Founded in 2003, Vocalage is a high-tech spinoff company from the Interactive Media Laboratory at the University of Toronto. Vocalage has received funding from the Ontario Centres of Excellence and from the National Research Council (IRAP programme). In 2006, Vocalage began working with Oki Electronic Inc. in Japan to develop an innovative voice conferencing user interface for teleworkers with physical disabilities. In 2009 Vocalage began working on human factors research concerning impacts of in-vehicle information technology, for Toyota Corporation.In addition to commercializing cutting edge university research, Vocalage also carries out consulting in the areas of data mining and statistical analysis, usability engineering, and applied research.In July 2011 Vocalage launched the GiveButtons gift giving community (www.givebuttons.com). Vocalage also invented the Give Button, a button that can be placed on any online product page so that the product can be purchased as a gift by a team of people.Vocalage also offers a social giving service (www.givetargets.com where organizations such as universities and hospital foundations can allow groups of people to contribute to specific fundraising goals such as scholarships or an expensive piece of hospital equipment.
Our Team
Vocalage consists of a team of young and skillful full-time staff. The company also brings together expert university researchers and highly skilled industry consultants.Mark Chignell , CEO and President Mark Chignell is the founder and president of Vocalage Inc. Prior to Vocalage he founded two previous startup companies. Mark has done business consulting since 1984, in North America and in Japan. His consulting expertise is related to a variety of topics including knowledge based applications, experimental design and statistical analysis, technical writing, and user interface design and evaluation. Since 1984 Mark has been a professor in industrial engineering, first at the University of Southern California, and, since 1990, at the University of Toronto. He has co-authored or edited four books (including one of expert systems and two on intelligent databases) and many scientific papers.
Sachi is a research scientist of Human Factors. Human Factors is a interdisciplinary area bridging technology and human, which can also be described as Ergonomics, and is related to Human Computer/Machine Interactions (HCI/HMI), Applied psychology, Usability and User Experience. It concerns with the understanding of interactions among humans and other elements of a system, such as computers, cars and various types of machines.
Based on her academic background in cognitive psychology, she has been working as an industrial researcher in the fields of telecommunication (NTT), wireless & mobile communications (Nokia), and automobiles (Toyota InfoTechnology Center). Through her carrier of more than 15 years, she has strong skills in identifying major bottleneck issues of human to utilize a technology, proofing them through an empirical approach, and proposing solutions based on the findings. Her research goal is to support designing interface of technology so that human can utilize it efficiently and comfortably.
In recent years, she has been working for a project on driver distraction, and is especially interested in human cognition and performance in multi-tasking situation.
Stephen Shi, Development Lead
Stephen is a graduate in computer science from the University of Toronto and he is currently completing a Masters degree in Engineering. His research is concerned with the development of intelligent notification methods in Healthcare. Stephen manages the Vocalage Development team and is a co-inventor of the Give Button.
Aleksandra Jovicic, Database Lead
Aleksandra holds a PhD in mechanical and industrial engineering and an MSc in computer science (human-computer interaction), both from the University of Toronto. She has extensive consulting experience in the public sector. Most recently, she was a usability consultant at St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto, focusing on systems for diabetes self-management. Her research interests include human factors in health care and social computing. Along with Mark Chignell and Stephen Shi, she is a co-inventor of the Give Button.
Erin Yu, User Interface Lead
Erin has a Bachelors degree in Systems Design Engineering from the University of Waterloo and a Masters in Mechanical and Industrial Engineering from the University of Toronto. She has extensive user interface design experience in industry and academia, in mobile and Web settings. She also has considerable experience in design of assistive and inclusive interfaces.
Anita Ko, User Experience Lead
Anita Ko is currently completing a Masters degree in Engineering at the University of Toronto. She has extensive experience in usability engineering and evaluation. Anita also has extensive experience in social media and gift giving.
David Canella, Marketing Specialist
David has a Bachelors degree in psychology from McGill University. He is content manager for the GiveButtons gift catalogue.
Tiffany Tong, Web Implementation
Tiffany has a Masters degree in molecular biology from the University of Toronto and is about to start a Ph.D in Neuroscience at University College London. Tiffany manages the GiveButtons and GiveTargets websites.