Developing technology for adolescent wellbeing
Project ID: 2228bd1221 (You will need this ID for your application)
Research Theme: Information and Communication Technologies
UCL Lead department: Division of Psychology and Language Sciences (PALS)
Lead Supervisor: Aneesha Singh
Project Summary:
Emerging research suggests that commercial, off-the-shelf video games have potential applications in nurturing wellbeing by helping players to recover from everyday stresses, practice emotion regulation, and engage in meaningful social interaction during game-play. This project aims to leverage that potential by developing situated, technology-enabled ubiquitous applications for use during game-play using a novel approach of digitally-augmented play (DAP). DAP will be visualised as a ubiquitous agent (e.g., combination of mobile-based, chatbot and augmented reality) to provide in-the-moment socio-emotional support based on gameplay, biofeedback or direct interaction. DAP will enable contextualised support and guidance. The support will be based on psychological mechanisms underpinning current mental health programs (for example, regulating anger by triggering reminders for breathing). The project will focus on adolescents, considering the growing crisis of mental health need in adolescence exacerbated by the pandemic and the increased uptake of digital play and games in this age group. The technology (the ubiquitous agent and its interactions during game play) will be developed using co-design methods in close collaboration with this user group. This project will contribute tools that can be used for providing in-the-moment feedback based on how people are feeling when using immersive media such as games. It will also contribute to an emerging understanding of how games affect our emotions and can be used to improve mental health and wellbeing. Candidates should be interested in Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), with a strong Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in a related discipline (e.g., Computer-Science, HCI, Psychology). The ideal candidate for this project will have knowledge of empirical methods (i.e., quantitative experiments conducted in the lab or qualitative studies) and design skills.