The HTD team hosted the inaugural Irish HCI Summer Workshop on campus last month, with over 20 HCI researchers from around Ireland in attendance. The workshop focused on HCI research methods, and the intention was to provide an informal environment to share and discuss the various methods we are using, and to network with others in the Irish HCI research community. The day consisted of four short presentations in the morning from researchers sharing what they feel is powerful, uniquely valuable, or difficult about the research methods they are using in their own work. After a coffee break we ..read more

In recent years, there has been an increasing number of students seeking support on college campuses which has led to long waitlists for university counseling centers. Anxiety disorders are among the most common mental health problems affecting young adults (ages 18-30 years). Counseling center staff and administrators are working together to find cost-effective options for supporting students. There is a growing number of mental health smartphone applications to support mental health which hold the potential to address barriers to mental health service delivery. A large number of these applic ..read more

Congratulations are due to Camille Nadal and Se?n Cronin who successfully passed their PhD viva voce examinations last month, subject to the usual minor revisions. Camille Nadal with her thesis Se?n Cronin with external examiner Dr. Julie Doyle Camille’s thesis is entitled “User Acceptance of Health and Mental Health Care Technologies”. Thanks to the external examiner – Prof. Stephanie Wilson, City, University of London, internal examiner Dr. David Lewis, and chair Prof. Declan O’Sullivan, and to external co-supervisor Prof. Corina Sas, University of Lancaster. Se?n’s thesis was entitled ..read more

I was glad to celebrate the achievements of inventors and innovators across TCD last night at the Trinity Innovation Awards, where I was presented with an award for my work leading to the formation of SilverCloud Health, and role as co-founder. It has been a joy to see the incredible team at SilverCloud achieve global impact in the area of digital health over the last decade. The post Trinity Innovation – Founders Award appeared first on Health Technology Design ..read more

We are delighted to see three papers from the Health Technology Design Group at Trinity College Dublin accepted to the ACM CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems – the premier venue for research in Human-Computer Interaction. The papers look at how we design for user acceptance (Nadal et al.), at user acceptance of digital COVID-19 certificates (Nurgalieva et al.), and at mechanisms for interacting with touchless medical imaging systems (Cronin et al.). Congratulations to everyone involved, and a particular thanks to our international collaborators on each of the papers. C. Nada ..read more

Since last November, I have been reflecting on my research career. I started my second postdoc, and I didn't want to stay postdoc for too long. I see postdoc as some sort of limbo. You gain experience, improve your publication record and try to check all the boxes necessary for the next step while staying on short-term contracts and most probably relocating to have international experience. During my first postdoc, my path was (sort of) clear to me, which led to a professor position (someday). I had an idea of what research I wanted to do, and I was trying to learn from various supervisors an ..read more

I was glad to celebrate the achievements of inventors and innovators across TCD last night at the Trinity Innovation Awards, where I was presented with an award for my work leading to the formation of SilverCloud Health, and role as co-founder. It has been a joy to see the incredible team at SilverCloud achieve global impact in the area of digital health over the last decade. The post Trinity Innovation – Founders Award appeared first on Health Technology Design ..read more

Ever bought a fitness device and only used it a couple of times? Any apps on your phone that you have not opened in the past year? Technology abandonment is a long-standing issue for HCI designers. In healthcare, technology is increasingly used to support diagnosis, treatment, and symptom monitoring. In this context, if I am not willing to use the technology, I might not be able to receive care. In the same way, if I give up the technology before completion of my treatment completion, I might not get its full benefits. User acceptance, a key issue difficult to design for Our acceptance of tec ..read more

We are delighted to see three papers from the Health Technology Design Group at Trinity College Dublin accepted to the ACM CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems – the premier venue for research in Human-Computer Interaction. The papers look at how we design for user acceptance (Nadal et al.), at user acceptance of digital COVID-19 certificates (Nurgalieva et al.), and at mechanisms for interacting with touchless medical imaging systems (Cronin et al.). Congratulations to everyone involved, and a particular thanks to our international collaborators on each of the papers. C. Nada ..read more

An analysis of engagement and tailoring features In recent years many mobile apps have been developed that aspire to support users with managing anxiety. A large number of these applications are based on Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) which is an effective treatment for anxiety disorders. Previous work has found people often quickly abandon these applications, as such there is a need to design these applications to be engaging and relevant to the user in order for them to experience the benefits of the treatment. Understanding what these apps actually provide and what strategies they emplo ..read more