Research Interests: Gary Marsden

Dr Marsden is looking for masters and PhD students in the broad area of Mobile Interaction Design and ICT for Development. He has specific projects in the following areas:

Mobile Computing Interaction This is a project initially funded by Microsoft and involves writing software for mobile devices to share information. Typically, the software will either need to perform some image processing or do some ad-hoc networking

Mobile Digital Stories We are working to create software for mobile handsets that allow people to record digital stories about their lives and then share these stories with others. This will require programming the multimedia capabilities of mobile handsets.

Mobile Portal We have been studying mobile internet usage in the townships. This has given us ideas for a range of services that currently do not exist, but would be of great interest to people who have mobile-only access to the internet. We would like to create a service portal for these users. The project will involve web services and interaction design.

HCI Methodologies for the Developing World Most work in HCI has taken place in the developed world. The output from this research has advocated user centred design methods, where the users are consulted at all stages of interface design. Underlying these techniques is the assumption that the users understand the technology. In the developing world, this is not the case. We are therefore looking to develop new usability techniques which empower users who are less familiar with technology.