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I have spent most of this week designing a poster illustrating the work done so far. It has taken longer than I thought it would but I am quite pleased with the results. Martin and I have also been writing a paper for the Information Interaction in Context conference (IIiX) in Nijmagen. Writing the paper has made me revisit the structure of the framework again....... Read More >>

I have decided to revamp the workshop for user factors for a number of reasons....... Read More >>

My teaching practice in the User Factors module is going to be observed, much of what I picked up on the 3 day module  – Introduction to Learning and teaching in HE was useful and it has made me think about ways in which I would like to change the material, content and approach in the lecture and subsequent workshop that I give on this module....... Read More >>

I had a meeting with Martin this morning and we had a discussion over how we would plan the study if we did NOT get funding from CRUK. The research would be quite drastically simplified. The minimum required for a case study application of the 360 diagram is:...... Read More >>

We received a peer review of our proposal to Cancer Research UK. We had a week to respond. I had braced myself for negative comments, but to my surprise it was fairly positive; with even the most critical reviewer suggesting funding of the project. I have never seen a peer review before and I was a little surprised to see how much is based on personal opinion. Most of the reviews acknowledged the gap in research and the need for more innovative research in this area. These comments were often based in the reviewer’s research interests or background e.g. clinical or stages of change, but I found the criticisms of the framework were not. However, many of the criticisms were valid and were issues that I had considered could be problematic but were out of the scope or word limit of the original proposal....... Read More >>

Today’s meeting covered a number of issues that I am having with the ethical clearance documentation and the methods section in general....... Read More >>

Phase one of the participatory design workshops are to be used to design the web, mobile web sites and create a initial patient journey. I have been looking for potential resources/ techniques for a series of participatory design workshops. I am designing a web site (and a separate mobile site) enabling smoking cessation support for pregnant smokers but I need to be able to elicit what they need from a site e.g. the types of interactive support  – facebook , discussion board etc, content, tone of voice, use and type of images etc....... Read More >>

In January I attended a three day module  – Introduction to Learning and Teaching in Higher Education. I thought it would be a good idea to do it because I was acutely aware that I had not taken up any research opportunities for training and that many of the usability/ digital agencies ran training courses so it would be a good idea for future employability....... Read More >>

Now that the CRUK proposal is in we have to wait until April to find out if we have been successful with our application....... Read More >>

On Thursday I had a meeting with Martin and Michael Ussher at St George’s Hospital to discuss how to progress on the Cancer research proposal. I think it went very well and I feel a little more hopeful that an application to the small grants fund could be successful....... Read More >>

I had a meeting about my framework. I have been getting myself into a bit of a pickle regarding the diagram. I had started off using pen and paper and then moved onto Visio. Then, after trashing lots of draft diagrams, I realised was better off using pen and paper....... Read More >>

I am currently reading a book called Pervasive Information Architecture. It attempts to desribe a new process for the Information Architecture of cross channel interactions. The book makes the distinction between cross-channel and multi-channel interactions. Multi-channel services are those that run on independent and different channels at the same time. Cross channel refers to those services that utilise a number of channels to complete the service delivery. Many familiar processes are increasingly becoming cross channel for example seeing a GP....... Read More >>

As well modelling a draft of the framework I have been researching questions and techniques for both the case studies and the focus groups that will precede them. I have to present all of this documentation including adverts for the focus groups and case studies to the ethics committee for clearance. Not a bad thing; it has forced me to think of the structure of the case study sessions and what I want to get out of them and the focus groups. Whilst reading through the smoking cessation barrier literature (to help map some elements of my user journey) formulated questions that can be used in the groups to help with the gaps in knowledge....... Read More >>

I had my first year viva on the 14th of September. I think it went ok. My external (examiner?) was David Wertheim. I kept it simple: 7 slides and a few diagrammatic examples from this blog....... Read More >>