Human Computer Interaction Research Group

Digital systems pervade all aspects of our lives from our personal devices, such as the phones in our pockets, to the software that makes our countries work, such as Electronic Health Records and government portals. Whilst these systems can enhance our lives they can also present barriers, for example by being hard to use, or raise new individual and social challenges such as 24-hour access to gambling or the spread of fake news. Through our research in HCI we want to provide new knowledge, based on sound evidence, for the impacts of digital technology on people’s lives. This knowledge informs the design of future technology that will support and enable people and enhance the societies that we live in. 

Whilst we are potentially interested in all forms of digital technology, we have particular strengths in the HCI of  digital games as widely pervasive cultural artefacts. Games are a domain in which we can explore the barriers and experiences of people with digital systems more generally. They are also a way to reach wide audiences and to be a vehicle for exploring  wellbeing and other possible societal benefits. Also because good quality data is at the heart of our research, we also work on advancing HCI research methods. We develop questionnaires to measure complex experiences with technology as well as innovative ways to gather and analyse data.

The HCI Group at York aims to do internationally leading research into the interaction between people and digital systems in order to inform how digital systems can be used to ameliorate the human condition and be used in support of the public good. We have particular strengths in the area of digital games, which have significant cultural and economic influence on people, and these form both a domain for research and a vehicle for the wider exploration of HCI. Our work is also characterised by a strongly empirical approach and the production of high quality data that underpins our research findings.

The main objectives of the group are therefore:

• To explore how people use  interactive systems, in particular digital games, and how they can influence wellbeing and other societal benefits
• To do research into removing the barriers to digital systems in order to ensure that they are inclusive and available as widely as possible
• To develop and advance research methods in HCI so that our methods are fit to address the social and cultural challenges that digital systems present

As HCI is potentially of benefit to anyone who uses digital technology and we have ambitions to bring about the widest benefit. Our research has had and continues to have impact through:

• Improving knowledge and practice about designing for inclusion in digital games.
• Informing policy on the regulation of gambling and gambling-like activities in digital games
• Developing new approaches to using automation in air traffic control  
• Leading internationally in the field of player experience research