Ann Blandford

• Availability for meetings
• Research
• External activities
• Videos, books and other resources
• Brief biography
• PhD students
• Research Publications

Availability for meetings

I work part-time. This diary shows roughly when I'm available (WFH = working from home = available for online meetings; London = working in office = in-person meetings preferred; "not a work day" = I might be available online). Please email to arrange a meeting if required.

Research

My funded work is on evaluating real-world complex systems, with a focus on Digital Health. I take a pragmatic approach to developing and applying theory in practice, recognising and working with the inherent "messiness" of the real world.

I am leading on HCI / digital health in the following funded projects:

• Wellcome Trust Centre for Surgical and Interventional Sciences: Wellcome / EPSRC.
• Context Aware Augmented Reality for Endonasal Endoscopic Surgery: EPSRC.
• i4Health Centre for Doctoral Training: EPSRC.
• Tele-opHthalmology-enablEd and ARtificial Intelligence-ready referral pathway for coMmunity optomEtry referralS of retinal disease: the HERMES study: NIHR HTA.
• Improving care for people with sexually transmitted infections in a digital NHS (SEQUENCE-Digital): NIHR PGfAR.
• CARE: Contextual Awareness, Response and Evaluation: Diabetes in Ghana: MRC Health & Context Call.
• Supported remote rehabilitation post Covid-19: NIHR HS&DR.
• DISC: Digital interventions for cardiometabolic disease in South Asians- a case study for opportunities, risks and inequalities in digital health: NIHR PRP.
• Living with Prostate Cancer: Pro Care Zone: a digital prostate cancer support tool which builds on patients', their carers' and health care professionals' participation to improve their experience and clinical outcomes in cancer care: Funded by the Rosetrees Trust and IHE.

Past research activities include:

• Co-investigator on Get a Move On: EPSRC Network Plus.
• Co-investigator on FaST Healthcare: EPSRC Network Plus.
• Principal Investigator on ECLIPSE: Exploring the Landscape of Intravenous Infusion Practices & Errors (NIHR)
• Principal Investigator on an EPSRC Programme Grant CHI+MED: Computer-Human Interaction for Medical Devices (EPSRC Programme Grant). This is also described in cs4fn.
• UCL lead investigator on SerenA: The Serendipity Arena (EPSRC sandpit project, 2010-2013).
• Co-investigator on Contraception Choices: website now publicly available.

External activities

• I'm excited to be giving keynote talks in the coming months at Supporting Health by Tech and Interact 2023.
• Member of the EPSRC College.
• Served on the REF 2021 sub-panel on Computer Science and Informatics.
• Served on Executive of the UK Computing Research Committee (2015-2021; Chair 2016-2018).
• Suffrage Science award alumna (holder 2016-2018).

Videos, books and other resources

• Book with Dominic Furniss and Stephann Makri on 'Qualitative HCI Research: Going Behind the Scenes'. - probably the only HCI research methods text to feature lions.
• Chapter on Interaction Design for Healthcare Technologies.
• Introductory resources on Human Factors for health Technologies - developed with Jeremy Opie.
• Chapter on semi-structured qualitative studies in the Interaction-Design.org encyclopaedia. Largely superseded by the book (above) on Qualitative HCI Research
• Books on Fieldwork for Healthcare (Case studies) and Fieldwork for Healthcare (Guidance for investigating human factors in computing systems).
• Book with Simon Attfield on 'Interacting with Information'.
• Respondent for the UCL Lancet Lecture 2020.
• Two talks recorded for presentation around World Usability Day 2018 in Jakarta, sponsored by the ACM Distinguished Speakers Programme, on Conceptual Fit and Digital Health.
• Keynote talk at the Computing Conference 2018 on Technology that works - also sponsored by the ACM DSP.
• Telegraph "Technology Intelligence" podcast on the future of healthcare (cameo appearance)
• The Economist Intelligence Unit podcast on the digitisation of healthcare
• "Words of wisdom(!)" on doing PhD research
• Lunch Hour Lecture on human error and device design (UCL, Nov 2011). It's available on YouTube.
• Video on Engineering HCI with Dom Furniss and Bonnie John.

Brief biography

I am Professor of Human-Computer Interaction in the Department of Computer Science at UCL, and a member of UCL Interaction Centre (UCLIC, jointly supported by the Department of Computer Science and the Division of Psychology and Language Sciences). I was Director of UCLIC 2004-2011. In 2013, I was recognised as an academic role model in the School of Life and Medical Sciences, a testament to UCL's support for interdisciplinary working. I am also a parent and a grandparent.

I was Director of the UCL Institute of Digital Health (2015-2019), and subsequently (2019-2020) Deputy Director (Digital) of the Institute of Healthcare Engineering. I was a Suffrage Science award holder (2016-2018), and featured in a UCL Spotlight in 2016. I have also been interviewed for Research Professional.

My first degree is in Mathematics, from Cambridge University, and my PhD is in Artificial Intelligence and Education, from the Open University. I started my career in industry as a software engineer, followed by a period managing the Computer Assisted Teaching Unit at QMUL. I gradually developed a focus on the use and usability of computer systems. In 1991, I joined the Applied Psychology Unit in Cambridge as a research scientist, working on the AMODEUS project. I moved to Middlesex University, initially as a lecturer, and subsequently as Professor and Director of Research in Computing Science. I moved to UCL as a Senior Lecturer in 2002 and became a professor (again) in 2005. My focus is now on technology for health and wellbeing. I discuss some of these experiences in more detail in a podcast with Anna Cox.

I have been technical programme chair for IHM-HCI 2001, HCI 2006, DSVIS 2006, NordiCHI2010 and ICHI 2016. I chaired AISB (1997-1999), and was a member of the EPSRC Information and Communications Technologies Strategic Advisory Team (2004-2008). I was Vice Chair of IFIP Working Group 2.7/13.4 (2010-2013). I am a Fellow of the BCS and a member of the UK Computing Research Committee (UKCRC). I Chaired UKCRC (2016-18) and served on the REF 2021 sub-panel on Computer Science and Informatics. In 2021, I received an IFIP TC13 Pioneer award and became a member of the CHI Academy. There's a bit of a Wikipedia page about me. And a Festschrift event (with a lovely collection of short writings) was organised for me in 2022, even though I haven't retired. Yet.