I am presently working with Northumbria University and PlaceChangers Ltd in a research program which will develop consultation and software in matters of planning and architecture. Challenging existing products and services to better deal with future hurdles of the 21st Century.
I have worked with the National Project Coordinator for the United Kingdom for the European Year of Cultural Heritage 2018 and developed the digital calendar and communications for the project. This included a social media strategy and original content for the websites blog.
Alongside the European Commission I have developed an exhibition with European partners, contributors and graphic designers as part of the United Kingdom’s celebration of cultural diversity.
I am Professor of Digital Living in the School of Computer and Information Science. I study Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) and the design of interactive computational technologies. I'm particularly interested in design research methods and the ways in which technology design can be centred on rich understanding of user experiences, cultures and contexts.
I have previously held positions as Senior Lecturer of Experience-Centred Design and then Reader in Cultural Computing at Newcastle University, Lecturer in Human-Computer Interaction in the Mixed Reality Lab and School of Computer Science at the University of Nottingham, and as a post-doc in the Socio-Digital Systems group at Microsoft Research Cambridge. My background is in Psychology (BSc) and Ergonomics (MSc) with a PhD in Computer Science. Over the years my work has been heavily influenced by the sociologists, philosophers and designers that I've collaborated with and consequently I take a design-led, social science orientation to understanding human experience and its application to the design of digital technologies. Accordingly, and although trained as an experimental scientist, my research is increasingly based on qualitative methods and design-research practices.
