, Jason I., Zimmerman, John (2011): Are you close with me? are you nearby?: investigating social groups, closeness, and willin. In: Proceedings of the 2011 International Conference on Uniquitous Computing , 2011, . pp. 197-206. https://dx.doi.org/10.1145/2030112.2030140

Fu, Zhiyong, Zimmerman, John, Wu, Jiayu, Kirwan, Christopher Mustafa, Zhao, Chen (2011): The role of design in Ubicomp research and practice. In: Proceedings of the 2011 International Conference on Uniquitous Computing , 2011, . pp. 629-630. https://dx.doi.org/10.1145/2030112.2030249

Bardzell, Shaowen, Bardzell, Jeffrey, Forlizzi, Jodi, Zimmerman, John, Antanitis, John (2012): Critical design and critical theory: the challenge of designing for provocation. In: Proceedings of DIS12 Designing Interactive Systems , 2012, . pp. 288-297. https://dx.doi.org/10.1145/2317956.2318001

Odom, William, Zimmerman, John, Davidoff, Scott, Forlizzi, Jodi, Dey, Anind K., Lee, Min Kyung (2012): A fieldwork of the future with user enactments. In: Proceedings of DIS12 Designing Interactive Systems , 2012, . pp. 338-347. https://dx.doi.org/10.1145/2317956.2318008

Rode, Jennifer A., Magee, Rachel, Sebastian, Melinda, Black, Alan, Yudell, Rachel, Gibran, Aly, McDonald, Nora, Zimmerman, John (2012): Rethinking the smart closet as an opportunity to enhance the social currency of clothing. In: Proceedings of the 2012 International Conference on Uniquitous Computing , 2012, . pp. 183-192. https://dx.doi.org/10.1145/2370216.2370245

New to UX Design? We're Giving You a Free eBook!

The Basics of User Experience Design

Download our free ebook “The Basics of User Experience Design” to learn about core concepts of UX design.

In 9 chapters, we’ll cover: conducting user interviews, design thinking, interaction design, mobile UX design, usability, UX research, and many more!

A valid email address is required.
316,660 designers enjoy our newsletter—sure you don’t want to receive it?

New to UX Design? We're Giving You a Free eBook!

The Basics of User Experience Design

Download our free ebook “The Basics of User Experience Design” to learn about core concepts of UX design.

In 9 chapters, we’ll cover: conducting user interviews, design thinking, interaction design, mobile UX design, usability, UX research, and many more!

A valid email address is required.
316,660 designers enjoy our newsletter—sure you don’t want to receive it?