Open PhD positions
The Sociotechnical Centre for Internationalisation and User Experience (SCIUX)
is inviting PhD research proposals in the areas of mHealth, User experience and
Internationalisation, and Interaction Design for the Workplace (see detailed
description of each below).
Applications are invited from UK and EU students.
Starting Date: 1 September 2013.
The Graduate Scholars will register as full-time MPhil/PhD students in one of the above strategic
priority areas and will teach up to six hours per week (seminars, tutorials, marking and assisting in
monitoring the academic progress of students).
The Scholarship will offer:
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MPhil/PhD fee waiver at the home/EU rate (scholarship only open to UK/EU students);
Tax-free stipend of £7000 per annum;
Support, subject to satisfactory performance and academic progress, for three years.
For information about the subject areas of these PhD positions, please contact Dr. Jose Abdelnour
Nocera on jose.abdelnour-nocera@uwl.ac.uk.
For further information about the Graduate Scholarships, please email
researchdegrees@uwl.ac.uk indicating the area in which you are interested. You will then be sent
details of the specific projects available including the entry criteria for each project and details of the
application process.
We are open to consider student applications from outside the EU on the above topics if they are
externally funded for fees and stipend.
Last date for enquiries: Friday 21 June 2013
Closing date for applications: Sunday 30 June 2013
PhD position: Sociotechnical design of mHealth
applications in resource-constrained environments
Research context
This PhD position proposal is framed in the research field of mHealth and is in
particular focused on the management of anticoagulation therapy.
Coagulation disease is one of the most diffused health issues today and its
management requires a continuous communication between patient and
doctor. The introduction of mobile devices in anticoagulant therapy practice
and management may help in improving the quality of life of patients and
support remote doctor-patient communication.
In particular, we are interested in the application of such novel applications in
resource-constrained environments, typical rural areas in which people do not
have direct access to the Internet, from home or from mobile phones. In such
settings, the closest medical centre is located in the village and is aimed at
serving all the people who leave in that area. Sometimes, the medical centres
are provided with Internet connection but its use is strongly restricted to
doctors and not always fully available due to technical failures.
Research goal
The research activity will aim at investigating tools, techniques and methods
that can be used by sociotechnical interaction designers and developers of
mHealth applications in resource-constrained environments.
Candidate profile
The ideal candidate should have an MSc or equivalent degree in computer
science and combine solid theoretical background and excellent software
development skills. Strong commitment to reaching research excellence and
achieving assigned objectives is required, so as ability to work in a
collaborative and interdisciplinary environment. It is expected that the PhD
candidate will carry out applied research work that will start from the
establishment of a theoretical framework, continue with the implementation of
a software prototype and the experimentation with real data, and conclude
with the validation of a proposed solution through a real-life user study.
Background knowledge and/or previous experience in the following areas (in
order of preference), though not mandatory, will be considered very
favourably:
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Mobile (Web) design
Interaction design
Software internationalisation and localization
PhD position: HCI should not be WEIRD!
Replicating Studies across Countries and Cultures
Research context
In recent years, researchers in psychology and economics have increasingly
called for a consideration of more diverse subject populations. Summarizing
contradictory findings between different human populations in various
domains such as visual perception or analytic reasoning, Henrich et al. (2010)
observed that these research results are not broadly representative. In fact,
findings in psychology are almost exclusively based on American
undergraduates and other WEIRD (Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich,
and Democratic) subjects.
Human-Computer Interaction researchers often build on these findings, thus
designing technology that is optimized for WEIRD people. Moreover, a large
majority of articles published at prominent HCI venues such as Interact or CHI
reports on studies with WEIRD participants, ignoring that these results might
not be replicable with other subject populations.
Research goal
The This PhD project is aimed at tackling two main questions: (1) What are
the obstacles faced by user researchers when replicating user studies with
more diverse participants (e.g., in other countries and cultures)? (2) What are
major HCI principles that are currently being taken for granted, but which are
most likely not replicable across different countries and cultures?
Candidate profile
The ideal candidate should have an MSc or equivalent degree with a strong
human-computer interaction component and combine solid theoretical
background and prototyping skills. Strong commitment to reaching research
excellence and achieving assigned objectives is required, so as ability to work
in a collaborative and interdisciplinary environment. It is expected that the
PhD candidate will carry out applied research work that will start from the
establishment of a theoretical framework, continue with empirical work to
explore the research goals and conclude with the validation of a proposed
solution through prototype evaluations and user studies.
Background knowledge and/or previous experience in the following areas (in
order of preference), though not mandatory, will be considered very
favourably:
-
Human-Computer Interaction
Social Sciences: Psychology and/or Sociology
Software internationalisation and localization
PhD position: Interaction Design for the Workplace
Research context
Human work analysis involves user goals, user requirements, tasks and
procedures, human factors, cognitive and physical processes, contexts
(organizational, social, cultural). In particular in the HCI and human factors
tradition, work is analyzed as end-user tasks performed within a work domain.
The focus is on the user's experience of tasks (procedures) and the artefact
environment (constraints in the work domain). Hierarchical Task Analysis
(Annett & Duncan, 1967) and Work Domain Analysis (Salmon, Jenkins,
Stanton, & Walker, 2010) are among the methods that can be used to analyse
the goal-directed tasks, and map the work environmental constraints and
opportunities for behavior. In addition, there is a strong tradition in HCI for
studying work with ethnographic methods (Button & Sharrock, 2009) and from
socio-technical perspectives (e.g., Abdelnour-Nocera, Dunckley, & Sharp,
2007). These approaches focus on work as end-user actions performed
together with other people in a field setting, that is, the user's experience of
using systems are social and organizational experiences. User experience,
usability and interaction design are influenced by these approaches and
techniques for analyzing and interpreting the human work, which eventually
manifests in the design of technological products, systems and applications.
recent years, researchers in psychology and economics have increasingly
called for a consideration of more diverse subject populations.
Research goal
This PhD project is aimed at developing a framework for human-work
interaction design that reflects recent advances in the pervasive condition of
technology and its impact on the trans-mediated nature and experience of
today’s workplace, which is now constituted and configured beyond physical
boundaries. While any work domain can be used as a focus, we have a
preference for work settings related to health, safety critical environments or
software engineering teams.
Candidate profile
The ideal candidate should have an MSc or equivalent degree with a strong
human-computer interaction component. Strong commitment to reaching
research excellence and achieving assigned objectives is required, so as
ability to work in a collaborative and interdisciplinary environment. It is
expected that the PhD candidate will carry out applied research work that will
start from the establishment of a theoretical framework, continue with
workplace studies to explore the research goals and conclude with the
validation of a proposed framework of interaction design for the workplace.
Background knowledge and/or previous experience in the following areas (in
order of preference), though not mandatory, will be considered very
favourably:
-
Human-Computer Interaction
Social Sciences: Psychology and/or Sociology