Hello!
My name is Katarzyna (Kathy) Stawarz. I'm a Lecturer in Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) at School of Computer Science and Informatics at Cardiff University.
My research interests and expertise are in the use of emerging technologies to support health and wellbeing. I am interested in how mobile devices, distributed systems, and smart materials could be used to support healthy habits by leveraging people’s environment and routines, and how technology could be used to support martial arts training and contact sports that require full body movement. In a broader sense, I'm interested in ethical design, the "dark side" of digital health and unintended consequences, and building inclusive digital health technologies.
Research interests
- Behaviour change and healthy habits: I am interested in how mobile devices, distributed systems, and smart materials could be used to support healthy habits by leveraging people’s environment and routines. This includes encouraging people to move and exercise more, taking longer screen breaks, etc. My EPSRC New Investigator Award project explores the use of smart objects to support habit formation at home.
- Digital health: I am interested in exploring how emerging technologies could be used to support prevention, treatment and rehabilitation, as well as self-management. My prior work includes projects related to depression, diabetes and medication adherence; currently I'm working on a project focused on menstrual and mental health.
- Sport and exercise: I am interested in how how technology could be used to support martial arts training and other physical activities as well as contact sports that require full body movement, mainly in the context of self-directed training.
- Ethical design: I am also interested in ethical design, the "dark side" of digital health (mainly behaviour change and self-tracking technologies) and unintended consequences of using emerging technologies. This is also related to inclusive design, accessibility and human factors.
Contact
The best way to contact me is via Mastodon, although you can also use my university email address. I'm also on LinkedIn, but I won't accept your friend request unless we've spoken previously, in person or online.