Friday, 10 June 2022
Two CDTs, a hotel and a lot of writing
What happens when you take two CDTs for three days to Ramside Hall? A whole bunch of writing.
Latest news
Monday, 30 May 2022
Engagement and Place Awards: another win for Open Lab
Second win for Open Lab at the Newcastle University Engagement and Place Awards on 20 May.
Tuesday, 7 December 2021
From Digital Economy to Digital Citizens: the end of Digital Economy Research Centre
Open Lab at Newcastle University and Northumbria University are celebrating the end of the Digital Economy Research Centre (DERC), which began in 2015.
Monday, 8 November 2021
Lose control to gain knowledge: participatory design
What does it feel like to hand over control and do participatory design research with the same participants for over two years? PhD student Peter Glick talks about his experience creating My Care Budget, a wiki to help people manage their Personal Health Budget (PHB) or care budget.
Wednesday, 29 September 2021
Getting back together at the CDT Writing Retreat at Slaley Hall
Like most of the UK, Open Lab has been working remotely since the end of March 2020. Despite the pressures of the pandemic, working from home, often in a displaced way, Open Lab has continued to be productive. We have continued to research, to work with our communities, and submit to conferences. However, many of us missed working together in person.
Tuesday, 16 March 2021
Tentative steps in the right direction to end violence against women, but not a victory yet
The UK House of Lords voted in favour to include a national perpetrator strategy in the Domestic Abuse Bill, a tentative step forward in the campaign to end violence against women amongst a frustrating week.
Tuesday, 8 December 2020
New Centre for Digital Citizens to address challenges of digital citizenship
A new £9M research centre that will allow citizens across the country to grasp the possibilities of the digital revolution has been announced.
Friday, 27 November 2020
Open Lab research recognised by national awards
From Young Digital Leader of the Year to Project of the Year - here's a round-up of some of the awards we've won in 2020.
Friday, 7 August 2020
Welcome to the Ministry of Multispecies Communications
Rachel Clarke talks about making the Ministry of Multispecies Communications walk into a virtual one, as part of the HCI summer festival.
Friday, 7 August 2020
Not-Equal - Democratising access to digital technology and services
As part of the HCI Summer Festival, Not-Equal ran a panel asking how we can work towards the democratisation of access to digital technologies, particularly in response to how communities can work around COVID-19 restrictions.
Friday, 7 August 2020
Running a week long virtual event - the HCI summer festival
Emily Barker, Communications Offer at Open Lab, talks about how we along with HCID and North Lab built a virtual festival in less than a month in response to the canceled CHI 2020 conference (along with other conferences) due to the COVID19 pandemic.
Friday, 7 August 2020
Collective reflection on cross-cultural and value-sensitive design
Doctoral Trainee Tag Alshehri brought together researchers from different countries for an open discussion reflecting on their experiences, success and struggles in working within cultural and value-sensitive settings in design research, as part of the HCI summer festival.
Friday, 7 August 2020
Phone-grown re-purposing obsolete phones
In the short time span of 90 minutes, three teams of four minds stuck their (virtual) heads together to explore potential approaches to repurpose ‘obsolete’ smartphones, David Verweij and Dan Jackson give a brief summary of the Phone Grown creative sprint from the HCI summer festival.
Friday, 7 August 2020
Reflecting on design research in the online wild
As part of the HCI Summer festival, Simon Bowen, Alexander Wilson and Sunil Rodger ran the workshop 'Research in the Online Wild' looking at how you can do public consultation during periods of lockdown and social distancing, here is their summary of the discussion.
Friday, 7 August 2020
Civic tech and making places
As part of the HCI Summer Festival, Jennifer Manuel and Sean Peacock ran the Civic Tech and Making Places interactive workshop bringing together a range of people to talk about placemaking and the potential to use civic technology which didn't disappoint.
Friday, 7 August 2020
Digital careers and HCI
In the Digital Careers and HCI panel discussion at the HCI Summer Festival, we explored how people with HCI researchers could translate that experience into careers in the digital industry.
Sunday, 8 September 2019
Using tech to improve collaborative learning for schoolchildren
Students from Open Lab's Digital Civics CDT have worked with hundreds of schoolchildren to improve their creativity, give them practical skills and connect them with schools on the other side of the world.