John Zimmerman is a professor at Carnegie Mellon in the Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) Institute, teaching courses on Design of AI products and Services, Services Design and Design of Digital Startups. Research at the intersection of user experience design and artificial intelligence has produced innovations that improve on the human experience. His research specialties include user-centered design, interaction design and human-computer interaction.

Prior to joining Carnegie Mellon, he was a senior researcher at Philips Electronics, designing interactive television products and intelligent devices for the home, including the now-ubiquitous scrolling feature on most touchscreen devices.

This year, the Department of Transportation invited him to join their panel and share some of the projects he is currently developing. When asked what innovations he will bring, he mentioned his first work in accessibility: developing a crowd-sourced, real-time arrival system for Pittsburgh public transit.

“Our research was investigating if public service customers might effectively co-create the services they want and use,” Zimmerman said. “Real-time arrival information is especially important to transit users with disabilities, as it takes more effort from them to engage with the service, and reducing the uncertainty can make things like opportunistic travel more attainable.”

Zimmerman’s designs and innovations are built around a variety of users, all with the end goal of making transit more accessible.

“Recently we have been most focused on developing adaptive information systems for transit users,” he said. “We observe where and when individual transit users engage with the service and then infer the information they most likely want when they make a request. Our goal is to always serve people the information they want with a single button push. This innovation can help transit users who use screen readers and transit users who have cognitive impairments as it removes unneeded information they cannot easily skim over.”

For more information, check out Accessible Transportation for All at the Courtyard Marriott, Rio Grand Ballroom on MAR 12 at 2:00PM – 3:00PM