Article · Wikipedia archive · Last revised Jun 23, 2026

Mark Chignell

Mark H. Chignell was a Canadian academic specialising in usability and information science and, since 2002, was a full professor at the University of Toronto.

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Mark H. Chignell
Chignell in 2009
Born1956
DiedNovember 20, 20251
Alma materUniversity of Canterbury
Scientific career
InstitutionsUniversity of Toronto
Thesis

Mark H. Chignell was a Canadian academic specialising in usability and information science and, since 2002, was a full professor at the University of Toronto.2

Academic career

He had a PhD in psychology (University of Canterbury, New Zealand, 1981), and an MS in Industrial and Systems Engineering (Ohio State, 1984).

After a 1980 PhD titled 'Cognitive mechanisms of categorisation' at the University of Canterbury,3 Chignell moved to the University of Toronto, rising to full professor.2

In 2003, Chignell founded Vocalage Inc.,4 a company that does usability consulting, outsourced research, and software development.

He participated in a 2003 experiment which gave doctors online access to medical databases through a handheld iPAQ PC, which led to changes in the decisions the doctors made.56

Chignell was the general chair of ACM Hypertext 2010.7

Selected works

  • Abrams, David, Ronald Baecker, and Mark Chignell. "Information archiving with bookmarks: personal Web space construction and organization." In Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, vol. 98, pp. 41–48. 1998.
  • Parsaye, Kamran, Mark Chignell, and Setrag Khoshafian. "Intelligent databases. Object-oriented, deductive hypermedia technologies." New York: Wiley, 1989 (1989).
  • Parsaye, Kamran, and Mark Chignell. "Expert systems for experts." Earth Systems and Environment (1988).
  • Zhao, Shengdong, Pierre Dragicevic, Mark Chignell, Ravin Balakrishnan, and Patrick Baudisch. "Earpod: eyes-free menu selection using touch input and reactive audio feedback." In Proceedings of the Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, pp. 1395–1404. ACM, 2007.
  • Fitzmaurice, George W., Shumin Zhai, and Mark H. Chignell. "Virtual reality for palmtop computers." ACM Transactions on Information Systems (TOIS) 11, no. 3 (1993): 197–218.
References

References

  1. Sinai Health. "In Memory of Professor Mark Chignell, Our Valued Partner". Circle of Care - Sinai Health. Circle of Care. Retrieved 9 January 2026.
  2. "Mark H. Chignell".
  3. Chignell, Mark (1980). Cognitive mechanisms of categorisation (Doctoral thesis). UC Research Repository, University of Canterbury. doi:10.26021/7597. hdl:10092/5880.
  4. "Our team | Vocalage". Archived from the original on 12 August 2014. Retrieved 9 August 2014.
  5. Buckler, Grant (1 October 2004). "Wireless content at work: why are we still making trivial use of the potential of wireless devices?". Computer Dealer News. Vol. 20 No. 14. Retrieved 19 February 2010.
  6. Cawfield, Diana (7 July 2003). "Gadgets to save a lifeWireless on call; Since the stethoscope, physicians have prized instant sources of vital data Handhelds for doctors on the go are the idea's latest evolution". Toronto Star. p. D-1. Retrieved 19 February 2010.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: deprecated archival service (link)
  7. "Committees". HT2010. Retrieved 20 June 2019.
External links