Biography
Alex conducts research and teaches courses in creative advertising, information visualization, and user experience design. He received his Ph.D. in Interactive Arts and Technology from Simon Fraser University (Canada) in 2010, an M.A. in Advertising from the University of Texas at Austin (U.S.) in 1999, and a B.A. in Journalism and Mass Communication from American University of Bulgaria in 1996. In 2015 Alex also received a diploma in Brand Planning from Miami Ad School (U.S.). Prior to joining SJTU in 2017, Alex was Assistant Professor at Ontario College of Art and Design University (Canada) and at City University of Hong Kong, as well as a visiting lecturer in South Korea and Vietnam.
Dr. Ivanov has published in various journals from the fields of communications, information systems, and human-computer studies. At present he serves as an Editorial Board member of the SSCI-indexed Telematics and Informatics. Alex has also worked for seven years in the marketing communications industry, including at a start-up in Silicon Valley, the Leo Burnett advertising agency in Bulgaria, and as a freelance social media consultant in Vancouver, Canada.
Honors
Alex has won several awards for journal articles and conference papers published with his former Ph.D. supervisor, Prof. Dianne Cyr. For example, their 2007 article titled The role of social presence in establishing loyalty in e-service environments, published in Interacting with Computers, has been cited over one thousand times, while another study titled Exploring website design and mobility for culture, age, and gender received the best paper award at the 2006 European Applied Business Research Conference in Florence, Italy.
Research Projects and Publications
Dr. Ivanov’s research is quite interdisciplinary and applied. One common thread underlying most of his studies has been how East Asians and Westerners use media, ranging from comparing portrayals of different age and gender groups in TV advertising, to how users in these cultures collaborate using electronic brainstorming interfaces.
Research Interests
1. Innovative interfaces for group collaboration
2. Cultural psychology and theories of motivation
3. Advertising and user experience design
