Projects per year
Personal profile
Expertise & Capabilities
- Information seeking behaviour
- User-centred Design
- Usability studies
- Participatory Methods
- Field Ethnography
Personal Statement
I am a Lecturer in Information Behaviour in the Department of Computer and Information Sciences (CIS).
My main research interests are Information Behaviour and Human Computer Interaction (HCI).
My experience of empirical investigations of information seeking and user interactions with technology encompasses studies in many human contexts and occupational domains including Education, Healthcare, Law, FinTech and Cultural Heritage. Much of my research has been driven by a curiosity regarding the information and technological needs and practices of understudied and often vulnerable populations such as children and young people and older adults.
Recent projects
"Cumulative Revelations in Personal Data" (EPSRC), exploring the organisational security risks posed by the digital traces created by online personal information sharing. https://cumulative-revelations.github.io/revelations/
SIPA2 Improving the Pharmaceutical care of People with Sensory Impairment: https://sipa2project.co.uk/
Research Affiliations
I am a member of ACM SIGCHI and ASIS&T and participate in the Strathclyde iSchool Research Group (SISRG), Digital Health and Wellness Group (DHAWG) and Cybersecurity Research Group at CIS.
Citizenship
I have served as Programme Committee member for the Ageing and Accessibility track of CHI and for CHI Play and was co-organiser of workshops and panels on Ageing and Technology at CHI and MobileHCI and on Children and Technology at IDC. I have co-edited special issues of the International Journal of Child Computer Interaction and the International Journal of Mobile HCI. I review for CHI, MobileCHI, NordiCHI, DIS and many of the key conferences and journals in Information Science and HCI.
I am interested in mental health, wellbeing and widening access and was a mentor with the Disability and Wellbeing Service for many years.
Teaching Interests
I am programme leader for MSc Information Management and Deputy Director of PGT (Student Experience) at CIS.
I lead modules on a number of CIS's PGT programmes:
CS978 Legal, Ethical and Professional Issues for the Information Society
CS800 Health Information Governance
CS955 Information Law
and lead a module on the Graduate Apprenticeship in Information Technology & Software Development:
- CS355 User-centred Design
I supervise MSc dissertations projects across several PGT programmes.
Expertise related to UN Sustainable Development Goals
In 2015, UN member states agreed to 17 global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure prosperity for all. This person’s work contributes towards the following SDG(s):
Education/Academic qualification
Doctor of Philosophy, Computer and Information Sciences, Faculty Of Science
Award Date: 7 Nov 2019
Master of Science, Information Technology (Software and Systems), University of Glasgow
Award Date: 30 Nov 2001
Bachelor of Science, Physics, University of Glasgow
Award Date: 30 Jun 1996
Keywords
- Human Computer Interaction
- Information behaviour
- Children and Technology
- Older Adults
- Mobile Communications
- Cybersecurity
- Simulation
- Information seeking
- computer science
- Participatory Methods
- text-entry
- User-centred design
- user experience
- Mental health
- Young People
- Digital health
- Co-design
- Ageing research
- Information retrieval
- ethnography
- healthy ageing
Fingerprint
- 6 Similar Profiles
Collaborations and top research areas from the last five years
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Empirical investigation & user-centred development of touch-screen text entry methods older adults
Dunlop, M. (Principal Investigator), Komninos, A. (Researcher) & Nicol, E. (Researcher)
EPSRC (Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council)
1/09/13 → 30/11/15
Project: Research
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Developing a theory of information resilience with constituency case workers
Nicol, E. (Principal Investigator) & Ruthven, I. (Co-investigator)
1/10/23 → 30/09/26
Project: Research Studentship - Internally Allocated
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Assessing risks in online information sharing
Azzopardi, L., Nicol, E., Briggs, J., Moncur, W., Schafer, B., Nash, C. & duheric, M., 19 Dec 2024, (Accepted/In press) ACM CHIIR 2025: ACM SIGIR Conference on Human Information Interaction And Retrieval. Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), 10 p.Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution book
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System and user strategies to repair conversational breakdowns of spoken dialogue systems: a scoping review
Alghamdi, E., Halvey, M. & Nicol, E., 10 Jul 2024, (E-pub ahead of print) ACM Conversational User Interfaces 2024 (CUI '24). New York, NY, USA, 13 p.Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution book
Open AccessFile1 Citation (Scopus)16 Downloads (Pure)
Datasets
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The information needs of young first time mothers from areas of multiple deprivations
Buchanan, S. (Creator), Ruthven, I. (Contributor), Jardine, C. (Contributor) & Nicol, E. (Creator), UK Data Service , 12 Mar 2019
Dataset
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OATS_201309 Shake'n'Tap study
Dunlop, M. (Creator), Komninos, A. (Creator) & Nicol, E. (Creator), University of Strathclyde, 10 Oct 2016
DOI: 10.15129/b39348f3-c9be-4079-9162-faa020635f34, https://mobiquitous.cis.strath.ac.uk/?q=node/6
Dataset
Thesis
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An ethnographic investigation of information seeking in the primary classroom
Nicol, E. (Author), Landoni, M. (Supervisor) & Ruthven, I. (Supervisor), 19 Sept 2019Student thesis: Doctoral Thesis
Prizes
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Best Paper Award ACM CUI 2024
Alghamdi, E. S. A. (Recipient), Halvey, M. (Recipient) & Nicol, E. (Recipient), 2024
Prize: Prize (including medals and awards)
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Euan Minto Prize
Alkhurayyif, Y. A. A. (Recipient), Almaghairbe, R. H. G. (Recipient), Kheirbakhsh Abadi, A. (Recipient), Smith, L. (Recipient), Davies, S. (Recipient), Foster, C. (Recipient), Nicol, E. (Recipient), Goodfellow, M. (Recipient), Canning, C. (Recipient) & Gibson, R. C. (Recipient), 2018
Prize: Prize (including medals and awards)
File
Activities
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Contribution of evidence to House of Lords COVID-19 Committee - Living online: the long term impact on wellbeing
Moncur, W. (Contributor) & Nicol, E. (Contributor)
11 Dec 2020Activity: Public Engagement and Outreach › Media Participation
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ASIS&T Annual Meeting 2025 (Event)
Nicol, E. (Peer reviewer)
14 Nov 2025 → 18 Nov 2025Activity: Publication peer-review and editorial work types › Membership of peer review panel or committee