About Me

I am a user experience (UX) researcher currently working at Microsoft in the Surface User Research team. I graduated from a Ph.D. in Human Computer Interaction at the Université Paris Sud in 2008. I live in Seattle, WA with my wife, Nathalie Riche. Since I started working in HCI, I have been fascinated by the way people interact with technology, and how technology affects our lives. Before I heard about human computer interaction I wanted to work in house automation (domotics) and studied Electrical Engineering at the Grenoble Institute of Technology in France. Towards the end of my Bachelor, I obtained a grant to study human computer interaction at the University of Queensland (UQ), Australia and ended up graduating from a Master of Information Environments at the end of 2003. By that time, I was hooked and in late 2004, I started a Ph.D. in this field. My particular interests are in understanding how technology is affected or affects people.

I am also an amateur photographer. I started seriously taking photos during my stay in Australia, when my family offered me my first film SLR camera in early 2003. I started shooting photos while touring Queensland. Because it was cheaper, I bought myself to a compact digital camera in 2005 to cut down the cost of printing pictures. In 2005, I started playing with a friends' digital SLR camera, and I bought myself one in March 2007. I usually walk around with my camera. I like taking pictures of things happening around me, mainly in the street. I use the standard Canon 18-55mm lens provided with my Canon Rebel XT and the amazing Canon 50mm 1.8 lens, which I highly recommend for a great affordable lens. I have started shooting weddings, making portraits, and selling some of my fine art prints. You can learn more about my photography work in my flickr gallery.

short bio

Yann Riche is a user experience and academic researcher at Microsoft corporation in Redmond, WA, USA. His works spans from studying developers to consumers, with technical expertise in tools, services, documentation, and hardware. He obtained his Ph.D. in Human Computer Interactions in 2008 for his research on designing communication devices to support aging in place. His interests lie in the technology can support social behaviors, communities, and sustainable behaviors. His work takes place at the intersection of Computer Supported Collaborative Work and Computer Mediated Communication. In his work, he relies on both user-centered and participatory design methods to ground the research outcomes in real life situation, trying to extend existing social behaviors with technology. One major outcome of his research is the description of the PeerCare approach for aging in place, which advocates the support of peer reciprocal care amongst seniors in the community, as well as the importance of routines, and rhythms awareness in PeerCare. Another major outcome is the design and implementation of markerClock, a communicating clock allowing elderly friends to establish a socially acceptable shared awareness building upon life rhythm awareness and communication routines. His other projects explored physical collaboration in design, the use of technology to support teaching in high schools, ways to capture and analyze data in the field.

You can find a high resolution version of my portrait here. For more photos, please contact me.