Overview
Background
Human-centred design of interactive systems
Stephen Viller is a researcher and educator in human-centred design methods, particularly applied to designing social, domestic and mobile computing technologies, and understanding how people's interactions in everyday settings inform the design of such technologies. He has over 20 years of experience in Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW), Interaction Design, and Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) research, where he has focused on bridging disciplines and perspectives. He has concentrated on qualitative methods, particularly observational fieldwork, contextual interviews, diary studies and field trips, but also increasingly on more ‘designerly’ approaches such as cultural probes, low-fidelity prototypes, rapid prototyping and sketching.
Stephen is an Associate Professor and leader of the Human-Centred Computing discipline in the School of Electrical Engineering & Computer Science, and UQ's Theme Leader for the Digital Worlds and Disruptive Technologies theme in the QUEX Institute. From 2016-2019 he was the Director of Coursework Studies (Chair of T&L committee) and from 2011-2016 he was Program Director of the Bachelor of Multimedia Design and Master of Interaction Design. His publications span various interdisciplinary journals and conferences in HCI/CSCW and technology design. He has a BSc (Hons) Computation (UMIST), MSc Cognitive Science (Manchester) and PhD Computing (Lancaster).
Availability
- Associate Professor Stephen Viller is:
- Available for supervision
- Media expert
Fields of research
Qualifications
- Bachelor (Honours) of Computer Science, unknown
- Masters (Coursework) of Cognitive Science, The University of Manchester
- Doctor of Philosophy of Computer-Human Interaction, The University of Lancaster
Research interests
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Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW)
I am interested in all aspects of the understanding of social interaction, methods of studying people in social settings, and informing the design of social technologies.
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Interaction Design
I am interested in people-centred methods for informing the design of interactive technologies. In particular, I explore how methods from other disciplines can be adopted and adapted to improve the software design process.
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Emerging technologies
Technology is only really interesting to me in terms of what it allows people to achieve. I am interested in various technologies in order to prototype and explore novel applications to solve problems in specific contexts. Current technologies I am working with include Internet of Things (IoT), Mixed and Augmented Reality (AR), Physical Computing, and mobile social software.
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Application contexts
Interaction design research takes place in everyday settings where we can understand current practice/activities and prototype and evaluate solutions. My research has involved a wide range of contexts, including dependable and safety-critical systems, office work, tourism, health, behaviour change, and education. In all these domains, my approach is to inform the design of technologies that not only meet the functional and usability needs/requirements of the people in the context, but that are also technologies that people would actually want to use.
Works
Search Professor Stephen Viller’s works on UQ eSpace
Featured
2016
Conference Publication
Trust me: doubts and concerns living with the internet of things
Worthy, Peter, Matthews, Ben and Viller, Stephen A. (2016). Trust me: doubts and concerns living with the internet of things. DIS 2016 - Proceedings of the 2016 ACM Conference on Designing Interactive Systems: Fuse, Brisbane, Australia, 4-8 June 2016. New York, NY, United States: Association for Computing Machinery. doi: 10.1145/2901790.2901890
Featured
2015
Journal Article
SonicAIR: supporting independent living with reciprocal ambient audio awareness
Baharin, Hanif, Viller, Stephen and Rintel, Sean (2015). SonicAIR: supporting independent living with reciprocal ambient audio awareness. ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction, 22 (4) 18, 18:1-18:23. doi: 10.1145/2754165
Featured
2013
Conference Publication
Rhythms of the domestic soundscape: Ethnomethodological soundwalks for phatic technology design
Baharin, Hanif, Rintel, Sean and Viller, Stephen (2013). Rhythms of the domestic soundscape: Ethnomethodological soundwalks for phatic technology design. 14th IFIP TC 13 International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction, INTERACT 2013, Cape Town, South Africa, 2 - 6 September 2013. Heidelberg, Germany: Springer. doi: 10.1007/978-3-642-40498-6_36
Featured
2013
Conference Publication
Augmenting play and learning in the primary classroom
Boden, Marie, Dekker, Andrew, Viller, Stephen and Matthews, Ben (2013). Augmenting play and learning in the primary classroom. IDC 2013, New York, NY, United States, 24-27 June 2013. Danvers, MA, United States: ACM Press. doi: 10.1145/2485760.2485767
Featured
2011
Conference Publication
Building sensitising terms to understand free-play in open-ended interactive art environments
Morrison, Ann, Viller, Stephen and Mitchell, Peta (2011). Building sensitising terms to understand free-play in open-ended interactive art environments. CHI 2011: The 29th CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, Vancouver, BC, Canada, 7-12 May 2011. New York, NY, U.S.A.: Association for Computing Machinery (ACM). doi: 10.1145/1978942.1979285
2024
Book Chapter
AI for designing responsible and resilient food systems
Ko, Ryan, Gain, Alexandria, Bongiovanni, Ivano, Browne, Will, Jarkas, Omar, Uhlmann, Kora and Viller, Stephen (2024). AI for designing responsible and resilient food systems. Food AI: A game changer for Australia’s food and beverage sector. (pp. 69-78) edited by Janet R. McColl-Kennedy and Damian Hine. Brisbane, QLD, Australia: The University of Queensland, Australia's Food and Beverage Accelerator (FaBA). doi: 10.14264/f5f35d0
2023
Journal Article
From Fitbits to chatbots: can digital humans help solve the physical inactivity pandemic?
Gilson, Nicholas, James, Edidiong, Viller, Stephen and Glencross, Mashhuda (2023). From Fitbits to chatbots: can digital humans help solve the physical inactivity pandemic?. British Journal of Sports Medicine, 57 (22) bjsports-2023-107132, 1413-1414. doi: 10.1136/bjsports-2023-107132
2023
Journal Article
Refugee entrepreneurial trajectories
Lee, Chuike, Viller, Stephen and Vyas, Dhaval (2023). Refugee entrepreneurial trajectories. Proceedings of the ACM Human-Computer Interaction, 7 (CSCW2), 1-26. doi: 10.1145/3610204
2022
Conference Publication
User-centred design of a grid health virtual reality tabletop for energy networks
Snow, Stephen, Weigel, Jason, Balson, Alex, Viller, Stephen and Glencross, Mashhuda (2022). User-centred design of a grid health virtual reality tabletop for energy networks. IEEE PES Innovative Smart Grid Technologies - Asia (ISGT Asia) Conference, Brisbane QLD Australia, 5-8 December 2021. Piscataway, NJ USA: Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. doi: 10.1109/ISGTASIA49270.2021.9715616
2022
Conference Publication
On-demand batteries as a peer-to-peer service
Balson, Alexander, Bean, Richard, Chapman, Archie C., Snow, Stephen, Viller, Stephen, Horrocks, Neil and Glencross, Mashhuda (2022). On-demand batteries as a peer-to-peer service. IEEE PES Innovative Smart Grid Technologies - Asia (ISGT Asia) Conference, Brisbane QLD Australia, 5-8 December 2021. Piscataway, NJ USA: Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. doi: 10.1109/ISGTASIA49270.2021.9715657
2020
Conference Publication
Design guidance for location-based play: a review of research frameworks
Macdonald, Lorna, Matthews, Ben and Viller, Stephen (2020). Design guidance for location-based play: a review of research frameworks. DRS2020, Brisbane, QLD, Australia, 11-14 August, 2020. London, United Kingdom: Design Research Society. doi: 10.21606/drs.2020.174
2020
Conference Publication
Preserving sequential context: developing participatory video analysis practice
Matthews, Sarah, Khan, Awais Hameed, Boden, Marie and Viller, Stephen (2020). Preserving sequential context: developing participatory video analysis practice. DRS2020, Brisbane, QLD, Australia, 11-14 August, 2020. London, United Kingdom: Design Research Society. doi: 10.21606/drs.2020.296
2020
Journal Article
Musical agency and an ecological perspective of DMIs: collective embodiment in third wave HCI
Worthy, Peter, Hunter, Trevor, Matthews, Ben and Viller, Stephen (2020). Musical agency and an ecological perspective of DMIs: collective embodiment in third wave HCI. Personal and Ubiquitous Computing, 25 (4), 797-807. doi: 10.1007/s00779-020-01429-9
2020
Journal Article
Keeping the power on to home medical devices
Bean, Richard, Snow, Stephen, Glencross, Mashhuda, Viller, Stephen and Horrocks, Neil (2020). Keeping the power on to home medical devices. PloS One, 15 (7) e0235068, e0235068. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0235068
2020
Other Outputs
Vim
Doherty, Skye , Rose, Ben , Jennings, Kathleen, Snow, Stephen , Matthews, Ben and Viller, Stephen (2020). Vim. Brisbane, Australia: University of Queensland.
2020
Conference Publication
Speculative designs for emergent personal data trails: signs, signals and signifiers
Snow, Stephen, Khan, Awais Hameed, Viller, Stephen, Matthews, Ben, Heiner, Scott, Pierce, James, Luger, Ewa, Gomer, Richard and Filipczuk, Dorota (2020). Speculative designs for emergent personal data trails: signs, signals and signifiers. 2020 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, Honolulu, HI, United States, 25-30 April 2020. New York, United States: Association for Computing Machinery. doi: 10.1145/3334480.3375173
2020
Conference Publication
Design jam as a pedagogy: teaching design thinking to computer science students at scale
Snow, Stephen, Filipczuk, Dorota, Viller, Stephen and Gomer, Richard (2020). Design jam as a pedagogy: teaching design thinking to computer science students at scale. OZCHI’19, Fremantle, WA, Australia, 2-5 December 2019. New York, NY, United States: ACM. doi: 10.1145/3369457.3369468
2020
Conference Publication
Vim: a tangible energy story
Doherty, Skye, Snow, Stephen, Jennings, Kathleen, Rose, Ben, Matthews, Ben and Viller, Stephen (2020). Vim: a tangible energy story. 13th International Conference on Interactive Digital Storytelling, ICIDS 2020, Bournemouth, United Kingdom, 3-6 November 2020. Cham, Switzerland: Springer Nature Switzerland. doi: 10.1007/978-3-030-62516-0_24
2020
Conference Publication
"...and we are the creators!" technologies as creative material
Matthews, Sarah, Viller, Stephen and Boden, Marie (2020). "...and we are the creators!" technologies as creative material. Fourteenth International Conference on Tangible, Embedded, and Embodied Interaction, Sydney, NSW Australia, 9-12 February 2020. New York, NY United States: Association for Computing Machinery. doi: 10.1145/3374920.3374980
2020
Conference Publication
Where are they now?: Revisiting energy use feedback a decade after deployment
Snow, Stephen, Viller, Stephen, Glencross, Mashhuda and Horrocks, Neil (2020). Where are they now?: Revisiting energy use feedback a decade after deployment. OZCHI’19, Fremantle, WA, Australia, 2-5 December 2019. New York, NY, United States: ACM. doi: 10.1145/3369457.3369501
Funding
Current funding
Supervision
Availability
- Associate Professor Stephen Viller is:
- Available for supervision
Before you email them, read our advice on how to contact a supervisor.
Supervision history
Current supervision
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Doctor Philosophy
A mobile health intervention for promoting light and moderate intensity physical activity among young cancer survivors
Principal Advisor
Other advisors: Dr Chelsea Dobbins, Professor Sandie McCarthy
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Doctor Philosophy
Designing for location dependence: a framework for design
Principal Advisor
Other advisors: Associate Professor Ben Matthews
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Doctor Philosophy
Trust vs Disgust: The Believability and Trustworthiness of Digital Characters
Principal Advisor
Other advisors: Dr Mashhuda Glencross
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Doctor Philosophy
Mixed reality collaborative learning environment for use in distance education for professional development
Principal Advisor
Other advisors: Dr Marie Boden
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Doctor Philosophy
Human-Centered Independent Living for People with Paraplegia
Associate Advisor
Other advisors: Dr Dhaval Vyas
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Doctor Philosophy
Exploring Emotional and Cognitive Effects of Heterogeneous Mixed Reality Remote Collaboration
Associate Advisor
Other advisors: Associate Professor Ben Matthews
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Doctor Philosophy
Fostering Making Practices in People from Low Socio-Economic Backgrounds
Associate Advisor
Other advisors: Dr Dhaval Vyas
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Doctor Philosophy
Positive Tipping Points Driving Clean Energy Adoption
Associate Advisor
Other advisors: Dr Mashhuda Glencross
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Doctor Philosophy
Weaving Tech and Teach: A Participatory Design Exploration with Primary School Teachers
Associate Advisor
Other advisors: Associate Professor Ben Matthews
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Doctor Philosophy
Extreme Analytics
Associate Advisor
Other advisors: Associate Professor Gianluca Demartini, Dr Maxime Cordeil
Completed supervision
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2020
Master Philosophy
The Efficacy and Usefulness of Software Carpentry Training: A Follow-Up Cohort Study
Principal Advisor
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2017
Doctor Philosophy
Journalism Design: The NewsCube, Interactive Technologies and Practice
Principal Advisor
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2015
Doctor Philosophy
Contextual considerations for the design of Learner-adaptive computer support in collaborative classrooms
Principal Advisor
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2015
Doctor Philosophy
Web Designer / Client Communication: An in-situ development and evaluation of tools and methods to support the collaborative design of interactive technologies
Principal Advisor
Other advisors: Associate Professor Ben Matthews
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2014
Doctor Philosophy
Designing a technology mash-up to support remote physical-digital fashion design collaboration
Principal Advisor
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2012
Doctor Philosophy
SonicAir: Designing Sonification-Based Phatic Technology for Independent Living
Principal Advisor
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2012
Doctor Philosophy
Active Awareness: Supporting the intentional disclosure of awareness information in collaborative systems
Principal Advisor
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2007
Doctor Philosophy
METHODS OF UNDERSTANDING AND DESIGNING FOR MOBILE COMMUNITIES
Principal Advisor
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2020
Doctor Philosophy
Setting wicked problems using design methods: People's hesitancy to engage with the Internet of Things
Joint Principal Advisor
Other advisors: Associate Professor Ben Matthews
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2024
Doctor Philosophy
Towards Automatic Analysis of Cinematic Style of Film Directors
Associate Advisor
Other advisors: Dr Mashhuda Glencross
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2022
Doctor Philosophy
Agency of Interactive Space in Shaping Users' Behaviour and Perception through Actor-Network Theory
Associate Advisor
Other advisors: Dr Fred Fialho Leandro Alves Teixeira
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2022
Doctor Philosophy
Steps Toward Technology as a Creative Material
Associate Advisor
Other advisors: Dr Marie Boden
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2008
Doctor Philosophy
Mobile Social Software: the design, implementation and usage of a system for mobile group communication, coordination and sharing
Associate Advisor
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2007
Doctor Philosophy
Ethnography of Play in a Massively Multi-Player Online Role Playing Game: Marketplaces, Team Work and Free Play
Associate Advisor
Other advisors: Professor Janet Wiles
Media
Enquiries
Contact Associate Professor Stephen Viller directly for media enquiries about:
- Computer Supported Cooperative Work - CSCW
- Engineering - ITEE
- Human-centred design - ITEE
- Human-Computer Interaction - HCI
- Interaction Design - IxD
- Interactive technologies - ITEE
- ITEE - engineering
- Mixed Reality
- Mobile social software MoSoSo
- Physical Computing
- Requirements Engineering - RE
- Social software - ITEE
- Ubiquitous Computing - UbiComp
- User Experience Design
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