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Reader in Computing |
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About Shailey
I am a Reader in Computing in the Department of Computing of the Open University, UK. I am a member of the Human-Centred Computing research group in the Centre for Research in Computing at the Open University.
Research in emerging socio-technologies and industrial collaborations
Our research involves evaluating socio-technologies to inform design for a positive user experience. Our research spans two domains:
- e-society: usability, customer relationship management (CRM) and the service quality of e-commerce, e-health and e-government environments;
- e-learning: information design and the pedagogical effectiveness of social software environments such as wikis, blogs, podacsts and 3D virtual worlds (e.g. Second Life).
We examine these technologies as socio-technological systems, investigating the contexts in which they operate, understanding the user experience (e.g. why do people blog? what are the advantages they perceive? what apprehensions do they have?), and eliciting usability defects that mar user-system interaction.
We also assess the impact of systems, for example, on user-engagement (e.g. how does the design of a learning space in a 3D virtual environment impact on student engagement and learning?), or on user’s quality of life, well-being, and skills development (e.g. how does an e-government service which provides loan PCs to its citizens helps to overcome social exclusion). This holistic multi-dimensional approach of evaluating systems provides insights into obstacles that affect usability, information quality, service quality, and user adoption.
Our research is inherently inter-disciplinary: empirically-grounded, primarily guided by human-centred design principles of Human-Computer Interaction (HCI); but we have adopted/adapted theory and methods from business, services marketing, psychology and sociology.
The results of our research have been evidence-based methodologies, frameworks and models, design guidelines, and toolkits that inform design and encompass the overall user experience with the system. Industrial collaborations have been crucial in understanding practitioners’ requirements: the research outcomes have, therefore, had practical impact, such as process guidance, novel instruments, and easy-to-use toolkits.
Portfolio
My LinkedIn profile has details of my educational background and professional experience.
List of publications including journal and conference papers, reports, tutorials and workshop presentations is available in The Open University's repository of research outputs: Open Research Online