About Mark Watson
Mark Watson is a creative director, designer, and computer scientist.
His work focusses on interaction design, design strategy, and communications. Mark has designed and directed the creation of environments, videogames, kiosks mobile applications, websites, communications pieces. His has worked with some of the largest companies in the world, with a focus on the Pharma and Biomedical industries. He has also worked with a variety of institutional clients.
He received his B.Sc. Hons. and M.Sc. in computer science from the University of Saskatchewan. After graduation he turned his attention to human-computer interaction, working at several high-profile research and design groups, first at the University of Saskatchewan, then the University of Calgary, and, most recently, the University of Toronto. From 2007-2008, he was a member of The Institute Without Boundaries, an experimental design school and studio, whereat he contributed to a masterplan for the Guanacaste region of Costa Rica.
In 2008, he started the Office For Integrated Design, a small, interdisciplinary design firm focussing on institutional work. Clients have included the University of Toronto, the University of Calgary, George Brown College, the Ontario College of Art and Design, the Danish Design Centre, and Toronto's Children's Own Museum. He is currently a member of KMDI's Technologies For Aging Gracefully (TAG) Lab (directed by Dr. Ronald Baecker) and the Design and Computation Group at the Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design. The latter recently contributed to the design of "High Performance: Evolution and Innovation in Canadian Design" an exhibit presented as part of the Vancouver 2010 Cultural Olympiad.
In February 2010, Mark joined InViVo Communications as their Interaction Designer. In September 2011, he was named their Associate Creative Director.
He maintains the OFID as his private practice.
Invited Talks
“Negotiating Design in Guancaste.” June 25th, 2009. KMDI HCI Group. University of Toronto.
“Learning from Matapalo: Negotiating Design in Guanacaste.” November 2nd, 2009. Computer Science Department, University of Saskatchewan.
“Funny Thinking and Critical Assessment: Deep Connections Between Math, Philosophy, and Computer Science.” November 3rd, 2009. For the Watson Learning Community, University of Saskatchewan.
"The Importance of Generalism." March 4, 2010. KMDI Professional Development, University of Toronto.
"Theory and Practice." March 15, 2011. York University.
Exhibitions
"Inter/section" in "High Performance: Evolution and Innovation in Canadian Design." 2010 Cultural Olympiad, 2010 Vancouver Olympic Games. January 19 - March 7, 2010, Charles H. Scott Gallery. In collaboration with Campos Leckie, Design and Computation Group at the Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design.
"100 New Designer Roles" in "10+ Design Forecast." Danish Design Centre. April 29 - October 31, 2010. In collaboration with Mark Stevens and PLEKS.
Publications
Watson, M. and Worman, C. “Tiling Layouts with Dominoes,” 16th Canadian Conference on Computational Geometry, August, 2004
Watson, M. and Keil, J. “Routing Properties of the Localized Delaunay Triangulation over Heterogeneous Ad-Hoc Wireless Networks,” In Proceedings of CGA’06 as part of The International Conference on Computer Science and its Applications 2006, LNCS 3980, pages 121-130, 2006. (≈ 25% Acceptance Rate)
Gutwin, C., Fedak, C., Watson, M., Bell, T., and Dyck, J. “Improving Network Efficiency in Real-Time Groupware with General Message Compression,” CSCW’06. (≈ 25% Acceptance Rate)
Elliot, K., Watson, M., Neustaedter, C. and Greenberg, S. “Location-Dependant Information Appliances for the Home,” GI 2007.
Elliot, K., Watson, M., Neustaedter, C. and Greenberg, S. “Location-Dependant Information Domestic Appliances,” Pervasive 2007. (4 page paper and video)
Birnholtz, J., Gutwin, C., Ramos, G., and Watson, M. “OpenMessenger: Gradual Initiation of Interaction for Distributed Workgroups,” Proceedings of the ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI 2008). In press. (≈ 18% Acceptance Rate)
Journal Articles
Von Baeyer, C., Forsyth, S., Stanford, E., Watson, M. and Chambers, C. “Response biases in preschool children’s use of a pain scale: Are they really rating pain?” Accepted for publication, European Journal of Pain, 2008.
Thesis
Watson, M. “The Localized Delaunay Triangulation and Ad-Hoc Routing in Heterogeneous Environments,” M.Sc. thesis, December 2005.