Research areas
Interaction
Technology should be used to enlarge human capacities through an efficient interaction process, understanding the interaction as a way of framing the relationship between people and the objects designed for them. Our research in this area is concerned with envisioning Graphical and Natural User Interfaces, and Ubiquitous Computing used in individual, collaborative or cooperative tasks in different kinds of environrments and using different devices.
Visualization
As a popular saying states: "an image is worth a thousand words". Advanced visual representations are usually applied to represent complex datasets to allow users to see, explore, and improve cognition. Our research in the visualization field is focused on the definition of approaches for conveying information in intuitive ways, especially in control and operating environments where users need to be supported to develop better situation and activity awareness.
Collaboration
The development of theories and technologies to deploy useful collaborative environments poses exciting challenges in the HCI field. We aim at exploring the design and development of collaborative environments, trying to understand how the adoption and use of technology influences groups in their daily jobs. In particular, Emergency Management is one of the main domains of study of collaboration teams in our group.
Learning
New interaction techniques between learners and teachers can be used to respond to the complex and rapidly changing requirements of learning contexts including informal, social, situated and lifelong learning. Research in this area is focused on the use of different technologies and interaction techniques to develop useful, usable, and effectiveness educational systems through the application of principles from HCI, Hypermedia, Multimedia, Virtual and Augmentd reality and Instructional Design.
