We design and develop new technologies that are sensitive to the social environments within which they will be used and that leverage and support those relationships.
We are a research group within the McGill School of Information Studies studying, designing, and building new technologies that can better accommodate a diversity of needs. Funding sources for our work include NSERC, CRC, AGE-WELL, FQRNT, GRAND, and Google.
Our paper, "Navigating online misinformation: Understanding older adults’ information-seeking behavior in health crises" with Amira Ghenai as lead author was published in Computers in Human Behaviour Reports
Welcome to Esteban Velasquez Toro and Gainshin Hsiao who have joined as PhD and MISt students, and welcome back to Pepper Wang who has returned as a PhD student.
Our paper, "Breaking Barriers: Co-Designing Physical Activity Promoting Technologies with Older Adults Living Alone" with Muhe Yang as lead author was published in ACM TACCESS.
PhD student, Chong Hu, has been awarded a scholarship from the Fonds de Recherche du Quebec; Nature et Technologies scholarship, for her research on co-creating novel technlogies with older adults. Congrats, Chong!
ACT Lab PhD student, Muhe Yang, catches up with lab alumni Carrie Dai and Robert Ferguson at CHI 2025 in Japan
Muhe Yang presented her work in the plenary session of the CHI 2025 workshop on Technology-Mediated Caregiving for Older Adults Aging in Place.
Congratulations to Muhe Yang who presented a poster at ASSETS 2024 describing her research on design opportunities for supporting older adults in overcoming barriers to physical activty in later life.
We were delighted to present our TACCESS paper, Guidelines for Designing Social Networking Sites for Older Adults: A Systematic Review with Thematic Synthesis, at ASSETS 2024
Congratulations to Sihan Wang and Eugene Guo for their research on the grocery shopping habits of older adults, which Eugene presented last week as a poster at GI 2024.
Our paper, "Co-Designing QuickPic: Automated Topic-Specific Communication Boards from Photographs for AAC-Based Language Instruction"with Mauricio Fontana de Vargas as lead author has been published at CHI 2024.
Our paper, "Navigating the Maze of Routine Disruption: Exploring How Older Adults Living Alone Navigate Barriers to Establishing and Maintaining Physical Activity Habits" with lead author, Muhe Yang, has been published at CHI 2024.
Congratulations to all the students finishing up projects with ACT Lab this year.
Among our MISt students, Sam Staves, Sihan Wang, and Grace Ferguson completed their MISt Research Projects, while Tsan Hsi Hseuh and Marzieh Zeberjad completed independent research courses.
Undergraduate students, Miriam Xia (Cognitive Science), Eugene Guo (Cognitive Science), Daniel Zhou (Cognitive Science), Charlene Yin (Cognitive Science), and Yutong Quan (Computer Science) all completed undergraduate research courses with the lab.
We wish Sam, Sihan, Grace, Tsan Hsi, Marzieh, Eugue, Daniel, Miriam, and Yutong all the best in their future pursuits!