Welcome to FIT Lab
FIT means Future Interaction Technologies — it’s about the complex devices that change our lives, for better or worse — whether in our homes, cars, mobile phones or medical devices.
Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) can be a creative and exciting field of research, but in collaboration with companies like Microsoft Research, Nokia, and the NHS, the FIT Lab likes to focus on Grand Challenges.
The FIT Lab was opened in 2006 by Professor Harold Thimbleby and has since grown to include a range of world-leading HCI experts, including Professor Matt Jones. And where better to research than in the beautiful and inspiring surroundings of the Gower in Wales, UK.
As well as performing world-class HCI research, the FIT Lab runs PhD, MSc and MRes programs.
FIT Lab News  RSS via Twitter 
Conferences, Contributions, and Best Paper Awards
07 September 2010
 Dr. Max L. WilsonIt's that most wonderful time of the year, where many of us are off on conference. Max Wilson has just got back from co-organising the IIiX2010 conference and visiting Google in New York. But, it is pretty quiet in the lab because most people are out at ECDL2010 and Mobile HCI 2010, or giving keynotes in Dundee...
Right now, Parisa Eslambolchilar is running the Nudge and Influence workshop at MobileHCI. Later in the week, Simon Robinson will be presenting his paper to the conference.
Similarly, Jen Pearson is in Glasgow to see her paper with George Buchanan (FITLab Alum) presented at ECDL2010.
And there's plenty more to come, Max Wilson, for example, is off to PKM2010, the Web Science event in London, and then off to ASIS&T2010 to present a paper and receive best JASIS&T article for 2009!
Studying the Impact of Tweets
29 July 2010
 Tweenpact - track the global
audience of a tweetFrom one of our research agendas, on information seeking, we are proud to present our online beta of Tweempact. Tweempact (tweet-impact) tracks the global audience of a tweet, through followers and list subscriptions, including those who may see it through a RT.
Unlike other projects, which are typically person focused or trend focused, Tweempact focuses on individual tweets. Whether you are interested in a vanity check of your followers, or whether you want to see how far a notification travels, Tweempact can help you understand the global audience that you are working with on Twitter.
Have a play!
Congratulations - Parisa and Ali
27 July 2010
 Dr Parisa EslambolchilarWe are exceedingly excited to provide congratulations to our esteemed colleague Parisa, who recently got engaged to Ali Shahrokni.
Although not the newest of new news, we are always proud and excited about momentous occasions in our team's lives both in and outside of work. You can read our prior news items about Parisa's professional proficiency and successful grant applications, but here we are pleased to take note of an exciting new stage in Parisa's life. Further, Parisa has achieved one of life's much more difficult challenges: getting a man to make a commitment! :)
Congratulations Parisa and Ali!
Carbon-Kettles for Eco-Tea
16 July 2010
 The Carbon Kettle
glows red when the national grid
is over-workedOne of our talented students has submitted an entry to the James Dyson Awards, and has been gaining some media coverage too! The James Dyson Awards looks for keen new inventors, and their inventions, around the world, and Chris Elsmore, one of our graduating MRes students, has submitted the Carbon Kettle, shown to the right.
The Carbon kettle, is a modified kettle that can connects to the internet to find out what type of energy it will be using. When the national energy grid is over-worked, it has to generate fast, in-efficient energy that is bad for the environment AND produces more emissions, in order to keep up. Believe it or not, millions of us boil the kettle during advert breaks in popular tv shows, for example, and the grid can get overloaded when the whole country decides to cook dinner. When the National Grid is not being over-stretched, it uses more efficient greener energy. And that's the energy we want to be using in our house!
To help us avoid using bad-energy, the Carbon Kettle checks the status of the national grid over the inter-webs, and can help us to find a good time make the cup of tea. It glows red when the national-grid is overloaded, and green when it's running fine. So, if you don't mind waiting a little while, your cup of tea can have a smaller carbon-footprint when the national grid is not overloaded.
Find out more here, and even watch the video. Do vote if you think its a great idea like we do! These types of natural feedback in our everyday lives help keep us aware of the impact we are each having on the world.
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