My research concerns three areas. Design for digital and data literacies supports understanding and agency around who and what to trust or share online, with current work supported by EPSRC Trust, Identity, Privacy and Security funding calls. This includes design for awareness around how apparently harmless information shared online collectively can pose unanticipated harm. Inherent multidisciplinarity promotes understanding around technical, societal and usability challenges of AI-related design, towards developing outcomes that amplify rather than replace human abilities while preserving privacy, including through use of blockchain technologies. Research is now extending into ‘explainable AI’ in a visual search prototype developed with The National Archives.

Prior research concerns design and the digital collaborative economy; for example, how designed P2P systems and communication practices transform cultural value(s) and socio-material exchange. Finally, a cross-cutting theme of creative interdisciplinary design methodologies applies insights from my arts and design practices to designing research for diverse interdisciplinary contexts.

Research projects include:

As Principal Investigator/Co-Principal Investigator

• Cumulative Revelations 2019–22. EPSRC EP/R033870/1
  

• Creative Temporal Costings 2015.  AHRC AH/N003799/1

• A Taxonomy of UK Crowdfunding 2014–15. ESRC ES/M00371X/1 
  

As Co-investigator

• TAPESTRY 2017–21 inc. COVID ext. Led by Surrey EPSRC EP/N02799X/1 
  

• The Trust Map 2014–18. Led by Nottingham ESRC-led ES/M003566/1/2 
  

Other

• The National Archives 2021: leading on ‘generous’ interface designs with explainable AI for visual search.

• Adobe University Research Grant 2021: working with computer vision teams at the University of Surrey and Adobe and School of Design students to collectively build a new vocabulary for visual style.

• AHRC/British Council 2014: Unboxing Future Cities. 
  

I am Associate Professor in the School of Design, Director of TEF for the Creative Arts and Design programmes, and teach into the Communication Design subject area focussing on Interaction Design, design research methods and writing for design.

My research is informed by my creative and multidisciplinary education, former studio practice, and industry experience that includes running my own graphic art business and working in the digital design industry. This portfolio career involved part-time lecturing including at my alma mater, Chelsea College of Art and Design. Since my PhD I have applied creative learning to designing and delivering novel and timely interdisciplinary research.

I am a Strategic Reviewer for AHRC, contribute to the recruitment and training of College members and regularly review for other research councils in the UK and abroad including ESRC, for which I was previously a Peer Review College member. I publish in design and HCI, amongst other areas, and co-produce artifacts as research output.