Understanding the Cognitive Impact of Circadian Disruption: Designing for Shift Workers in a Healthcare Setting
Introduction In the fast-paced and high-stakes world of healthcare, every decision can have life-altering consequences. Healthcare professionals, often working irregular hours, are particularly vulnerable to disruptions in their circadian rhythms—the natural, internal process that regulates the sleep-wake cycle. Even with adequate sleep, misalignment of these rhythms can significantly impair cognitive function, decision-making abilities, and error … Continue reading
Gendered Mental Load and Smart Technology in the family home
There is a long history of labour saving technologies in the home to reduce the amount of effort exerted on household chores. However research shows that much of the labour performed in the home is cognitive and emotional and is often hidden from society and also from the design of technologies. This type of work … Continue reading
Using digital games to recover from daily work strain
Digital games have been demonstrated to promote recovery from daily work strain. However, prior research has not examined the role that player experience (PX) plays in post-work recovery despite the fact that theories in this area rely implicitly on PX concepts. Hence, this research seeks to understand how the experience of immersion shapes the recovery … Continue reading
eWork Radio
Register to use the eWork Radio app! Read about how we developed the eWork Radio browser application Nearly 500 participants contributed to our research on remote working In spring 2020, an unprecedented number of people suddenly moved to remote working, many of them with little to no previous experience of working from home. This happened … Continue reading
BreakBOT: A Digital Emotion Regulation Chatbot
Students frequently use social media (SM) as a digital break from studying. Concerns have been raised that these breaks harm academic performance and wellbeing by acting as a form of procrastination. Counter evidence suggests they can also act as a form of recovery that positively supports performance and well-being. It is currently unclear how SM … Continue reading
eWorkLife: Remote Working during COVID19 lockdowns
We have designed a self-reflection tool which aims to help you understand your remote working needs and provides personalised recommendations for strategies can help improve productivity and work-life balance. Continue reading
Adolescent Mental Health and Development in the Digital World
In 2020, many university programs had to shift at least part of their teaching online. This opened up many questions about the impact of online learning and the lack of in-person interaction on students’ ability to learn and socialise and on their mental health. Professor Anna Cox and Professor Yvonne Rogers led a study investigating … Continue reading
Conceptualising and measuring digital emotion regulation
A study investigating the the role of digital technology in the academic and personal lives of undergraduate students who started their courses in autumn 2020. Continue reading
iWARDS
Prof Anna Cox and Dr Antonia Rich developed an intervention to improve junior doctors’ well-being. Continue reading
The temporal flexibility of crowdwork
Over the past decade, there has been a rise in the number of people working on crowdsourcing platforms. Although those who work on crowdworking platforms (i.e., crowdworkers) value having autonomy over scheduling their own time, research suggests that they do not benefit from the temporal flexibility to choose when and for how long to work. … Continue reading
Digital Epiphanies
This project seeks to enhance our understanding of the paradoxical and double-edged effects that new technologies and digital practices are having on work-life balance. Continue reading
