People reluctant to use self-driving cars, survey shows

Autonomous vehicles are going to save us from traffic, emissions, and inefficient models of car ownership. But while songs of praise for self-driving cars are regularly sung in Silicon Valley, does the public really want them? That’s what my student Charlie Hewitt, and collaborators Ioannis Politis and Theocharis Amanatidis set out to study. We decided …

Human language isn’t the best way to chat with Siri or Alexa, probably

The year is 2019. Voice-controlled digital assistants are great at simple commands such as “set a timer…” and “what’s the weather?”, but frustratingly little else. Human language seems to be an ideal interface for computer systems; it is infinitely flexible and the user already knows how to use it! But there are drawbacks. Computer systems …

Talking to a bot might help with depression, but you won’t enjoy the conversation

Mental illness is a significant contributor to the global health burden. Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) provided by a trained therapist is effective. But CBT is not an option for many people who cannot travel long distances, or take the time away from work, or simply cannot afford to visit a therapist. To provide more scalable …

Research through design, and the role of theory in Human-Computer Interaction

Every day, designers create the world around us: every website you've visited, book or magazine you've read, every app you've used on your phone, every chair you've sat on, almost everything around you has been consciously designed by someone. Since this activity is so important, an area of academia known as design research is concerned …

Setwise Comparison: a faster, more consistent way to make judgements

I originally wrote this post in 2016 for the Sparrho blog. Have you ever wondered whether doctors are consistent in their judgements? In some cases, they really aren’t. When asked to rate videos of patients with multiple sclerosis (a disease that causes impaired movement) on a numeric scale from 0 being completely healthy to 4 …