Eleanor T. Loiacono

Biography

Eleanor T. Loiacono is a Professor of Management Information Systems at Worcester Polytechnic Institute. She encourages her students to challenge themselves beyond the comfort of the classroom and was awarded the Moruzzi Award for Innovation in Undergraduate Education for the development of an externally sponsored design competition requiring students to develop a comprehensive network plan based on a "real" Request for Proposal (RFP). Students find the competition a challenging and valuable exercise in preparing for the future. Her project work with students has led to several published articles and conference presentations.Her research focuses on the intersection of technology and people. Factors, such as website quality, accessibility, and affect, influence a user’s experience with a technology and thus must be understood in order to create more effective technologies. She developed a website quality measure that is widely used within IS research. WebQual, as it is called, focuses on the factors that impact a website’s level of quality as judged by consumers. 

Research Interest

Her research extends into affective computing, accessibility for people with disabilities, and culture as well. Besides having chaired the Associations for Information (AIS) System’s Special Interest Group on Human-Computer Interactions, she serves as a Guest Senior Editor for AIS’s Transactions on Human Computer Interactions and is on the　Scientific　Board of the Advances in Hospitality and Tourism Research Journal. She has been published in numerous journals, including the Communications of the ACM, Communications of the AIS, International Journal of Electronic Commerce, and Decision Support Systems.