The faculty in this group comprise Professor Pam Briggs (who heads the group), Dr. Linda Little, and Dr. Elizabeth Sillence. This work within this group has an applied focus, and the links with industry and user engagement are particularly strong. Briggs has led a number of government- and industry-sponsored projects on cognitive and social aspects of human-computer communication and interaction design, most recently in collaboration with the National Research Council of Canada. Since 2001 she was awarded two ESRC grants within the e-Society programme; the first examined how people seek and evaluate health advice online and the second investigated trust and privacy issues in relation to ambient intelligence. Among other industry-funded projects, a research contract with Glaxo SmithKline to evaluate their dry powder inhaler led firstly to a successful redesign of the inhaler and secondly to the first published record of a cognitive deficit associated with lower arterial oxygen in patients with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease. Her collaborative work with Canada’s National Research Council (funded by the British Council – National Research Council Partnership) was recognised in a celebration of UK-Canada Innovation, published by the British Council in 2006.

 Little and Sillence’s main research areas are privacy, trust, technology use in public places, and the impact of age and disability on technology use.  Together with Briggs, their research has been funded by major research grants from the ESRC and from Codeworks.

Current projects

New Dynamics of Ageing

- Lynne McInnes, Linda Little & Pam Briggs

Ageing is generally associated with a decrease in mobility and social interaction and this decrease can be dependent upon various health and social factors. The aim of this project is to utilise an innovative method for mapping the mobility of the oldest-old members of an existing 20 year longitudinal study of ageing. The project will draw upon activity monitoring methods and combine this with data from state-of-art location-aware technologies in order to develop new metrics. These will then be used to describe the relationship between mobility and physical and mental well-being.

 
Security in the workplace

- Linda Little & Vicky Oley

The workplace environment continues to change rapidly with advancement in technology, innovative communication methods, virtual reality, open plan design and alternate work patterns (Lee & Brand, 2005). However, there exists a growing concern how these changes impact upon the overall security of the company. These rapid changes highlight the need for companies to develop and implement security awareness programmes. The aim of this project is to provide a comprehensive literature review on security and privacy in the workplace, to develop an audit tool to assess security vulnerabilities and work with industrial partners to assess the audit tool and implement solutions.

 - Catherine Kenny

Children and young people today are increasingly using technology to communicate rather than adopting the traditional face-to face (FtF) approach.  This is evident in the uptake of mobile phone technology by children and their increased use of the Internet.  Therefore it is sensible to examine what role communication technology plays in the social development of young people.

Psychological factors of ATM and internet fraud

This research has utilised both qualitative and quantitative methodologies, for example focus groups, interviews, and questionnaires.  Initial focus groups, which discussed the human factors associated with cash machine and internet use, were employed to develop a questionnaire to explore the area further.  Interviews were also implemented to extend these findings and aided in the development of experimental research using eye-tracking to assess user credibility evaluations of technology-mediated financial transactions.  A security ranking task has also been developed and employed which distinguishes participant versus expert security perceptions of cash machine use.

Past projects

Trust, risk and identity issues online (ESRC funded) In association with Sheffield University

 - Pam Briggs, Liz Sillence, Peter Harris & Lesley Fishwick

This research examines how and why people choose to trust online health advice and to act upon website recommendations. There is a focus on users with real health concerns e.g. HRT/menopause, High Blood Pressure and Measles, Mumps, Rubella (MMR). The research has utilised a variety of data collection techniques including focus groups, interviews, data logging, diaries, questionnaires and experimental work.

The latest phase of this work is examining the effect of individual differences on peoples’ attitudes towards threatening health information.

Key publications

Sillence, E. & Briggs, P. (2007). Examining the role of the Internet in health. In Joinson, A.N., McKenna, K.Y.A., Postmes, T., & Reips, U-D. (Eds).The Oxford Handbook of Internet Psychology. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. Pp 347-359.

Sillence, E., Briggs, P. Harris, P. R, Fishwick, L. (2007). How do patients evaluate and make use of online health information?Social Science and Medicine, 64, 1853-1862

Sillence, E., Briggs, P. Harris, P, Fishwick, L. (2006). A framework for understanding trust factors in web based health advice. International Journal of Human Computer Studies, 64, 697-713.

Trust, privacy and identity permissions for ubiquitous computing

-Linda Little and Pam Briggs

As systems become more ubiquitous and free the user from time and place, research suggests that although anytime, anyplace may be possible it may not always be acceptable. One of the particular challenges of ubicomp is that the user will be involved in huge numbers of moment-to-moment exchanges of personal data without explicitly sanctioning each transaction. Most studies of ubicomp technology focus on the technical limitations and constraints of such systems and ignore the social implications. This project investigated trust, privacy and identity permissions associated with ubiquitous computing. There are many potential visions of the future and so we engaged with a number of key stakeholders in order to generate specific scenarios capable of communicating something about agent technologies and the trust, privacy and identity issues they evoke. The project used both qualitative and quantitative methods. Main findings suggest the design and implementation of ubiquitous systems cannot be solely based on accessibility, we need to consider social issues, trust and privacy management.

Key publications

Little, L. & Briggs, P. (2007). Ubiquitous Computing and Disability: exclusive or inclusive systems? Paper submitted to Information. Technology & People. May 2007

Little, L., Storer, T., Briggs, P., & Duncan, I. (2008). E-voting in an AmI world: Trust, privacy and social implications, Paper accepted for Social Science Computer Review special issue on privacy and trust issues for ubiquitous computing

Little, L., Marsh, S., & Briggs, P. (2006). Trust and privacy permissions for an ambient world. In R. Song, L. Korba, G. Yee (Eds.) Trust in e-services: technologies, practices and challenges. USA: Ideas Group, Chapter 11

Videos

A trip to the hospital

Financial

Food for thought

Polls apart