This website contains information about my research interests and courses that I teach at the College of Computing and Digital Media at DePaul University in Chicago, Illinois. (Home of the Blue Demons).

You can see my design portfolio on my personal website at cyputnam.com

Current areas of investigation (see more in the research area):

• How human-computer interaction (HCI) professionals do their jobs; e.g., methods that professionals use to (a) investigate and (b) communicate about end users. HCI professionals have placed an increasing importance on developing methods to investigate users and methods to communicate about users; however, what methods work best and under what conditions methods fail or succeed have not been well documented. Additionally, HCI is a dynamic field in which methods are evolving; for example, a concern about accessibility has created a new subset of specialties in the field in which new methods have been explored over the last five years. This work is an expansion of my dissertation research.


• Efficacy of movement-related videogames (i.e., videogames for the X-Box Kinect, Nintendo Wii and Sony Move) for rehabilitation treatment with people who have suffered a brain injury. In the current study, we are working directly with therapists and staff at the Anixter Center's New Focus program located in Chicago in a compare/contrast of the three game systems. We expect our findings will lead to design guidelines and requirements for future videogames that support movement therapies.

If you are a DePaul student and interested in how you can get involved with these studies, contact me.