Home > Employees > T.M. van der Geest, Dr., Thea

T.M. van der Geest, Dr., Thea

Expertise

My research and teaching focuses on effective, efficient and appealing communication through new media, such as web pages. How should information be presented to work optimally for the users or visitors for whom it is meant? And what if those users have special needs, due to for example disabilities or high age? What if we adapt the content of a web page to the personal preferences or prior knowledge of the user? I initiated, conducted and supervised a variety of research and design projects in the domain of document design and technical communication with new media. In all those projects we also focused on evaluation methodology: how to assess the multiple effects of design decisions in a valid and proper way?

In the academic year 2004 – 2005 en 2005 – 2006 I teach the following courses:

Research projects

(2004-2005)

Alter Ego: State of the art op het gebied van personalisatie van websites en webdiensten

[Alter Ego: State of the art in the field of personalisation of web sites and web services]

(project coordinator and author, for the Telematic INstitute)

New web technologies make it possible to collect all tpes of inofrmation on the user, and apply these for adapting web sites to the needs and preferences of the users. But the same information can also be used to create more effective advertisements, or influence user behavior. In this project we made an inventory of the factors that determine whether personalization is acceptable and attractive to organizations and users

(2004-2005)

Design4all students

(project leader, researcher, for the Ministry of Education, Handicap + Studie Foundation)

Through user studies we assessed whether the educational and instructional websites of the University of Twente are optimally accessible and usable for (prospective) students with visual or motor disabilities or chronic diseases. The results are used to optimize the systems and will also be published in a Knowledge Base about accessibility and usability.

(2003-2006)

Teaching technical and professional communication to ESL students

(research advisor, for SANPAD (NL) and CCCC (USA)

In cooperation with the Cape Peninsula University of Technology (South Africa) we investigate communication training and instruction for students who do not have English as their first language. How can we benefit in education and in the workplace of the multi-lingual competence of these students? The studies focus on the workplace practice and the instruction of architects, radiographic assistants and engineers.

Thesis topics of recent graduates

·	The accessibility of multi-media learning materials and websites for students and users with various disabilities.

·	Cultural differences and preferences of international users of the Internet

·	Personalization of websites: acceptance and trust

·	Implementation and effectiveness of intranet applications in organizations

·	Information needs of elderly people for a web site in the health care sector

·	Collaborative writing on a distance, supported with audio and video

Functions

·	Associate professor Technical Communication

·	Coordinator minor program Communication Studies

·	Column New Media in the Information Design + Document design Journal

·	Advisor and supervisor of a project on communication instruction for engineers and other professionals, Cape Town, South Africa

·	Reviewer of articles and proposals, e.g. for journals and conferences on Technical Communication, Information Design and Document Design

·	Reviewer and opponent of dissertations and theses, e.g. for the University of Stockholm and Royal Institute of Technology (Sweden), Murdoch University (Australia), Cape Peninsula University of Technology (South Africa).

Publications (selections)

Geest, Th. van der & Loorbach, N. (2005). Testing the visual consistency of web sites. Technical Communication, 52 (1), 27-36.

Geest, Th. van der (2005). Mixing up colors. Colors in the interface. Information Design Journal + Document Design 13(1), 71-75.

Geest, Th. van der (2004). Beyond accessibility: Comparing three web sites usability test methods for people with impairments. Proceedings of HCI 2004: Design for Life. Volume 2.(pp. 129 – 132).

Geest, Th. van der (2003). So punk, do you feel lucky? Cultural values and web site design. Document design journal 4(3), 234-238.