Grant: Discovery Grants Program - Individual

User interfaces are generally developed and tested with a single user in mind. However, a significant portion of interfaces are very often simultaneously used by two users or more! For example, in a household context, many important purchases (e.g., vehicle, house, travel arrangements) involve an online search by multiple users through a single interface prior to the transaction, which account for up to 53% of online household purchases according to Ipsos. As e-commerce is a $4.26 billion industry in Canada in 2018, it is crucial for Canadian retailers to advance knowledge and methods in the field of multi-user interface (MUI) evaluation. Given its importance, the subject of user experience (UX) in a MUI context is understudied and improved MUI design could have massive productivity implications across multiple sectors. This program is based on the considerable advancements that I have been able to achieve as the NSERC Industrial Research Chair (IRC) in UX, over the past few years. My research program is focused on understanding the cognitive and emotional states of users in authentic human-computer interaction (HCI) contexts. To accurately capture the user's states, I use methods associated with the fields of neuroscience and psychophysiology in order to acquire and analyze multimodal neurophysiological data. My research has a strong impact in academia and industry as it makes it possible to perform a UX evaluation of new software interfaces by taking into account what the user actually experiences. This proposal thus puts forward a research program that will focus on developing new methodologies, tools and measures for testing wide range of multi-user interfaces involving two or more individuals in both hedonic and instrumental contexts. To do so, the program proposes several research directions to further our knowledge of this phenomenon, but to also improve the validity, reliability and diagnosticity of the measurement and visualisation of multi-user experience. This research program relies primarily on HEC Montréal's world-class and CFI-funded Tech3Lab (T3L), which I co-founded and co-direct. The research program relies on a series of experiments that will be undertaken in an experimental group room located in the Tech3Lab. During the experiment, a wide range of neurophysiological measures will be used to capture the subjects' cognitive, emotional and attentional states. This research funding will allow us to pave the way for discoveries that will enable us to maintain our long-term scientific leadership, in addition to being published in leading journals in our fields. These advances will directly benefit Canadian industry which needs to establish itself at the forefront of the digital transformation, especially in the critical sector of e-commerce. I expect that the 100% placement rate of my PhD and MSc students will be maintained in both academic and research labs, the vast majority of them in Canadian organizations and universities.