Research

Human Computer Interaction Design

The Centre undertakes internationally recognised research into the design of socio-technical systems, funded by the UK's Research Councils (EPSRC and ESRC), the European Union and also industrial partners.

We have numerous research projects running in the Centre. Our research focuses on creativity, collaboration, requirements engineering, healthcare, diverse users, novel interactions with information systems and innovative interfaces/devices. The coverage of these projects requires us to adopt a multi-disciplinary research approach. Staff and students have backgrounds in systems engineering, software engineering, human-computer interaction, psychology, social science, artificial intelligence and management science.

Research areas

User-centred requirements engineering

Our research on user-centred requirements engineering aims to develop new theories of requirements for complex socio-technical systems, i.e. systems composed of people and technology, and to apply these theories to design new requirements processes, techniques and tools that we evaluate through their industrial application. We are currently researching how to use scenarios in user-centred requirements processes, model-based discovery and analysis of emergent properties of complex socio-technical systems, creativity as integral to requirements processes, and how new paradigms such as web services impact on requirements.

Featured project: CHOReOS - Large Scale Choreographies for the Future Internet

Creativity

We conduct research into creativity and innovation in the design process. We are developing new theories and models of creativity in design, and applying them to inform the development of new techniques and software tools intended to produce more creative outcomes. Evaluating these creative outcomes is another direction of our research.

Featured project: MIRROR - Reflective Learning at Work

Diverse users

We conduct research in Inclusive Design by investigating issues related to the elderly, the disabled but also focus on other diverse user groups not normally considered within design, such as gender.

Featured project: GReAT - Gesture Recognition in Aphasia Therapy

Innovative technologies and interactions

We conduct studies of individual and collaborative interactions in challenging fields ranging from healthcare, intelligent systems to computer games, develop and apply theoretical approaches to modelling work, design and prototype innovative interfaces and investigate and develop usability evaluation techniques.

Featured project: S-CUBE - Software Services & Systems Network