Newcastle University

I am a Senior Lecturer in Experience-Centred Design, in the Digital Interaction Group, School of Computing Science, at Newcastle University. I research in the area of Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) studying the design of interactive (computational) technologies. In particular I'm interested in exploring human experience and the ways in which technology design can be centred on rich understanding of user-experiences.

I have previously held positions as a Lecturer in Human-Computer Interaction in the School of Computer Science at the University of Nottingham (where I was also a member of the Mixed Reality Lab) and as a post-doc in the Socio-Digital Systems group at Microsoft Research Cambridge. My background is in Psychology (Experimental) and Ergonomics with a PhD in Computer Science. Over the years my work has been heavily influenced by the sociologists, philosophers and designers that I've collaborated with and consequently I take a design-led, social science orientation to understanding human experience. Accordingly, and although trained as an experimental scientist, my research is increasingly based on qualitative methods.

I'm interested in a variety of research areas in HCI including (but not limited to):

Communication and Collaboration - in particular the design of video-mediated communication systems (my PhD was on the design of 'remote gesturing' technologies) and recently I have been very interested in mobile video communications, especially utilising new mobile technologies like Pico projectors.

Tangible User Interfaces and Surface Computing - I've done a fair bit of work exploring hybrid interfaces which combine tangible interactions with multi-touch surfaces (with more focus on hands and gesturing!), and I'm keen to explore new interaction paradigms with interactive surfaces and artefacts.

Memory, Reminiscence and Memorialisation - this is a major focus for much of my research. I've been engaged in and led a variety of studies which have explored the archiving of memories in the home (photos and videos), human relationships to material culture (sentimental mementoes) and broadly the interrelationship of digital technologies and human memory. I've also led studies looking at the design of, and issues around,  'pervasive monuments' or digital augmentations to memorial sites, in Slovenia and elsewhere; and have studied processes of archiving and memorialisation in post-genocide Rwanda. I'm particular keen to expand research on the 'future of human memory', looking at how new digital technologies might support our 'experiences of memory'. And thinking through what it means to remember, how we orient to memories in our everyday lives and inventing and designing for new kinds of weird, wonderful and possibly provocative, digital memory experience.

Qualifications

BSc (Hons) Psychology (2001), University of York

MSc Ergonomics (2003), Loughborough University

PhD Computer Science (2007), University of Nottingham

• Durrant A, Rowland D, Kirk D, Benford S, Fischer J, McAuley D. Automics: Souvenir Generating Photoware for Theme Parks. In: Proceedings of the Annual Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '11). 2011, Vancouver, British Colombia, Canada: ACM Press.
• Tuddenham P, Kirk DS, Izadi S. Graspables revisited: Multi-Touch vs. Tangible Input for Tabletop Displays in Acquisition and Manipulation Tasks. In: 28th International Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. 2011, Atlanta, Georgia, USA: ACM Press.
• Massimi M, Odom W, Banks R, Kirk D. Matters of Life and Death: Locating the End of Life in Lifespan-Oriented HCI Research. In: Annual Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '11). 2011, Vancouver, British Colombia, Canada: ACM Press.
• Kalnikaite V, Sellen A, Whittaker S, Kirk DS. Now Let Me See Where I Was: Understanding How Lifelogs Mediate Memory. In: 28th International Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '10). 2010, Atlanta, Georgia, USA: ACM Press.
• Kirk DS, Sellen A. On Human Remains: Values and Practice in the Home Archiving of Cherished Objects. Transactions on Human-Computer Interaction (TOCHI) 2010, 17(3), 1-43.
• Kirk DS, Izadi S, Sellen A, Taylor S, Banks R, Hilliges O. Opening Up the Family Archive. In: ACM conference on Computer supported cooperative work (CSCW '10). 2010, Savannah, Georgia, USA: ACM Press.
• Wilson AD, Izadi S, Hilliges O, Garcia-Mendoza A, Kirk D. Bringing Physics to the Surface. In: 21st Annual ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology (UIST '08). 2008, Monterey, California, USA: ACM Press.
• Kirk D, Sellen A, Taylor S, Villar N, Izadi S. Putting the physical into the digital: issues in designing hybrid interactive surfaces. In: 23rd British HCI Group Annual Conference on People and Computers: Celebrating People and Technology. 2009, Cambridge, UK: ACM Press.