
My interdisciplinary research focusses on design for human-digital interaction and devising co-creative and participatory methodologies for understanding new digital experiences. I publish across design and Human Computer Interaction (HCI) and, given the multi- and interdisciplinary nature of most of my research, the wider computer- and social sciences. I am a Peer Review College member for AHRC (Strategic) and ESRC and work with the Daphne Jackson Trust as a trustee, director and assessment panel chair for Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences fellowships. Other external roles include with the University of Oxford and Queen’s MediaLab Belfast.
My background is in fine art. After practicing for more than a decade out of my London studio I returned to higher education to take a MSc in Multimedia Systems (Trinity, Dublin) to learn how nascent digital tools could be exploited to create interactive experiences and non-linear narratives. After several more years I undertook one of the early AHRC collaborative doctoral awards (Ulster). My research, which investigated the notion of digital cultural literacies in ‘post conflict’ Northern Ireland, was enabled through the Nerve Centre digital hub for young people in L/Derry. My postdoctoral experience included as researcher on EPSRC Digital Originals, based in Culture Lab, Newcastle-upon-Tyne and following that, on a three-year design research fellowship at Northumbria University, which led on to an Associate Professorship there.
The majority of my research has been enabled by leading around a dozen researchers on cross-university, cross-sectoral programmes of inquiry, latterly concerned with issues of online privacy, trust and the associated challenges of designing ethical research to investigate and promote people’s understandings of their online lives. Since arriving at SODA I have been working on new research proposals that speak to these themes focussing on new and emerging technologies (i.e., XR, LLMs). My prior grant capture includes:
CO-PI: EPSRC Cumulative Revelations of Personal Data (GBP239,262) (March 2019–Sept 2022). Grant No. EP/R033870/1, led on iterative design, deployment and evaluation of creative methods and prototype tools to raise awareness of otherwise imperceptible online risks. With Universities of Edinburgh and Strathclyde.
CO-I: EPSRC Sprite Network+ (GBP35,000 fEC total grant) (Nov 2021-Feb 2022). Buy Now Pay Later in the UK: Current and emergent digital vulnerabilities. Led by Coventry.
CO-I: Adobe University Research Grant (USD7,500) (January–March 2021). Working with the University of Surrey and Adobe’s US computer vision team to design and run workshops with undergraduates to collectively build a new vocabulary for visual style features on Adobe’s design portfolio site Behance.
PI: The National Archives user research/UX contract from AHRC Deep Discoveries (GBP12,000) (February–May 2021). Led on developing user experience and ‘generous interface designs with explainable AI’ for visual search discovery platform.
CO-I: EPSRC TAPESTRY: Trust, Authentication and Privacy over a Decentralised Social Registry (GBP1,066,000 total grant) (Jan 2017–May 2021). Led by University of Surrey. Grant No. EP/N02799X/1; led on devising ways to visually communicate an impression of an online identity’s provenance, informing a prototype trialled with owners of small businesses to evaluate its acceptability and efficacy in helping their decision-making around the legitimacy of online identities.
CO-I: ESRC-led EMoTICON: The Trust Map: Investigating Power, Trust and Empathy in Minority Communities through Digital Interventions (GBP753,639 total grant) (Aug 2014–Jan 2018). Led by University of Nottingham. Grant Nos. ES/M003566/1 and ES/M003566/2; led researchers on projects and publications involving design for community planning and to support poverty action, trust and participatory governance, and young people’s trust in and uses of social media. Also with Universities of Newcastle and Durham.
PI: ESRC A Taxonomy of UK Crowdfunding and Examination of the Potential of Trust and Empathy in Project Success (GBP92,500) (June 2014–Sept 2015). Grant No. ES/M00371X/1. First RCUK award on online crowdfunding. Led a team looking at recent and live crowdfunding campaigns, conducted interviews with funders, fundraisers and crowdfunding experts, and organised a programme of engagement. With Queen’s University Belfast.
PI: AHRC Creative Temporal Costings: exploring the multiplicity of value through collaborative exchange with and within a creative timebank (GBP15,000) (June–Sept 2015). Grant No. AH/N003799/1; 3-month ‘sprint’ collaboration with Leeds Creative Timebank investigating artists’ experiences of exchanging time to promote tangible forms of cultural action. With the Universities of Warwick and Dundee and the RCA.