Jacob O. Wobbrock

I am a Professor of Information and, by courtesy, Computer Science & Engineering at the University of Washington (UW). My field is human-computer interaction (HCI) with a focus on mobile and accessible computing. I am a co-founder of the cross-campus DUB Group and the MHCI+D degree. I also direct the ACE Lab and am an Associate Director and former founding Co-Director of the CREATE research center. My Ph.D. students come from information science and computer science.

My research seeks to scientifically understand people's interactions with and experiences of computers and information, and to improve them by designing, building, and evaluating new interactive technologies. My specific research topics include input and interaction techniques, human performance measurement and modeling, HCI research and design methods, virtual reality, mobile computing, and accessible computing. I also have developed new statistical techniques and tools. Primarily, I consider myself a designer, inventor, computer scientist, and quantitative experimentalist.

Some of my notable projects are the ability-based design approach to accessible technology design, the $-family gesture recognizers, the end-user elicitation design method, the Slide Rule design for accessible touchscreen gestures, ARTool for conducting nonparametric statistical analyses, the Pointing Magnifier assistive pointing and visual aid, and the versatile EdgeWrite text entry system.

In 2010, I received an NSF CAREER award. In 2017, I was awarded the SIGCHI Social Impact Award. In 2019, I was inducted into the CHI Academy. In 2021, I was named an ACM Fellow for "contributions to human-computer interaction and accessible computing."

I have also been an entrepreneur. In 2012, I co-founded AnswerDash, where I was a venture-backed CEO for about three years. In 2020, AnswerDash was acquired by CloudEngage. My interviews with The New York Times and The Huffington Post capture some of my experiences as a startup co-founder from academia.