James is a design and human-computer interaction (HCI) researcher who examines technological interfaces between people, data, and environments. Drawing on diverse theoretical perspectives, he studies how interfaces mediate human action, perception, and social practices. Methodologically, his research combines techniques of design prototyping, qualitative methods, and critical perspectives to understand and address social issues connected to computing technology. He has applied this interdisciplinary approach to research in the domains of digital privacy and surveillance, environmental sustainability and energy independence, and hyperconnectivity and information overload.

Alongside his research into specific domains such as digital privacy, he is perennially engaged in design theory and criticism. James practices and writes about design as a way of thinking and acting that extends beyond problem-solving and product development. Alongside these traditional uses of design, his research advances techniques for practicing design as a mode of academic inquiry, participatory engagement, cultural criticism, and speculative exploration.

James is an NSF CAREER awardee and has published over 50 peer-reviewed and edited articles in journals and conference proceedings spanning the fields of human-computer interaction, ubiquitous computing, and design research. His work has been awarded multiple Best Paper awards and nominations at conferences including the ACM Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI), Computer-Supported Cooperative Work and Social Computing (CSCW), and Pervasive and Ubiquitous Computing (Ubicomp). James holds a Ph.D. in Human-Computer Interaction from Carnegie Mellon University's Human-Computer Interaction Institute. He also holds a Master's in Human-Computer Interaction / Design from Indiana University Bloomington and a B.S. in Applied Mathematics (CS minor) from the Illinois Institute of Technology, where he also began his studies of Design at the Illinois Institute of Design.

Image credit: Page Smith