Dave Kirk
Co-Director of Open Lab
I am Professor of Human-Centred Design and Director of Open Lab. My research is principally in the field of Human-Computer Interaction (HCI). Over 20 years my work has touched on a range of application areas (often because of the diverse and amazing PhD students I’ve worked with) but at the core it is about using design research methods (including field research, prototyping and speculation) to help us understand the nature of the digital human experience so that we can design better, more value-sensitive and meaningful, interactive technologies, services and future worlds.
Previous Positions: Post-Doc - Socio-Digital Systems group Microsoft Research Cambridge; Lecturer in Human-Computer Interaction - University of Nottingham; Senior Lecturer / Reader in Experience Centred Design / Cultural Computing - Newcastle University; Professor of Digital Living - Northumbria University.
Areas of expertise, application and interest: Video-Mediated Communication; Memory, Memorialisation and Cultural Heritage; Human-Data Interaction; Human-Building Interaction and Smart Homes; Digital Civics and Citizens; Humanitarian HCI; Human-Robot Interaction; Digital Health and Wellbeing; Slow Technology; Design Futures; Human-AI Interactions
Major Current Projects:
EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Digital Civics (£4.7M + matched funding) - I inherited this programme as Principal Investigator and safely saw it through to completion with the last cohorts of students and supervised 11 of them (finishing 2025).
EPSRC Centre for Digital Citizens (£3.8M + matched funding) - Principal Investigator - a multi-university partnership exploring the community-centred design of technologies and services for civic engagement and empowerment (finishing 2026).
EPSRC Northern Health Futures (NortHFutures) Digital Health Hub (£3.4M + matched funding) - Co-Investigator and Training and Skill Lead - led the bid development for this regional health and care focused hub - partnering with 6 universities and over 40 partner organisations. Working heavily with Voluntary, Community, and Social Enterprise (VCSE) partners to develop the local digital health and care technologies innovation ecosystem (finishing 2026).
EPSRC Transforming the Objective Real-world measUrement of Symptoms (TORUS) Programme Grant (£6.1M + matched) - Co-Investigator - exploring the sensitive and ethical design and development of at-home technologies (computer vision and wearable tech) to support continuous monitoring of Parkinson’s Disease symptoms during clinical trials (finishing 2028).
EPSRC TEDDI - Dementia Network+ - Co-Investigator - exploring future care pathways and digital innovation for supporting people living with Dementia.
Human Building Interaction (HBI) and Design for Climate Change
⋯
Evaluating ActuAir: Building Occupants' Experiences of a Shape-Changing Air Quality Display
⋯
EPSRC Northern Health Futures Digital Health Hub
⋯
Understanding occupants’ experiences in quantified buildings
Co-Teaching as a Form of Co-Design for Educational Technology
Human-GDPR Interaction: Practical experiences of accessing personal data
Phone Grown: developing family-focused domestic ambient displays at home
Un-authorised View: Leveraging volunteer expertise in heritage
Seamless Seams: Machine sewing shape-changing and colour changing threads
⋯
Family Rituals 2.0
2024
Evaluating ActuAir: Building Occupants' Experiences of a Shape-Changing Air Quality Display
2024 – CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '24)
Human Building Interaction and Design for Climate Change.
2024 – ACM Designing Interactive Systems
Exploring the Potential of AI Chatbots for Supporting Individuals with Dementia: Thematic Insights from User-Centered Workshops
2024 – 12th International Conference on Human-Agent Interaction (HAI '24)
2023
Understanding occupants’ experiences in quantified buildings: results from a series of exploratory studies
2023 – 2023 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI ’23)
Exploring Participants' Representations and Shifting Sensitivities in a Hackathon for Dementia
2023 – ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction
2022
Participatory Design Goes to School: Co-Teaching as a Form of Co-Design for Educational Technology
2022 – CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI ’22)
Human-GDPR Interaction: Practical Experiences of Accessing Personal Data
2022 – CHI '22: CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
ActuAir: Exploring Physicalizations of Air Quality at the Workplace
2022 – Actuated Materials and Soft Robotics Strategies for Human-Computer Interaction Design: Workshop on Soft Robotics for HCI (ACM CHI'22 Conference)
"It's all their words, it's just not necessarily all of the words": Balancing Authenticity and Authority in Participatory Heritage Projects
2022 – Participatory Design Conference (PDC 22)
2021
Memoryscapes: Designing Situated Narratives of Place through Heritage Collections
2021 – International Journal of Human-Computer Interaction
Tangible Lighting Proxies: Brokering the Transition from Classroom to Stage
2021 – ACM International Conference on Tangible, Embedded and Embodied Interaction
Understanding the Experiences of Remote Workers: Opportunities for Ambient Workspaces at Home
2021 – Frontiers in Computer Science
2020
Supporting a healthier takeaway meal choice: creating a universal Health Rating for online takeaway fast-food outlets
2020 – International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
Un-authorised View: Leveraging Volunteer Expertise in Heritage
2020 – Proceedings of the 2020 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '20)
2019
Seamless Seams: Crafting Techniques for Embedding Fabrics with Interactive Actuation
2019 – 2019 Designing Interactive Systems Conference (DIS '19)
Interactive Interior Design and Personal Data
2019 – People, Personal Data and the Built Environment
Cross-cultural Understanding of Chinese Traditional Puppetry: Integrating Digital Technology to Enhance Audience Engagement
2019 – The International Journal of Intangible Heritage
Supporting the Cross-cultural Appreciation of Traditional Chinese Puppetry Through a Digital Gesture Library
2019 – ACM Journal on Computing and Cultural Heritage
Introduction to this Special Issue on Open Design at the Intersection of Making and Manufacturing
2019 – Human–Computer Interaction
2018
Accountability work: Examining the values, technologies and work practices that facilitate transparency in Charities
2018 – Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems - Proceedings
Admixed portrait: Design to understand Facebook portrayals in new parenthood
2018 – Proceedings of the 2018 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '18)
Decorating public and private spaces: Identity and pride in a refugee camp
2018 – CHI EA '18 Human Factors in Computing Systems
ActuEating: Desiging, Studying and Exploring Actuating Decorative Artefacts
2018 – DIS '18: Proceedings of the 2018 Designing Interactive Systems Conference
Untold stories: Working with third sector organisations
2018 – Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems - Proceedings
Sketching the Polyphonic Design Space of Theme Parks
2018 – Funology 2
2017
On Speculative Enactments
2017 – Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
Making Ritual Machines: The Mobile Phone as a Networked Material for Research Products
2017 – CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
Open design at the intersection of making and manufacturing
2017 – CHI EA '17: Proceedings of the 2017 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
Making home: Asserting agency in the age of IoT
2017 – CHI EA '17: Proceedings of the 2017 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
Situated dissemination through an HCI workplace
2017 – CHI '17 Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
Designing Documentary Informatics
2017 – Designing Interactive Systems (DIS '17)
2016
A Quantified Past: Toward Design for Remembering with Personal Informatics
2016 – Human–Computer Interaction
It's just my history isn't it?: Understanding smart journaling practices
2016 – ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems 2016
ResViz: Politics and Design Issues in Visualizing Academic Metrics
2016 – ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems 2016
Ritual Machines I & II: Making Technology at Home
2016 – ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems 2016
Metadating: Exploring the Romance and Future of Personal Data
2016 – CHI '16: Proceedings of the 2016 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
Accountable: Exploring the Inadequacies of Transparent Financial Practice in the Non-Profit Sector
2016 – CHI '16: Proceedings of the 2016 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
Understanding the Sociality of Experience in Mobile Music Listening with Pocketsong
2016 – Designing Interactive Systems Conference (DIS 2016)
Understanding the Sociality of Experience in Mobile Music Listening with Pocketsong
2016 – 2016 ACM Conference on Designing Interactive Systems DIS 2016
2015
Designing for Family Phatic Communication: A Design Critique Approach
2015 – British HCI 2015
Beyond Personal Informatics: Designing for Experiences with Data.
2015 – Proceedings of the 33rd Annual ACM Conference Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI EA '15)
Diri - the Actuated Helium Balloon: A Study of Autonomous Behaviour in Interfaces
2015 – UbiComp '15 ACM International Joint Conference on Pervasive and Ubiquitous Computing
Archival Liveness: Designing with Collections Before and During Cataloguing and Digitization
2015 – Digital Humanities Quarterly
Research Through Design and Digital Humanities in Practice: What, How and Who in an Archive Research Project.
2015 – Digital Humanities
Nature Bot: Experiencing Nature in the Built Environment
2015 – C and C 2015 - 2015 ACM SIGCHI Conference on Creativity and Cognition
2014
An Emergent Framework for Digital Memorials
2014 – Proceedings of the 2014 Conference on Designing Interactive Systems (DIS '14)
Designing for slowness, anticipation and re-visitation: a long term field study of the photobox
2014 – CHI '14: Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
Human Values in Curating a Human Rights Media Archive
2014 – SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '14)
Tangible Autonomous Interfaces (TAIs): Exploring Autonomous Behaviour in TUIs
2014 – Proceedings of the 8th International Conference on Tangible, Embedded and Embodied Interaction (TEI '14)
A quantified past: remembering with personal informatics.
2014 – DIS Companion '14
Quotidian Ritual and Work-Life Balance: An Ethnography of Not Being There
2014 – Ethnographic Praxis in Industry Conference Proceedings (EPIC)
2012
Pursuing Leisure: Reflections on Theme Park Visiting
2012 – Computer Supported Collaborative Work
2011
Automics: Souvenir generating photoware for theme parks
2011 – CHI 2011: Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
Matters of Life and Death: Locating the End of Life in Lifespan-Oriented HCI Research
2011 – Annual Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '11)
Graspables revisited: Multi-Touch vs. Tangible Input for Tabletop Displays in Acquisition and Manipulation Tasks
2011 – 28th International Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems