Research Interests

If you are interested in any aspect of my research, feel free to contact me (my details are at the bottom of this page).

PhD - The Sonic Mapping Tool

I successfully defended my PhD in July 2008. My supervisors were Professor Alan Newell and Dr Catriona Macaulay. My examiners were Professor David Benyon (external) and Dr Shaleph O'Neill (internal).

I have made my thesis available for download. You will need Adobe's free Acrobat Reader to read each of the separate PDF files shown below. Unfortunately, while every effort has been made to ensure that the thesis is accessible to assistive technologies, several tables in the main body, as well as the appendices in their entirety, were scanned in from printouts, hence screen readers may not be able to read the text. Therefore, if you would like to receive the thesis in a different format (e.g. Microsoft Word or HTML), please do not hesitate to get in touch.

If that's too much bedtime reading for you, I have had some of the work published within shorter conference/workshop papers. Go to my research page for further details.

A photo of a jar of coffee and a mug Abstract

Over the past two decades, the field of auditory display has grown into a well-established field that has drawn upon a number of, largely scientific, disciplines. As a result, the field provides many useful frameworks to assist in the design, analysis and evaluation of non-speech sound as a means of providing feedback and information to users of computer systems. Yet, as new and increasingly ubiquitous technologies permeate and transform the world around us, auditory display's parent field, interaction design, has increasingly drawn upon disciplines and theories outside traditional perceptive, cognitive and usability-based models to understand the powerful and complex relationships that are formed between humans and computers. A significant drawback for traditional auditory display research is that, with its emphasis on addressing specific perceptual and cognitive issues, or the technical advances associated with sound, it lacks a framework for understanding the richer relationships that are formed between human beings and their auditory environments. For example, interacting with the sonically-enhanced spreadsheet is arguably a much different experience than interacting with the soundtrack to a computer game, in which the purpose of sound is more than to act as a feedback mechanism.

Images taken from my PhD evaluations

This thesis proposes that a new paradigm is required for auditory display research, one that retains, and still considers necessary, traditional understandings of the relationship between humans and auditory interfaces and displays, but also offers an additional framework for understanding the increasingly complex interactions that will undoubtedly occur as different forms of sonically-enhanced media converge into the new technologies that permeate our everyday lives. A solution is proposed by drawing upon the field of acoustic ecology to develop a tool that focuses upon the dual aspects of the complex relationships between human beings and their auditory environments, and disseminating this information in a way that can engender a better understanding of such relationships to provide useful insights for future sound design possibilities.

The tool was explored through conducting empirical studies with groups of novice interaction designers to ascertain its suitability when applied to a real auditory environment, and the results of disseminating the results to other designers of interactive technologies. In terms of conceptualising the relationship between people and their auditory environment, this thesis found that the tool informed and educated participants about the rich and complex nature of such relationships, but more work is required to ensure that the tool can be made more intuitive. In terms of the disseminated results, it was found that there is scope for applying the tool as part of more considerable user-centred design projects if combined with traditional auditory display research approaches. As a result, a number of areas for future research have been identified, focusing upon pragmatic ways in which the tool could be expanded within real design projects.

Digital Media Access Group

Digital Media Access Group logo Outside of auditory interface research, my work with the Digital Media Access Group (DMAG) enables me to exploit my interest in ensuring technology is accessible to a wide range of users in novel and creative ways.

Please see my publications page for more details of my research.