William Arthur Stewart Buxton (born March 10, 1949) is a Canadian

computer scientist A computer scientist is a person who is trained in the academic study of computer science. Computer scientists typically work on the theoretical side of computation, as opposed to the hardware side on which computer engineers mainly focus (al ...

and designer. He is a partner researcher at

Microsoft Research Microsoft Research (MSR) is the research subsidiary of Microsoft. It was created in 1991 by Richard Rashid, Bill Gates and Nathan Myhrvold with the intent to advance state-of-the-art computing and solve difficult world problems through technologi ...

. He is known for being one of the pioneers in the

human–computer interaction Human–computer interaction (HCI) is research in the design and the use of computer technology, which focuses on the interfaces between people (users) and computers. HCI researchers observe the ways humans interact with computers and design tec ...

field.

Background and contributions

Buxton received his

bachelor's degree A bachelor's degree (from Middle Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate academic degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to six ...

in music from Queen's University in 1973 and his

master's degree A master's degree (from Latin ) is an academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice.

computer science Computer science is the study of computation, automation, and information. Computer science spans theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, information theory, and automation) to Applied science, practical discipli ...

from the

University of Toronto The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution ...

in 1978. Buxton's scientific contributions include applying

Fitts' law Fitts's law (often cited as Fitts' law) is a predictive model of human movement primarily used in human–computer interaction and ergonomics. The law predicts that the time required to rapidly move to a target area is a function of the ratio betw ...

to human-computer interaction and the invention and analysis of the

marking menu In user interface design, a pie menu or radial menu is a circular context menu where selection depends on direction. It is a graphical control element. A pie menu is made of several "pie slices" around an inactive center and works best with stylus ...

(together with

Gordon Kurtenbach Gordon may refer to: People * Gordon (given name), a masculine given name, including list of persons and fictional characters * Gordon (surname), the surname * Gordon (slave), escaped to a Union Army camp during the U.S. Civil War * Clan Gordon, ...

). He pioneered

multi-touch In computing, multi-touch is technology that enables a surface (a touchpad or touchscreen) to recognize the presence of more than one somatosensory system, point of contact with the surface at the same time. The origins of multitouch began at CER ...

interfaces and

music composition Musical composition can refer to an original piece or work of music, either vocal or instrumental, the structure of a musical piece or to the process of creating or writing a new piece of music. People who create new compositions are called c ...

tools in the late 1970s, while working in the

Dynamic Graphics Project The Dynamic Graphics Project (commonly referred to as dgp) is an interdisciplinary research laboratory at the University of Toronto devoted to projects involving Computer Graphics, Computer Vision, Human Computer Interaction, and Visualization. ...

at the

. In 2007, he published ''Sketching User Experiences: Getting the Design Right and the Right Design''. Buxton is a regular columnist at ''

BusinessWeek ''Bloomberg Businessweek'', previously known as ''BusinessWeek'', is an American weekly business magazine published fifty times a year. Since 2009, the magazine is owned by New York City-based Bloomberg L.P. The magazine debuted in New York City ...

''. Before joining

he was chief scientist at

Alias Wavefront Alias Systems Corporation (formerly Alias Research, Alias Wavefront), headquartered in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, was a software company that produced high-end 3D graphics software. Alias was eventually bought by Autodesk. History Alias Systems ...

and

SGI SGI may refer to: Companies *Saskatchewan Government Insurance *Scientific Games International, a gambling company *Silicon Graphics, Inc., a former manufacturer of high-performance computing products *Silicon Graphics International, formerly Rac ...

from 1994 to 2002. In 2004, he was a visiting professor at the

. Buxton received the

SIGCHI The Special Interest Group on Computer–Human Interaction (SIGCHI) is one of the Association for Computing Machinery's special interest groups which is focused on human–computer interactions (HCI). It hosts the flagship annual international HC ...

Lifetime Achievement Award in 2008 for his many fundamental contributions to the

field. As of 2010, the Bill Buxton Award is handed out annually for the best doctoral dissertation in the field of HCI, completed at a Canadian university. In 2016, he was recognized for his lifelong work in human computer interaction design and received the Digifest Digital Pioneer Award.

Honours and awards

* Recipient of the Canadian Human-Computer Communications Society (1995) * New Media Visionary of the Year Award (2000) * SIGCHI Lasting Impact Award (2005) * Fellow of the Association for Computing Machinery (2008) * SIGCHI Lifetime Achievement Award (2008) * Doctor of Design Honoris Causa from the Ontario College of Art and Design, Toronto, Ontario (June, 2007) * Doctor of Laws Honoris Causa from Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario (June, 2009) * Doctor of Industrial Design Honoris Causa from the Technical University of Eindhoven, The Netherlands (April, 2010) * Doctor of Science Honoris Causa from the

, Toronto, Ontario (June, 2013)

References

External links

Official websiteThe Buxton Collection on Microsoft.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:Buxton, Bill Human–computer interaction researchers Living people Queen's University at Kingston alumni Fellows of the Association for Computing Machinery 1949 births Microsoft employees Microsoft Research people Scientists at PARC (company) Scientists from Edmonton Canadian computer scientists 20th-century Canadian scientists 21st-century Canadian scientists Utrecht University alumni University of Toronto alumni Utrecht University faculty University of Toronto faculty