About

What is R4D?

What is Research for Design
-how we work

Team

Avelie

Tamara

Interests and Passions:

User-Centered Design and Socio-Technical Design

User-centered design provides us with important tools for considering and meeting user needs. Yet, rarely do software and services impact only one user. Therefore, it is important to consider and balance the range of stakeholders impacted. We can help you to understand how to understand and support the objectives, challenges, and personalities of the people using your technology while respecting and supporting the needs of the complex and interconnected world we live in. We take an approach that recognizes that every user exists within an ecosystem of personal relationships and interacting technologies.

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Digital Health

Digital technologies can provide life changing benefits. These systems are helping us to make better decision about our own care and helping others to help those in need. Yet such systems often fail to support or even conflict with important aspects of individual needs. We can help you to better understand your users and engage them as active participants in helping you to make a product or service that works for them. We are especially interested in projects related to AI/ML, crowd sourcing other appropriate systems for prediction or decision support related to diabetes, chronic disease management, exercise, wellbeing, recovery, and healthy aging. Working on something else in health…let us know!

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Socially responsibility and Technology Design

How can technology lead to a better world for all of us? How can technology move towards greater social justice rather than just amplifying society inequities? We care deeply about our world and its sustainability. We strive to bring these concerns into all our work. We are especially interested in working on projects that address pressing issues such as independent aging, chronic disease management, general fitness and wellness, and sustainability.

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Social Science Models and Theories

increase the chances that digital systems will bring about desired results such as helping people to overcome unforeseen adversity in their lives. We are especially interested in how such knowledge serve as a basis for designing digital products and services.

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Decision Support Systems

How can we make better decisions based on what we know, rather than falling into familiar but counterproductive patterns? How can we learn from each other to increase the chances that our decisions will lead to desired outcomes? We are particularly interested in human in the loop decision support that provide insights to inform the user without interfering with their individual autonomy.

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Collaborative Design for Human Centered AI/ML

How can we make sure that AI systems meet our needs and respect our concerns as individuals and as a society? It is crucial that new AI systems be designed with user input. Yet most people lack understanding of how these new systems work. We are particularly interested in projects that seek to close this gap.