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Staff Profile

Professor Abi Durrant

Professor of Interaction Design

Background

I’m Professor of Interaction Design and Co-Director of Open Lab and EPSRC Centre for Digital Citizens at Newcastle University, predominantly working in the field of Human-Computer Interaction (HCI). I am also Co-Director of Open Lab's Doctoral Training Centre in Digital Civics

My research addresses the significant design challenges that we face for managing identity in our everyday interactions with digital technologies and personal data. I have explored the digital representation of selfhood in the context of family relationships and legacies, major life transitions, memorialisation, cultural heritage, human rights media, and personal identity management.

I am particularly interested in the health implications of managing a digitally-mediated self. I am Principal Investigator for the EPSRC-funded project INTUIT: Interaction Design for Trusted Sharing of Personal Health Data to Live Well with HIV  (EP/R033900/1), a design-led programme that aims to understand and address issues of trust, identity and privacy that are experienced by people living with HIV when sharing self-generated data with clinicians, peers, and others, for the purposes of self-managing their condition.

I’m also Co-I on EPSRC AGENCY: Assuring Citizen Agency in a World with Complex Online Harms (EP/W032481/1), which addressing design challenges for supporting people to live safe and well, using participatory design research methods. I also sit on the department's EDI committee and on the executive board for the Newcastle Centre of Research Excellence in Children and Youth. Recently completed research projects include EPSRC Playing Out with IOT (EP/P025544/2), exploring an outdoor design space for children’s creative free play with Internet of Things.

My work is grounded in co-creative, experience-centred, and research-through-design approaches, working closely with non-academic partners to define and conduct research.

I actively contribute to a number of academic communities, including SIGCHI Conferences and the Design Research Society (DRS) Conference. I am a Steering Committee member for the biennial RTD Conference series. I am also a member of the AHRC Peer Review College and Reviewer for EPSRC.

More information can be found at my personal website: www.abigaildurrant.com.
The most up-to-date list of my publications can be found on my Google Scholar page. 
Research

I am currently Principal Investigator of EPSRC INTUIT (EP/R033900/1): https://intuitproject.org/

I am Co-Investigator on EPSRC AGENCY (EP/W032481/1)

I am Co-Investigator on EPSRC Centre for Digital Citizens (EP/T022582/1): https://www.digitalcitizens.uk/

I was recently Co-Investigator of EPSRC Playing Out with IOT (EP/P025544/2), now completed.

More information about previous research projects can be found at: www.abigaildurrant.com.

Teaching

I currently teach Interaction Design on the MSc in Human Computer Interaction Design at Newcastle University.

I currently supervise 10 PhD students, in Interaction Design, Communication Design, Industrial Design, Computer Science, Fine Art, and Human Computer Interaction. I have previously supervised six PhD students to successful completion and routinely take up external examining roles at universities in the UK and internationally.



Publications