Research Statement

How can we enrich human experience and augment human abilities by enabling people to create and shape their own user experiences?

In a world where everything is malleable human physiological differences constrain the design space from which self-designing and user designed objects can emerge. For example clothes aren't designed for people with three arms because designers implicitly model standard human physiology.

My research is at the intersection of human physiology and Human-Computer Interaction, with the aim of enabling a computationally driven individual-centered adaptable and adaptive world (a.k.a. user modelling & adaption, programmable matter, mass customisation, product personalisation). In particular I'm interested in self-designing and user generated malleable objects, spaces and software artifacts. Where everyone is able to pull, twist, and reshape objects to their individual needs and desires. Ideally without requiring expert knowledge or skills.

Much of my current research is focused on the intersection of physiologically and psychologically valid computational models of human vision and how people "see" visual designs, user interfaces and information visualisations. Why is one visual design better than another? What makes it better or worse?

As part of my PhD (title "Designing For An Individual's Eyes: Human-Computer Interaction, Vision, And Individual Differences") I developed methods for measuring design effectiveness and enabling design adaptions based on individual physiological differences. Particularly focused on individual psychophysical differences in low-level vision, e.g. automatically compare a range of potential interface designs and make a decision about which is best for a specific user.

With the techniques I developed, predictions can be made about how easy or hard a visual design or information visualisation is to see. Then the predictions can be used to improve the display of complex visualisations and designs to suit individual differences in eye function. Demonstrated in my thesis are automatic evaluations of text and font styles, network graph designs and layouts, and the pseudocolouring of scientific visualisations.

In the longer term, as we move into a world where Mass Customisation and Product Personalisation become common place, objective design quantifications and evaluations are useful for adapting and customising designs to suit individual physiologies, capabilities and preferences.

Publications - Peer Reviewed

Publications - Non-peer Reviewed

Software Artifacts