Human-centred computing

As technology becomes increasingly ubiquitous, the major goal of Human-Centred Computing is to examine how technology can best support people’s everyday lives as well as the socio-technical impacts that emerging technology can have on individuals, communities and societies.

We take a participatory and design-oriented research approach with a central human principle. Here, the understanding of people’s everyday practices, how they live, their needs and motivations, and how they use and interact with computing systems are all important for system design.

This human side of computer science is one of the most fascinating but also one of the most frequently missed and misunderstood elements in the public’s understanding of what makes the tech in their pocket (or any of the contemporary systems that have become ubiquitous and deeply integrated into their life) work well for them.

Our team applies human-centered and participatory design methods and iterative prototyping to explore innovative design solutions as well as to further understand how these designs are used, how well the technology might work for people, and what lasting difference it might it make to people’s lives.

The human principle includes engaging with end users and making meaningful connections between our research and the people we are designing and building for.

This requires involving users and other stakeholders before, during, and after the technology’s design and an in-depth evaluation of its acceptability and impact to meet the user’s needs and motivations.

As a result, our work helps to identify ways in which innovations can be ethically designed to better support humans and the planet.

As Human-Centred Computing is a multidisciplinary research area, our research team has ongoing collaboration with industry partners and other disciplines beyond computer science, including engineering, psychology, social sciences, health and medicine, and education.

Our primary focus in our research labs is on:

• Computational and Human-Robot Interaction (HRI) – focusing on technical and societal opportunities and challenges of robotic design, and social robotics and human-robot interaction; exploring the opportunities to support and interact with humans in shared environments (e.g. households, hospitals, museums, etc.).

• Extended Reality (XR) and Games (HCI) – investigating the technical and societal challenges and opportunities of XR technologies (virtual reality, augmented reality, and mixed reality) where the digital world meets the three dimensions we live in, such as gaming and education in VR, mobility, navigation, search and orientation in AR, and many more.

• Ubiquitous, Collaborative and Social Computing – focusing on (a) theories, methods, tools and techniques to study, design, implement or use social and collaborative systems, (b) applications of pervasive computing, wearable computing, Internet of Things (IoT), physical computing, geographical information systems, information visualisation and visual analytics.

• Design Research and Compassionate Computing – focusing on (a) interaction, ethical and inclusive design as well as the design and policy implications of socio-technical systems, and (b) specific applications areas of socio-technical systems, such as sustainability, education, information and communication technologies for development (ICT4D), accessibility, health and social care, and many more. One of the major sub themes is digital healthcare, which looks at the technical and societal opportunities and challenges of utilising digital tools in healthcare. That might be in the treatment and prevention of physical and mental illnesses, remote care, improving the safety and usability of digital health services, and mobile and wearable health systems, etc.