About Us > Research Topics

The Digital Lifestyles Centre aims to bridge the gap between the social and technological sciences by focussing on the development of innovative applications and technologies through the use of new people inspired methods and tools. This is based on both a technology and people led approach, building on the strengths of the University as a whole, and in conjunction/unison with key stakeholders both within and outside the University.

The Digital Lifestyles Centre draws upon a core group of staff acting as a co-ordinating hub together with associated researchers and staff from other departments and centres who are linked on a less formal basis through joint collaborative research and research training activities.

The Digital Lifestyles Centre’s research activities are focussed on the design and development of human-centred applications and technologies. This is supported by the use of new tools and research methods to enable innovation through an understanding of human behaviour. The research agenda is driven by an ‘applied’ approach ie. it is the aim of the group to build, trial and evaluate new technologies and applications within a range of different contexts eg. laboratory, user and field trials, longitudinal studies, etc. To support this there is a strong emphasis on the use of new tools and methods to facilitate the design and evaluation process, supported by appropriate theories and frameworks. The research projects within the laboratory can be both technology and user led. For example, emerging technologies can be investigated and assessed for their social implications, or a user-centred design approach could be used to inform the design of a new innovative application or technology building on insights and concepts developed by the multi-disciplinary members of the centre.

A key part of the research agenda for the Digital Lifestyles Centre is in the area of pervasive and ubiquitous computing. The centre aims to optimize the design and development of pervasive computing technologies in inhabited environments, by combining both technical and social science expertise from across the University. Critically, for the pervasive computing domain to advance, innovative technological research must be informed by real human needs, which are sensitive to social and cultural norms and user perceptions of technology. We believe this new centre provides such a capability by harnessing long established expertise in socio-technical and pervasive computing research and development, focused around what is a UK and world leading research facility - the iSpace.