Skip to main content

William (Willie) Payne

 

By

William (Willie) Payne

Assistant Professor, UNC School of Information and Library Science

William (Willie) Payne

Pronouns

He/Him/His

Phone

(919) 962-8366

Email

william.payne@unc.edu

Office

Manning Hall - 22

William (Willie) Payne

Expertise

Human-computer interaction, creative computing, accessibility, STEM learning, design research, participatory design.

Education

PhD (Music Technology), New York University
BS/MS (Computer Science), University of Colorado Boulder
BM (Music Composition), University of Colorado Boulder

Biography

Dr. William (Willie) Payne is an Assistant Professor of User Experience and Design at the UNC School of Information and Library Science (SILS). Dr. Payne studies how technology can facilitate creative expression and open pathways for individuals to express themselves on their own terms. Across his research, he uses participatory methods to co-design and deploy novel systems with community partners. For example, he developed the creative coding environment danceON with STEM from Dance, and the music notation software SoundCells with blind musicians at FMDG Music School. Dr. Payne publishes in Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) venues including CHI, ASSETS, NIME, and MOCO.

Courses

INLS 719 – Usability Testing and Evaluation
INLS 818 – Seminar in Human-Computer Interaction
INLS 690 – Design for Accessibility

Awards

Outstanding Dissertation Honorable Mention, NYU Steinhardt, 2023
Best Paper, Web4All, 2022
Best Paper Honorable Mention, CHI, 2021
Outstanding Graduate of Engineering, CU Boulder, 2016

Publications

Google Scholar page
2023. Payne, W., Kaney, M., Cao, Y., Xu, E., Shen, X., Lee, K., & Hurst, A. Live Coding Ensemble as Accessible Classroom. Proceedings of the International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression (NIME).

2023. Payne, W., & Hurst, A. “We Avoid PDFs”: Improving Notation Access for Blind and Visually Impaired Musicians. Information for a Better World: Normality, Virtuality, Physicality, Inclusivity (iConference).

2022. Payne, W., Ahmed, F., Zachor, M., Gardell, M., Huey, I., DuBois, R. L., & Hurst, A. Empowering Blind Musicians to Compose and Notate Music with SoundCells. The 24th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS).

2022. Payne, W., Ahmed, F., Gardell, M., DuBois, R. L., & Hurst, A. SoundCells: Designing a Browser-Based Music Technology for Braille and Print Notation. 19th Web for All Conference (Web4All).

2021. Payne, W., Bergner, Y., West, M. E., Charp, C., Shapiro, R. B., Szafir, D. A., … DesPortes, K. danceON: Culturally Responsive Creative Computing. Proceedings of the 2021 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems.

2020. Payne, W., Xu, A. Y., Ahmed, F., Ye, L., & Hurst, A. How Blind and Visually Impaired Composers, Producers, and Songwriters Leverage and Adapt Music Technology. The 22nd International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS).

2020. Payne, W., Paradiso, A., & Kane, S. Cyclops: Designing an Eye-Controlled Instrument for Accessibility and Flexible Use. Proceedings of the International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression (NIME).

2019. Payne, W., & Ruthmann, S. A. Music Making in Scratch: High Floors, Low Ceilings, and Narrow Walls? Journal of Interactive Technology and Pedagogy (JITP).