Episode 10 - Interview with Jacob Wobbrock

In this episode of "How to Write CHI Papers," Dr. Lennart Nacke interviews Dr. Jacob Wobbrock, a professor at the University of Washington and CHI Academy inductee, about writing successful CHI publications. Wobbrock shares his early struggles with CHI submissions and emphasizes the value of incremental research. He advises junior researchers to pursue projects they are passionate about and focuses on three structural points: the importance of a five-point introduction (setting up the state of the world, the big but, what they did, key findings, and contributions), showing rather than telling through a teaching stance and effective use of figures, and a writing process that involves outlining headers and bullet points before steamrolling through the content to maintain a coherent voice. Wobbrock also discusses the importance of collaborative bullet-pointing with co-authors and separating the "what" from the "how" in the writing process. Furthermore, he suggests that method papers tend to get more citations and encourages reviewers to look for the value and benefits in papers rather than focusing on flaws, emphasizing that rejection is a part of the research process and that researchers should separate their work from their personal identity.