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Professor of Design & Creative Technology, University of Sussex

I am a qualitative researcher, working at the University of Sussex and Malmo University as a Professor of Design, interested in how people relate to each other in contemporary society and the impact of present/future design choices. A fascination with digital mediation led me to make studies of websites and online discussion as early as 1995, and I now focus on mobile and ubiquitous contexts of use. An important element of my work has been looking at design globally - with projects in Ghana, India, Chile and Uganda, workshops on six continents, and a role advising the European Union on the future of the Internet.

I was a member of the Culture, Communication and Computing Research Institute at Sheffield Hallam University for several years, working closely with the four councils of South Yorkshire to research digital engagement strategies, and also holding an appointment in Drama at Queen Mary, University of London, where I devised methodology for communities to participate in designing future digital tools. More recently I held a post at Northumbria's Design School. I have been multiply funded under the interdisciplinary RCUK calls of Designing for the 21st Century and Connected Communities and now hold EPSRC money to support Social Justice in the Digital Economy and EU money on Creative Practice and Transformations to Sustainability. In my research, I work extensively with arts organisations, grass-roots community groups, older people and marginalised communities, focusing on meaning-making, identity, inclusion and experience of technology.

I bring broad experience of interaction design practices including long-term consultancy in design companies (Flow Interactive http://www.flow-interactive.com, Fjord www.fjordnet.com), as well as projects with the likes of The Guardian, the BBC and the transport arm of Amey Technology.

I publish on social innovation, human-computer interaction, democratising futures and cross-cultural methodology, having helped design and evaluate websites, mobile phones, social networks and technologies of augmented reality, automatic identity capture (AIDC), ubiquitous computing and the Internet of Things.

Experience

  • –present
    Professor of Design & Creative Technology, University of Sussex