Dr Thea Blackler

Dr Thea Blackler joined QUT’s School of Design as Lecturer in 2005 and has been a Senior Lecturer in the School since 2008.

Research interests

• the intuitive usability of products
• design history and criticism education.

She is currently working on:

• intuitive interaction for older people
• design methodologies for intuitive interaction.

Dr Thea Blackler has received:

• various grants and awards for her research and teaching
• over $285,000 in research funding since 2007.

Grants

• 2008 – 2010: $280,000 – ARC Discovery Grant: Facilitating intuitive interaction with complex devices for older users. Thea Blacker, Vesna Popovic, Doug Mahar.

Older people have difficulties using complex electronic devices, and our research has shown that they use them less intuitively than younger people do. Older people are often not experiencing the benefits of new developments and technologies, and so can feel isolated from modern workplaces and society generally. This project aims to investigate, and build a clear picture of, the relationship between age and intuitive interaction with complex devices, particularly healthcare devices. This picture will inform the development of a tool to guide designers in making complex devices more intuitive for older people to use.

• 2007: $5,000 – BEE (Design Theme) seed grant: Grant to seed the research into intuitive interaction and older people. Thea Blackler.
• 2007: $1,200 – BEE small research grant: Grant for assistance in prototyping interfaces in preparation for testing. Thea Blackler.

Awards and recognition

• 2007: Vice Chancellor’s Performance Award
• 2007: Faculty Commendation for Teaching and Research
• 2006: Faculty Teaching Award

Research theme: Design

Dr Blackler pioneered the work on intuitive interaction, an area which had never been formally investigated before and which is now gaining international interest and attention.

She was the first to:

• address intuitive interaction in any depth
• publish any empirical research in this area.

She has:

• published peer-reviewed in journals and conference proceedings
• made media appearances and had articles published in the media about intuitive interaction
• been an invited speaker at an international event about intuitive interaction
• applied her research to commercial projects.

Dr Blackler is also working on projects to do with other aspects of human centred design, such as design and emotion and usability. She also researches the teaching of design history and criticism. She has won various research awards, honours and grants

Intuitive interaction for older people

Older people have difficulties using complex electronic devices, and Dr Blackler’s research has shown that they use them less intuitively than younger people. The ARC funded Discovery project aims to investigate, and build a clear picture of, the relationship between age and intuitive interaction with complex devices, particularly healthcare devices. This picture will inform the development of a tool to guide designers in making complex devices more intuitive for older people to use.

Visual literacy for design history

Dr Blackler is involved in an international collaboration researching ways to improve design history students’ visual literacy. The project is investigating strategies to increase students’ visual literacy with regard to design history and recognising design styles and movements. She has run experiments with students using teaching materials developed to assist with visual literacy.