Associate Professor Stephen Viller
Associate Professor

Stephen Viller

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+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

110 works between 1991 and 2025
All (110) Journal Article (23) Other Outputs (6) Edited Outputs (4) Conference Publication (70) Book Chapter (7)

101 - 110 of 110 works

2000

Journal Article

Patterns of home life: Informing design for domestic environments

Hughes, John, O'Brien, Jon, Rodden, Tom, Rouncefield, Mark and Viller, Stephen (2000). Patterns of home life: Informing design for domestic environments. Personal and Ubiquitous Computing, 4 (1), 25-38. doi: 10.1007/BF01613596

Patterns of home life: Informing design for domestic environments

1999

Journal Article

Managing process inconsistency using viewpoints

Sommerville, I, Sawyer, P and Viller, S (1999). Managing process inconsistency using viewpoints. Ieee Transactions On Software Engineering, 25 (6), 784-799. doi: 10.1109/32.824395

Managing process inconsistency using viewpoints

1999

Journal Article

Human factors in requirements engineering: A survey of human sciences literature relevant to the improvement of dependable systems development processes

Viller, S, Bowers, J and Rodden, T (1999). Human factors in requirements engineering: A survey of human sciences literature relevant to the improvement of dependable systems development processes. Interacting with Computers, 11 (6), 665-698. doi: 10.1016/S0953-5438(98)00049-6

Human factors in requirements engineering: A survey of human sciences literature relevant to the improvement of dependable systems development processes

1999

Journal Article

Capturing the benefits of requirements engineering

Sawyer, P, Sommerville, I and Viller, S (1999). Capturing the benefits of requirements engineering. Ieee Software, 16 (2), 78-+. doi: 10.1109/52.754057

Capturing the benefits of requirements engineering

1999

Journal Article

Social analysis in the requirements engineering process: from ethnography to method

Viller, Stephen and Sommerville, Ian (1999). Social analysis in the requirements engineering process: from ethnography to method. Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Requirements Engineering, 6-13.

Social analysis in the requirements engineering process: from ethnography to method

1999

Journal Article

Coherence: An approach to representing ethnographic analyses in systems design

Viller, S and Sommerville, I (1999). Coherence: An approach to representing ethnographic analyses in systems design. Human-Computer Interaction, 14 (1-2), 9-41. doi: 10.1207/s15327051hci1401

Coherence: An approach to representing ethnographic analyses in systems design

1999

Conference Publication

Social analysis in the requirements engineering process: from ethnography to method

Viller, Stephen and Sommerville, Ian (1999). Social analysis in the requirements engineering process: from ethnography to method. 4th IEEE International Symposium on Requirement Engineering (RE 99), Limerick, Ireland, 7-11 June 1999. Piscataway, NJ, United States: Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. doi: 10.1109/ISRE.1999.777980

Social analysis in the requirements engineering process: from ethnography to method

1998

Conference Publication

Viewpoints for requirements elicitation: a practical approach

Sommerville, I., Sawyer, P. and Viller, S. (1998). Viewpoints for requirements elicitation: a practical approach. 3rd International Conference on Requirements Engineering, Colorado Springs, CO United States, 6-10 April 1998. Piscataway, NJ United States: IEEE Computer Society. doi: 10.1109/ICRE.1998.667811

Viewpoints for requirements elicitation: a practical approach

1994

Book Chapter

Agency within CSCW: Towards the Development of Active Cooperative Working Environments

O’Hare, G. M. P., Dongha, P., Macaulay, L. A. and Viller, S. (1994). Agency within CSCW: Towards the Development of Active Cooperative Working Environments. CSCW and Artificial Intelligence. (pp. 67-95) London, United Kingdom: Springer London. doi: 10.1007/978-1-4471-2035-3_6

Agency within CSCW: Towards the Development of Active Cooperative Working Environments

1991

Book Chapter

The Group Facilitator: A CSCW Perspective

Viller, Stephen (1991). The Group Facilitator: A CSCW Perspective. Proceedings of the Second European Conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work ECSCW ’91. (pp. 81-95) Dordrecht, Netherlands: Springer Netherlands. doi: 10.1007/978-94-011-3506-1_6

The Group Facilitator: A CSCW Perspective

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

Looking for a supervisor? Read our advice on how to choose a supervisor.

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

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