I’m a user experience researcher at Google. I obtained my Ph.D. from the Human-Computer Interaction Institute (HCII) at Carnegie Mellon University, where I am advised by Prof. Bob Kraut and Prof. Haiyi Zhu. Previously, I earned my Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in the Department of Information Science at Cornell University, where I was advised by Prof. Sue Fussell

My PhD research focued on understanding the experiences and challenges of marginalized populations and designing novel technologies that address their needs. I often use mixed research methods in my works, including interviews, ethnography, content analysis, surveys, and large scale data analysis. My dissertation research facilitates social support exchange among marginalized populations (e.g., cancer patients, people with mental health issues, and gig workers) in online communities.

news
Jul 2024 Defended my thesis. Now officially Dr. 🎉
Dec 2021 Started as a user experience researcher at Google.
Oct 2021 Paper on online health community won an honorable metnion at CSCW 2021.
Jun 2021 Started as a research intern at the Health Intelligence group of Microsoft Research.
Feb 2021 Passed my thesis proposal. Many thanks to my committee!
Oct 2020 Wiki Ed paper won an honorable metnion at CSCW 2020.
May 2020 Self-disclosure paper won an honorable metnion at CHI 2019.
Apr 2019 Invited talk at HCIL, University of Maryland.
Nov 2018 Attended CSCW 2018 at Jersey City; won a best paper award.
Sep 2017 Finished and passed my PhD "comm talk".
May 2016 Graduated and farewell. Bye-bye, Ithaca.
(not so new) news...
publications
  1. Learning to Become a Volunteer Counselor: Lessons from a Peer-to-Peer Mental Health Community
    Zheng Yao, Haiyi Zhu, Robert E. Kraut.
    CSCW 2022. pdf · ACM DL · talk
  2. "Brush it Off": How Women Workers Manage and Cope with Bias and Harassment in Gender-agnostic Gig Platforms
    Ning F. Ma, Veronica Rivera, Zheng Yao, Dongwook Yoon.
    CHI 2022. pdf · ACM DL · talk
  3. Together But Alone: Atomization and Peer Support among Gig Workers
    Zheng Yao, Silas Weden, Lea Emerlyn, Haiyi Zhu, Robert E. Kraut.
    CSCW 2021. pdf · ACM DL · slides · talk
  4. Join, Stay or Go? A Closer Look at Members’ Life Cycles in Online Health Communities
    Zheng Yao, Diyi Yang, John Levine, Carissa Low, Tenbroeck Smith, Haiyi Zhu, Robert E. Kraut.
    CSCW 2021, Best Paper Honerable Mention. pdf · ACM DL · slides · talk
  5. All in One Group: Current Practices, Lessons and Challenges of Chinese Home-School Communication in IM Group Chat
    Jiangtao Gong*, Zheng Yao*, Zhicong Lu*, Qicheng Ding, Yu Zhang, Liuxin Zhang, Qianying Wang.
    CHI 2021. pdf · ACM DL
  6. Successful Online Socialization: Lessons from the Wikipedia Education Program
    Ang Li*, Zheng Yao*, Diyi Yang, Chinmay Kulkarni, Rosta Farzan, Robert E. Kraut.
    CSCW 2020, Best Paper Honerable Mention. pdf · ACM DL · slides · talk
  7. The Channel Matters: Self-disclosure, Reciprocity and Social Support in Online Cancer Support Groups
    Diyi Yang, Zheng Yao, Joseph Seering, Robert E. Kraut.
    CHI 2019, Best Paper Honerable Mention. pdf · ACM DL
  8. Applications of Social Identity Theory to Research and Design in Computer-Supported Cooperative Work
    Joseph Seering, Felicia Ng, Zheng Yao, Geoff Kaufman.
    CSCW 2018, Best Paper Award. pdf · ACM DL
  9. Mentor Academy: Engaging Global Learners in the Creation of Data Science Problems for MOOCs
    Rebecca Quintana, Christopher Brooks, Cinzia Smothers, Yuanru Tan, Zheng Yao, Chinmay Kulkarni.
    ICLS 2018. pdf · ISLS Repository
  10. Self-disclosure and Channel Difference in Online Health Support Groups
    Diyi Yang, Zheng Yao, Robert E. Kraut.
    ICWSM 2017. pdf· AAAI OJS
  11. (Infra) structures of Volunteering
    Amy Voida, Zheng Yao, Matthias Korn.
    CSCW 2015. pdf · ACM DL
  12. Two is Better Than One: Improving Multilingual Collaboration by Giving Two Machine Translation Outputs.
    Ge Gao, Bin Xu, David C. Hau, Zheng Yao, Dan Cosley, Susan R. Fussell.
    CSCW 2015, Best Paper Honerable Mention. pdf · ACM DL