Associate Professor Stephen Viller
Associate Professor

Stephen Viller

Email: 
Phone: 
+61 7 336 51190

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 30 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 diverse methodological 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, speculative design.

Stephen is an Associate Professor in the School of Electrical Engineering & Computer Science (EECS), where he leads the Human-Centred Computing discipline. He is also UQ's Theme Leader for the Digital Worlds and Disruptive Technologies theme in the QUEX Institute, and national chair of CHISIG, the Computer-Human Interaction Special Interest Group of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society of Australia (HFESA). From 2016-2019 he was the EECS (ITEE at the time) 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

Affective computing Built Environment and Design Collaborative and social computing Communication and media studies Design Distributed computing and systems software Education Educational technology and computing Fairness, accountability, transparency, trust and ethics of computer systems Graphics, augmented reality and games Human-centred computing Human-computer interaction Information and Computing Sciences Information visualisation Language, Communication and Culture Library and information studies Mobile computing Organisational, interpersonal and intercultural communication Pervasive computing Requirements engineering Social and community informatics Social robotics Software engineering Specialist studies in education Virtual and mixed reality

Qualifications

  • Bachelor (Honours) of Computer Science, University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology
  • Masters (Coursework) of Cognitive Science, The University of Manchester
  • Doctor of Philosophy of Computer-Human Interaction, The University of Lancaster

Research interests

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

Search Professor Stephen Viller’s works on UQ eSpace

109 works between 1991 and 2025
All (109) Journal Article (22) Other Outputs (6) Edited Outputs (4) Conference Publication (70) Book Chapter (7)

21 - 40 of 109 works

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

Speculative designs for emergent personal data trails: signs, signals and signifiers

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

Design jam as a pedagogy: teaching design thinking to computer science students at scale

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

Vim: a tangible energy story

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

"...and we are the creators!" technologies as creative material

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

Where are they now?: Revisiting energy use feedback a decade after deployment

2020

Other Outputs

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. The University of Queensland. (Dataset) doi: 10.14264/uql.2020.802

Keeping the power on to home medical devices

2020

Book Chapter

Prototyping interaction: designing technology for communication

Doherty, Skye and Viller, Stephen (2020). Prototyping interaction: designing technology for communication. Reimagining communication: experience. (pp. 80-96) edited by Michael Filimowicz and Veronika Tzankova. New York, NY, United States: Routledge. doi: 10.4324/9781351015356-5

Prototyping interaction: designing technology for communication

2019

Other Outputs

Physical News Card Deck

Skye Doherty, Kathleen Jennings, Ben Matthews and Stephen Viller (2019). Physical News Card Deck. Brisbane, Australia: University of Queensland.

Physical News Card Deck

2019

Conference Publication

Using participatory design in the development of a new musical interface : Understanding musician's needs beyond usability

Hunter, Trevor, Worthy, Peter, Matthews, Ben and Viller, Stephen (2019). Using participatory design in the development of a new musical interface : Understanding musician's needs beyond usability. 14th International Audio Mostly Conference: A Journey in Sound on ZZZ, Nottingham, United Kingdom, September 18 - 20, 2019. New York, NY, United States: ACM Press. doi: 10.1145/3356590.3356635

Using participatory design in the development of a new musical interface : Understanding musician's needs beyond usability

2019

Conference Publication

Soundscape : Participatory design of an interface for musical expression

Hunter, Trevor, Worthy, Peter, Matthews, Ben and Viller, Stephen (2019). Soundscape : Participatory design of an interface for musical expression. 14th International Audio Mostly Conference: A Journey in Sound on ZZZ, Nottingham, United Kingdom, September 18 - 20, 2019. New York, NY, United States: ACM Press. doi: 10.1145/3356590.3356640

Soundscape : Participatory design of an interface for musical expression

2018

Conference Publication

Designing for citizen-centric smart cities: supporting people's needs of a community garden

Hunter, Trevor, Worthy, Peter, Viller, Stephen and Matthews, Ben (2018). Designing for citizen-centric smart cities: supporting people's needs of a community garden. OzCHI '18: 30th Australian Computer-Human Interaction Conference, Melbourne, Australia, 4-7 December 2018. New York, United States: ACM Press. doi: 10.1145/3292147.3292217

Designing for citizen-centric smart cities: supporting people's needs of a community garden

2018

Conference Publication

DBugs: large-scale artefacts for collaborative computer programming

Bodén, Marie, Pretorius, Bianca, Matthews, Ben and Viller, Stephen (2018). DBugs: large-scale artefacts for collaborative computer programming. 17th ACM Conference on Interaction Design and Children, IDC 2018, Trondheim, Norway, 19-22 June 2018. New York, NY, United States: Association for Computing Machinery, Inc. doi: 10.1145/3202185.3210773

DBugs: large-scale artefacts for collaborative computer programming

2017

Conference Publication

The community garden hack: Participatory experiments in facilitating primary school teacher's appropriation of technology

Karimi, Arafeh, Worthy, Peter, McInnes, Paul, Bodén, Marie, Matthews, Ben and Viller, Stephen (2017). The community garden hack: Participatory experiments in facilitating primary school teacher's appropriation of technology. 29th Australian Computer-Human Interaction Conference, OzCHI 2017, Brisbane, Australia, November 28-1, 2017. New York, New York, USA: Association for Computing Machinery. doi: 10.1145/3152771.3152787

The community garden hack: Participatory experiments in facilitating primary school teacher's appropriation of technology

2017

Conference Publication

Workshop: Mixing quantitative with qualitative methods. current practices in designing experiments, gathering data and analysis with mixed methods reporting

Morrison, Ann, Viller, Stephen, Heck, Tamara and Davis, Kate (2017). Workshop: Mixing quantitative with qualitative methods. current practices in designing experiments, gathering data and analysis with mixed methods reporting. 29th Australian Computer-Human Interaction Conference, OzCHI 2017, Brisbane, QLD, Australia, November 28, 2017-December 1, 2017. New York, New York, USA: Association for Computing Machinery. doi: 10.1145/3152771.3156195

Workshop: Mixing quantitative with qualitative methods. current practices in designing experiments, gathering data and analysis with mixed methods reporting

2017

Conference Publication

Soundscape: building connection between digital musicians and their audience

Hunter, Trevor, Balachandran, Shiva, Worthy, Peter, Matthews, Ben and Viller, Stephen (2017). Soundscape: building connection between digital musicians and their audience. 29th Australian Computer-Human Interaction Conference, OzCHI 2017, Brisbane, QLD Australia, 28 November-1 December 2017. New York, NY, USA: Association for Computing Machinery. doi: 10.1145/3152771.3156176

Soundscape: building connection between digital musicians and their audience

2016

Journal Article

Demo Hour: Minimize

Oogjes, Doenja, Bruns Alonso, Miguel, Wakkary, Ron, Lo, Joanne, Lee, Doris Jung Lin, Wong, Nathan, Bui, David, Paulos, Eric, Gatehouse, Cally, DiSalvo, Alyssa, Yu, Zishan, Worthy, Peter, Weigel, Jason, Viller, Stephen and Matthews, Ben (2016). Demo Hour: Minimize. Interactions, 23 (6), 13-13. doi: 10.1145/3001768

Demo Hour: Minimize

2016

Journal Article

DIS 2016 technical program chairs' welcome

Ju, Wendy, Schroeter, Ronald and Viller, Stephen (2016). DIS 2016 technical program chairs' welcome. DIS 2016 Companion - Proceedings of the 2016 ACM Conference on Designing Interactive Systems: Fuse.

DIS 2016 technical program chairs' welcome

2016

Other Outputs

Sulcus Loci - Exhibit at the State Library of Qld

Baber, Kim, De Manincor, John, Klein, Eve, Viller, Stephen and Kratz, Svenja (2016). Sulcus Loci - Exhibit at the State Library of Qld.

Sulcus Loci - Exhibit at the State Library of Qld

2016

Conference Publication

IoT: designing for human values

Viller, Stephen, Worthy, Peter, Boden, Marie, Weigel, Jason, Fitzpatrick, Geraldine, Rodden, Tom and Matthews, Ben (2016). IoT: designing for human values. 11th ACM SIGCHI Conference on Designing Interactive Systems, DIS 2016, Brisbane, Australia, 4 - 8 June 2016. New York, NY, United States: Association for Computing Machinery. doi: 10.1145/2908805.2913019

IoT: designing for human values

2016

Conference Publication

Could the inherent nature of the internet of things inhibit person-to-person connection?

Cervantes, Maria, Ramani, Ramya, Worthy, Peter, Weigel, Jason, Viller, Stephen A. and Matthews, Benjamin Robert (2016). Could the inherent nature of the internet of things inhibit person-to-person connection?. 11th ACM SIGCHI Conference on Designing Interactive Systems, DIS 2016, Brisbane, QLD, Australia, 4 - 8 June, 2016. New York, NY, United States: Association for Computing Machinery. doi: 10.1145/2908805.2909418

Could the inherent nature of the internet of things inhibit person-to-person connection?

Current funding

  • 2024 - 2028
    The Enhancing Women's Recovery after Cancer Treatment Program (RECENTRE): A values-based implementation and evaluation (NHMRC 2022 Partnership Project PRC3 administered by Griffith University)
    Griffith University
    Open grant
  • 2023 - 2026
    XR Safety Training for Crisis Situations
    CSIRO
    Open grant

Past funding

  • 2023 - 2024
    The Enhancing Women's Recovery after Cancer Treatment Program (RECENTRE): A values-based implementation and evaluation
    NHMRC Partnership Projects
    Open grant
  • 2018 - 2023
    Redback Smart Monitoring Platform (Advance Queensland Platform Technology Program grant administered by Redback Operations Pty Ltd)
    Redback Technologies Australia
    Open grant
  • 2015 - 2017
    COMPASS - passport processing research project
    Commonwealth Department of Foreign Affairs & Trade
    Open grant
  • 2012 - 2014
    Home EnergyCoach: Driving energy efficient behaviours through interactive technologies
    UQ FirstLink Scheme
    Open grant
  • 2011 - 2013
    Green robots, sustainable cities and inquiring minds: Young children engineer robots to create cities of the future
    UQ Collaboration and Industry Engagement Fund
    Open grant
  • 2009 - 2010
    Accessible Interactions
    Australasian CRC for Interaction Design
    Open grant
  • 2008 - 2010
    Urban Interfaces
    Australasian CRC for Interaction Design
    Open grant
  • 2005 - 2009
    Suburban Communities
    Australasian CRC for Interaction Design
    Open grant
  • 2005 - 2007
    Virtual Communities
    Australasian CRC for Interaction Design
    Open grant
  • 2005 - 2006
    HDM Touchstone
    Australasian CRC for Interaction Design
    Open grant
  • 2003
    Human-centred design of ubiquitous computing systems
    UQ New Staff Research Start-Up Fund
    Open grant

Availability

Associate Professor Stephen Viller is:
Available for supervision

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Supervision history

Current supervision

Completed supervision

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

Need help?

For help with finding experts, story ideas and media enquiries, contact our Media team:

communications@uq.edu.au