Jo Briggs

Research interests

I am Associate Professor in the School of Design and co-lead the cross-faculty Northumbria Practice Research Group. 

In my research I use design practice approaches to explore complex and/or emergent digital-socio phenomena across two main interconnecting themes; designing and demonstrating tools to enable safer online interaction and; design for the digital ‘collaborative’ economy. A further strand of research involves developing and critically reflecting upon design methodologies within interdisciplinary academic research and design industry practice.

I currently lead on interaction design across two EPSRC funded programmes of research. TAPESTRY investigates and demonstrates new ways to enable people, businesses and services to connect safely online by exploiting the complex ‘tapestry’ of multi-modal signals woven by everyday interactions. The TAPESTRY team, including colleagues at Surrey and Dundee universities, has developed a working prototype that aims to offer third-party support in establishing the veracity of an online actor's identity. Cumulative Revelations of Personal Data meanwhile is concerned with developing prototype tools that support greater employee awareness of how small, apparently innocuous pieces of personal information collectively represent a significant risk to their employer's operational security and reputation.

Previously I led on design for The Trust Map (ESRC led), which investigated the potential of designed digital tools in mitigating mistrust in disenfranchised civic-community relations; I was Principal Investigator for both ESRC supported UK crowdfunding research and also an AHRC 'sprint' on timebanking. These broadly explored alternative ways of supporting cultural operations and publics-building amid radically shrinking state budgets, building on earlier research into new business models for the production and sale of 'digital original' artworks.  

I am a Strategic Reviewer for AHRC, a member of the ESRC and AHRC Peer Review Colleges, formerly a Networking Scheme moderator for AHRC and I also regularly review for other research councils in the UK and abroad. I mostly publish in the areas of design and HCI and co-produce artifacts as research output, informed by my earlier career in creative practice.

ORCID