HCI Researcher and Product Practitioner
Ge LiGrace Lee
I study how people interact with intelligent, embodied, and socially situated technologies, with a focus on human-AI interaction, inclusive design methods, and user-centered evaluation.
Ge Li / Grace Lee
Business Development Group Lead at iTMSHCI researcher and product practitioner
About
I am an industry-informed HCI researcher with training in computer science, industrial engineering, and product practice. My research examines embodied conversational agents, voice UX, first impressions among older adults, and inclusive approaches to emerging technologies.
Since completing my master's degree, I have worked in Japan at iTMS Co., Ltd., a health-tech company building clinical research data platforms and DT/AI solutions for medical research. As a Business Development Group Lead, I work close to customers, data-intensive workflows, and cross-functional product decisions. Together with my HCI research on embodied agents, voice UX, and inclusive design, this work has shaped my interest in how intelligent systems are understood, trusted, and adopted in high-stakes real-world settings.
Human-AI Interaction
Embodied Conversational Agents
Inclusive Design
Older Adults
User Research
Digital Humans
Software Development
Python
HTML/CSS
SQL
R
Research
I study how people understand, trust, and interact with intelligent systems in real-world settings.
Embodied Conversational Agents
digital humansVoice UX And Evaluation
first impressionsInclusive Design
socially situated technologiesOlder Adults
user researchAI Trust And Adoption
product practiceEmbodied Agents And Social Signals
I investigate how conversational agents and digital humans communicate social cues, and how those cues affect initial acceptance, trust, perceived warmth, and user expectations.
Inclusive Design For Emerging Technologies
My work is aligned with participatory and co-design methods that make future-facing systems more responsive to diverse bodies, abilities, ages, and lived experiences.
Research Through Product Practice
I bring product research habits into HCI: competitive analysis, survey design, interaction prototyping, funnel analysis, A/B testing, and cross-functional implementation.
Publications
The Voice Experience Inventory (VOXI): Validating a Consensus-Driven Instrument for
Measuring User Impressions of Computer Voice
Katie Seaborn, Maximilian Altmeyer, , Bonhee Ku, Sota Kobuki, and Jacqueline
Urakami. International Journal of Human-Computer Studies, 2025. DOI:
10.1016/j.ijhcs.2025.103576
My Body, My Exoskeleton: Co-Designing Intersectional Visions of Robotic Augmentations
through Drawings
Katie Seaborn, Eduard Fosch-Villaronga, Anton Fedosov, and . International
Journal of Social Robotics, 2025. DOI:
10.1007/s12369-025-01252-3
Unboxing Manipulation Checks for Voice UX
Katie Seaborn, Katja Rogers, Maximilian Altmeyer, Mizuki Watanabe, Yuto Sawa, Somang Nam,
Tatsuya Itagaki, and . Interacting with Computers, 2025. DOI:
10.1093/iwc/iwae062
No Joke: An Embodied Conversational Agent Greeting Older Adults with Humour or a Smile
Unrelated to Initial Acceptance
and Katie Seaborn. CHI EA 2024. ACM. DOI:
10.1145/3613905.3650918
Experience
Sep 2023 - Present
Business Development Group Lead, iTMS Co., Ltd.
Lead business development initiatives for a Japan-based health-tech company that provides clinical research data integration platforms and related digital systems. Work across client needs, market research, product feasibility, and cross-functional delivery.
Jun 2022 - Sep 2022
Product Manager Intern, Microsoft
Conducted competitive research on major advertising platforms and contributed to product requirements for workflow efficiency, naming templates, table interactions, and video ad experiences.
Feb 2022 - May 2022
Product Manager Intern, Baidu YY
Led requirement documents and delivery follow-up for short-video experience improvements, campaign flows, data reporting, and interaction metrics including retention and engagement.
Sep 2021 - Dec 2021
Digital Human Product Manager Intern, JD.com
Prototyped a web-based digital human product display, translated AI-driven virtual character concepts into product requirements, and researched digital human scenarios and business models.
Jun 2021 - Sep 2021
User Product Manager Intern, MetaApp
Coordinated user research needs across teams, helped collect more than 5,000 questionnaire responses, and delivered product iterations for push notifications, compliance flows, membership, and login conversion.
Education
Sep 2021 - Sep 2023
Tokyo Institute of Technology
Research training in human-computer interaction through Aspire Lab, an HCI group focused on critical computing, psychology, human factors, and intersectional design.
Sep 2017 - Sep 2021
Beijing University of Technology
Coursework and technical foundation in software, web development, databases, and programming.