Interactions in the Wild

Central to much of the research we carry out at UCLIC is an in the wild stance. By this we mean carrying out in-situ user studies, sampling experiences and probing people in their homes, shopping malls, schools, outdoors and on the streets. The emphasis is on understanding everyday living and how technologies can extend or disrupt this. it might be to trigger conversations in public, raise community awareness about health and well being, or persuading people to reduce their energy consumption. The approach includes using ethnographic studies, action research, design research and participatory design. Novel technologies are often developed to augment people, places and settings, without necessarily designing them for specific user needs. The include ambient displays, physical devices, wearables and, increasingly, Internet of Things systems. Opportunities are created, technology interventions are installed and different ways of behaving are encouraged. A key concern is how people react, change and integrate these in their everyday lives.

Projects

Creating a virtual make up app to explore how people can engage and interact with new technology in order to ’step into character’.

This project investigates how state of the art face-tracking technology combined with a novel user experience can benefit make-up artists, costume designers, performers and young audiences to the ENO. Together with Ana Moutinho, lead UX Designer, Professor Yvonne Rogers, Director of UCLIC, and Natasha Freedman, Head of Baylis, ENO, Delia Gander (BSC Computer Science, UCL) has been helping to create a virtual make up app to explore how people can engage and interact with new technology in order to 'step into character'. The MagicFace app, that was developed, applies virtual ... Read more…

Urban IoT

creating an evolutionary leap for cities and enhance the social, economic and environmental well being of cities

The ICRI (Intel Collaborative Research Insitute) is a joint project between UCL, Imperial, Future Cities Catapult and Intel working closely with QEOP London Legacy Development Corporation to address a number of user, technical and community challenges through the deployment of novel connected sensors and devices across installations in London. The centre has been renamed as 'Urban IoT' (formerly Sustainable and Connected Cities) to reflect the current direction and goals of the centre. The first three years (2012-2015) were an exploratory phase of research, culminating in a number of advances in ... Read more…

Working from home

investigating how interruptions impact remote workers

Work is increasingly distributed and conducted on the move. Technological change is fundamentally changing the structure of work. Working from home is a project about how work and workplaces are changing in the digital economy. How do people in distributed crowds, crowdworkers and citizen scientists, get their work done? How do they manage lots of competing tasks? How can we help them do more with their time? Find out more at crowdproject.uk Read more…

CHI+MED: Computer Human Interaction for Medical Devices

improving the safety of interactive (programmable) medical devices

CHI+MED (Computer-Human Interaction for Medical Devices) is an EPSRC-funded project to improve the safety of interactive (programmable) medical devices, such as infusion pumps. By understanding more about device design and human factors, medical errors can be reduced thus saving lives. Our goal is to learn more about medical devices and how people design, buy and use them in the real world. From this understanding we will investigate how to reduce the likelihood and consequences of human error. We are working with patients and their carers, nurses and other medical ... Read more…