I am an Assistant Professor (Senior Lecturer) in the Computer and Information Sciences at Northumbria University, where I work in the area of Human-Computer Interaction alongside other researchers from Nor.SC and NORTH Lab.
My work focuses on understanding the complexities of dealing with multiple technologies in everyday life and how digital experiences can be shaped to support wellbeing, at work and in personal life.
My research spans across a breadth of topics with the core vision to address challenges in how we work and live in the digital age, by understanding the problems, conceptualising strategies to help develop users’ digital resilience and wellbeing, and designing and evaluating digital solutions that empower users. I’ve studied how communication practices differ across devices, and how information is shared, understood and searched for, with a recent focus on misinformation spread within families; I’ve developed and evaluated interventions around work-life balance and mental wellbeing for various stakeholders (e.g. students, knowledge workers, junior doctors, new parents, gig economy workers); and I’ve investigated how use of personal data can be used to track workers, support physical and mental wellbeing in middle-aged men, and uncover gender disparities in caring responsibilities for new parents and experiences of rejection in dating apps.
I primarily take a qualitative and pragmatic approach in my research. While I prefer to do exploratory work that provides a deep dive into systemic issues around work and wellbeing, social justice, and EDI (equity, diversity, and inclusion), I also use more traditional user-centred design approaches, ethnographic methods and off-the-shelf logging tools and rapid prototyping, as well as design research methods in my work.
I have published in the top HCI venues, with several of my work being recognised through awards (Best Paper Awards at CHI 2015, CHI 2021; and Honourable Mentions at CHIWORK 2022, CHIPlay 2022). My work has been featured in the New Scientist, The Conversation and BBC Science Focus, and has been included as Parliamentary Evidence to a number of Inquiries.
I have a PhD in Human-Computer Interaction from the UCL Interaction Centre and have worked at Microsoft Research in Cambridge (UK). I have lived in Italy, Finland and now the UK. In my spare time, I love making toys out of recycled material for my child. A long time ago I also used to write about food on my blog, My Talisman of Happiness.