PhD Studentship: Designing User Experience for Digital Gifting

Application details
Reference number: HK19/LDS
Start date: 1st April 2019
Closing date: 10 February 2019
Interview date: Late February 2019

Supervisors:
Primary supervisor: Dr Hyosun Kwon
Secondary supervisor: Professor Cees de Bont

Loughborough University
Loughborough University is a top-ten rated university in England for research intensity (REF2014) and an outstanding 66% of the work of Loughborough’s academic staff who were eligible to be submitted to the REF was judged as ‘world-leading’ or ‘internationally excellent’, compared to a national average figure of 43%.

Find out more: http://www.lboro.ac.uk/study/postgraduate/supporting-you/research/

Project Detail
Applications are invited for a PhD studentship funded by Loughborough University to start January 2019. The project will be based in the Design School at Loughborough University.

Gift exchange has a long history in various cultures and has been widely recognised as an important part of our life, both socially and economically. Indeed, the concept of gift exchange has been increasingly practiced in many digital commercial markets. Gift vouchers, music, video, images, games and subscription accounts are exchanged as a gift in digital form online. Moreover, opensource communities share knowledge, skills and even creativity for non-profit purposes.

There has been an increasing trend in digital gift exchange, however, compared to that of physical, relatively few studies in Design and HCI have investigated how digital technologies might enhance explicit acts of gifting where people deliberately choose to give (and receive) gifts that are purely digital. Also, digital media is inherently duplicable and shareable, which often less appreciated as a gift and rarely reflected on, and therefore, less likely to be reciprocated. This doctoral research aims to enhance the experiential engagement in digital gifting and propose novel forms of a digital gift and user experience. This PhD will be theoretically grounded in Human-Computer Interaction and Research Through Design.

The aims of this doctoral research are (but not restricted to);
• Understand how digital gifts are perceived in the process of gift exchange in everyday life (including personal gifts, consumer goods and services), and explore user experiences entailed in the gifting process.
• Develop an interactive artefact that seamlessly integrates both physical and digital materials to deliver not only gift artefact but also an experience of gifting (giving and receiving).
• Conduct a series of field studies to test and refine the design to derive design guidelines for digital gift development.

Entry requirements
Applicants should have, or expect to achieve, at least a 2:1 Honours degree (or equivalent) in Design or a related subject such as, Design Engineering, Computer Science & IT. A relevant Master’s degree and/or experience in one or more of the following will be an advantage: Interaction Design, Industrial Design, HCI.

Contact details
Name: Hyosun Kwon
Email address: [Email Address Removed]
Telephone number: +44 (0)1509 223599

How to apply
All applications should be made online at https://www.lboro.ac.uk/study/postgraduate/research-degrees/funded/ Under Department, select

Find out more:
https://www.lboro.ac.uk/departments/design-school/