For the last 18+ years, Elizabeth Churchill has been studying why and how people acquire, adopt, and adapt interactive technologies in their everyday lives (or don't!). Elizabeth currently leads HCI research at eBay Research Labs. She previously led HCI research at Yahoo labs, PARC (the Palo Alto Research Center), and Fuji Xerox's Palo Alto lab. She has a Ph.D. in cognitive science from the University of Cambridge, UK.
Elizabeth has conducted research studies of technologies in use in the UK, mainland Europe, Asia, the US and Canada. Insights gleaned from observations of real world uptake and/or abandonment have led to design modifications, as well as the creation of innovative interactive applications and services where unmet needs have been identified. She's worked on the design and development of communication tools (including virtual worlds, collaboration/chat spaces), tools to support distributed work collaborations, applications and services for mobile and personal devices, social media desktop applications, and interactive media installations in public spaces.