D-level Essay Topics
Below are examples of possible essay topics. These are open for discussion, and can be modified. We also welcome
other suggestions for topics.
Some Possible Essay Topics
1. Sense Modalities and Navigation
As we navigate through webpages to find something of interest, we pass through
an impoverished landscapes as far as our senses are concerned. This probably
makes the journey less enjoyable and memorable - so that we find it hard
to find the same things of interest again. This study would investigate
ways of enhancing the sensory stimulation experienced during web navigation,
perhaps looking at the effects of adding colour, sound effects, music, and
so on ....
2. Information tools for elderly people.
A lot of attention and marketing of information services and
devices is aimed at the young. But, in Europe at least, there
are likely to be much fewer young people about and many more
old people. We know that some old people have some problems relating
to the use of technology and to modern life in general - problems
of memory, for example, such as remembering how to use newtechnology. This project would look at the kind
of memory problems old people have with technology, and at some of the ways technology could
be designed to lessen the impact.
3. Art Therapy
There is a growing interest in helping people "find their
true selves" using a variety of techniques that, increasingly, involve
various kinds of multimedia technology. This project would survey the field
of Art Therapy and make recommendations for implementing an interactive
system.
4. Mood Devices
Can technology replace or enhance the use of other methods (drugs,
exercise, meditation, for example) when we want to change mood? What might
this involve and what might a mood device do? How useful is it to track ones own moods on a regular basis? What else could be recorded? How would such a mood tracker be structured and work?
5. Sensory deprivation and creativity
There is a common belief that to have creative ideas to solve difficult
problems requires a period of withdrawal from the world in which
the problem is grounded. Is this true? Can we test the idea by using some
form of technology, to provide computer-supported mental retreats?
Examples of Previous Essays
1. Sense of Presence and Subjective Duration with Different Media
2. Trust in Interaction Design for Web-based Banking
3. Hand-Image Collocation and Stereo Vision in Dextrous VR
4. Speech interaction with the World Wide Web
