Dr Tara Capel

Biography

Dr Tara Capel is an early career researcher in the field of Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) with an interest in how technology can support people’s wellbeing and empowerment. Her research combines participatory research, collaborative design (co-design), design probes and iterative prototyping to explore new areas of technology design.

Currently she is involved in the following projects:

• Digital Self-Care in Everyday Life: the aim of this project is to better understand the self-care practices with digital technologies amongst young adults and to explore opportunities for digital technology design.
• Human-Machine Teaming: this project investigates the design of intelligent systems in which humans and machines draw upon their different and unique abilities in order to interactively learn together for mutual benefit. Specifically, Tara is working with application domain experts within radiology and radiation therapy to explore the design of systems that support humans to interactively frame problems, explore and learn while utilising and improving machine models.
• I want to Move it, Move it:  exploring children's active play through tangible and embodied interfaces (supported by ARC DP200100723).

Tara received her PhD degree in Human-Computer Interaction, where she investigated how makerspaces can be designed in more inclusive ways to promote participation by women. It identified three core qualities – appropriate labelling, the configuration of learning, and turning ambitions into an artefact - that foster women’s participation and growth into confident and competent makers. Her PhD research also demonstrates how the configuration of new spaces, which facilitate engagement with new tools and materials, can lead to new areas of design, allowing new opportunities for self-expression, dialogue and reflection between participants, participants and researchers, and participants and the items they create. She has also received a Master of Information Technology degree from the Queensland University of Technology and a Bachelor of Journalism degree from the University of Queensland.

Tara has published in leading conferences and journals within the field of HCI, and has studied and designed technologies across numerous projects within a range of intersecting contexts, including:

• Designing of a data visualisation platform to enable Australian cotton growers to visualise the bird and bat species on their farms;
• Facilitating interdisciplinary research in Ecoacoustics;
• Exploring the use of augmented reality in building evacuations.

Research Interests: Human-Computer Interaction, Participatory Design, Interaction Design, Co-Design, Design Methods, Digital Wellbeing, Human-Centered AI, Humane AI, Generative AI