Christopher Roast

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Dr Christopher R Roast PhD

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Summary

Chris has worked in a variety of areas oriented to practical and applied research within computing and interaction design. He enjoys in the inherently cross-disciplinary nature of digital device and service design, and how digital technology can mediate the transition from users who are unfamiliar with a technology to users who effectively benefit from it. He has worked with a variety of other disciplines including: Product Design, English Literature, Cultural Studies, Robotics, Nursing, Education, etc..  His applied research focuses upon the usability of notations and tools for defining and controlling information artefacts; and the principles by which information artefact design can be characterised; and the design and development of visualisations;

He has an active interest in a number of areas including: VR and AR; Design for others; Sentiment Analysis; Non-trivial online form design, knowledge transfer and innovation.

About

Chris has worked in a variety of areas oriented to practical issues within interaction design. He is interested in the inherently cross-disciplinary nature of digital service and product design, and how digital technology mediates its effective use. Having completed a Masters in Design Research at the RCA, he went to work on an early interactive video training project at Imperial College of Science and Technology. This experience demonstrated a 'intelligent tutoring system' failing to co-ordinate user interaction with educational video content. This led to Chris's interest in HCI. He completed a PhD and The University of York attempting to capture concepts about good interaction design that could be applied generally and reasoned about formally. During that time he encountered the idea of Cognitive Dimensions of Notations, as a similar research thread motivated by psychology.

Chris started teaching towards the end of his PhD and has continued to teach undergraduates and post-graduates since.

While remaining research active, he has became more interested in applying his expertise and experience. Over the last ten years has been more involved in applied inter-disciplinary research. This has involved numerous collaborations and has resulted in an interest in knowledge transfer and innovation. He has worked on industry based projects of various sorts for the last six years. Chris has also been a knowledge transfer lead, encouraging and facilitating others in engaging in collaborative practiced based work.

External Examiner, Principal Lecturer

Human-Computer Interaction; Interaction Design; Programming; Programming Environments; Visualisation; Notations; Health Technology; Educational Technology; Virtual Reality; Augmented Reality; Knowledge Exchange and Innovation. 

Teaching

Department of Computing

College of Business, Technology and Engineering

Software Engineering

Professional Practice

Research

  • Communication and Computing Research Centre
  • Cultural Communication and Computing Research Institute

KTP academic lead: Bloor and Co. (2018-20); Infraglo Ltd. (2018-20); Balmoral Tanks (2018-19).

Academic lead: "SQLView" (Innovate UK. Learning Light Ltd., 2017-2018) "EQUS - Enhancing the Quality and Usability of Spreadsheets" (I and II) (SBRI, 2014-16); "KITE - The evaluation of RAPTOR" (JISC, 2012); "Early Bird IP" (Intellectual Property Office, 2012); "CoDeX " (JISC eContent, 2011); "Interactive Energy Awareness Tool, Concept Design" (Ask4, 2011); "Collaborative Systems for Digital Media Production" (ZOO Digital, 2008-10).

Regional Development: Sheffield Innovation Programme; Innovation Futures (II); Innovation Futures.

Understanding Queries using Visualisation - SQLview supported by Innovate UK in collaboration with Learning Light.

EQUS Enhancing the Quality and Usability of Spreadsheets supported by SBRI in collaboration with Learning Light

Under the auspices of regional development, we have collaborated with numerous SME's mainly within the Sheffield City Region. Noteworthy cases include: 3Squared, Openwave, M3, Fuel Trading, Learning Light, Very Viz, Ask 4, Zoo Digital, WANDisco.

Understanding Queries using Visualisation - SQLview supported by Innovate UK in collaboration with Learning Light.

EQUS Enhancing the Quality and Usability of Spreadsheets supported by SBRI in collaboration with Learning Light.

Under the auspices of regional development, we have collaborated with numerous SME's mainly within the Sheffield City Region. Noteworthy cases include: 3Squared, Openwave, M3, Fuel Trading, Learning Light, Very Viz, Ask 4, Zoo Digital, WANDisco.







Publications

Journal articles

Kaddoura, S., Itani, M., & Roast, C. (2021). Analyzing the Effect of Negation in Sentiment Polarity of Facebook Dialectal Arabic Text. Applied Sciences, 11 (11). http://doi.org/10.3390/app11114768

Dobson, S., Sukumar, A., Ridley-Duff, R., Roast, C., & Abell, B. (2015). Reciprocity and resilience: teaching and learning sustainable social enterprise through gaming. Journal of Organisational Transformation & Social Change, 12 (1), 42-56. http://doi.org/10.1179/1477963314Z.00000000034

Fish, A., Khazaei, B., & Roast, C. (2011). User-comprehension of Euler diagrams. Journal of visual languages and computing, 22 (5), 340-364. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvlc.2011.01.002

Green, T.R.G., Blandford, A.E., Church, L., Roast, C.R., & Clarke, S. (2006). Cognitive dimensions: Achievements, new directions, and open questions. Journal of Visual Languages and Computing, 17 (4), 328-365. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvlc.2006.04.004

Roast, C., Ritchie, I., & Thomas, S. (2002). Re-creating the reader: supporting active reading in literary research. Communications of the ACM, 45 (10), 109-111. http://doi.org/10.1145/570907.570943

Hawley, M.S., O'Neill, P., Webb, L.H., & Roast, C. (2002). A provision framework and data logging tool to aid the prescription of electronic assistive technology. Technology and Disability, 14 (2), 43-52. http://doi.org/10.3233/tad-2002-14201

Khazaei, B., Siddiqi, J., Osborn, R., & Roast, C. (1998). Templates and tariffs - tools for empirical studies. Information and software technology, 40 (14), 823-829. http://doi.org/10.1016/S0950-5849(98)00100-1

Roast, C. (1998). Designing for delay in interactive information retrieval. Interacting with Computers, 10 (1), 87-104. http://doi.org/10.1016/s0953-5438(97)00020-9

Roast, C.R., & Siddiqi, J.I. (1997). Usability requirements as specification constraints: an example of WYSIWYG. IEE Proceedings - Software Engineering, 144 (2), 101. http://doi.org/10.1049/ip-sen:19970973

Siddiqi, J.I., & Roast, C.R. (1997). Viscosity as a metaphor for measuring modifiability. IEE Proceedings - Software Engineering, 144 (4), 215. http://doi.org/10.1049/ip-sen:19971515

Siddiqi, J.I., Morrey, I.C., Roast, C.R., & Ozcan, M.B. (1997). Annals of Software Engineering, 3, 131-155. http://doi.org/10.1023/a:1018977602872

Siddiqi, J.I., & Roast, C.R. (1997). Editorial: The role of formality in HCI issues in software engineering. IEE Proceedings - Software Engineering, 144 (4), 193. http://doi.org/10.1049/ip-sen:19971516

Roast, C., & Siddiqi, J. (1997). Using the template model to analyse directory visualisation. Interacting with Computers, 9 (2), 155-172. http://doi.org/10.1016/s0953-5438(97)00014-3

Ritchie, I., & Roast, C. (n.d.). Waiting for the web. Proceedings of the 34th Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences. http://doi.org/10.1109/hicss.2001.926530

Ritchie, I., & Roast, C. (n.d.). Performance, usability and the web. Proceedings of the 34th Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences. http://doi.org/10.1109/hicss.2001.926531

Conference papers

Kasturi, S., Shenfield, A., Roast, C., Le Page, D., & Broome, A. (2024). Object Detection in Heritage Archives using a Human-in-Loop Concept. In Naik, N., Jenkins, P., Grace, P., Yang, L., & Prajapat, S. (Eds.) The 22nd UK Workshop on Computational Intelligence, 6 September 2023 - 8 September 2023 (pp. 170-181). Cham: Springer: http://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-47508-5_14

Boisvert, C., Roast, C., & Uruchurtu, E. (2021). Designing an Open Visual Workflow Environment. In PPIG 2020, Online, 30 November 2020 - 2020. https://ppig.org/papers/2020-ppig-31st-boisvert/

Roast, C. (2020). EQUS - helping to see formulae. In The European Spreadsheet Risk Interest Group Conference (EuSpRIG 2019), London, UK, 11 July 2019 - 12 July 2019 (pp. 115-126). EuSpRIG European Spreadsheet Risks Interest Group: https://arxiv.org/abs/2007.00003

Roast, C., & Uruchurtu, E. (2019). Developing formative evaluation for complex interaction. Proceedings of the 12th IADIS International Conference Information Systems 2019, IS 2019, 35-42. http://www.iadisportal.org/digital-library/developing-formative-evaluation-for-complex-interaction

Boisvert, C., Roast, C., & Uruchurtu, E. (2019). Open Piping: Towards an Open Visual Workflow Environment. End-User Development : 7th International Symposium, IS-EUD 2019, Hatfield, UK, July 10–12, 2019, Proceedings, 11553 (11553), 183-190. http://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-24781-2_14

Roast, C., Uruchurtu, E., & Maswera, T. (2019). Towards knowledge exchange for effective innovation support. IADIS International Conference e-Society 2019. http://www.iadisportal.org/digital-library/towards-knowledge-exchange-for-effective-innovation-support

Uruchurtu, E., Roast, C., & Maswera, T. (2018). Menage a trois! Innovation, digital and knowledge transfer. In 13th European Conference on Innovation and Entrepreneurship, ECIE 2018, Aveiro; Portugal, 20 September 2018 - 21 September 2018 (pp. 823-830). Academic Conferences and Publishing International: https://www.academic-conferences.org/conferences/ecie/ecie-future-and-past/

Itani, M., Roast, C., & Al-Khayatt, S. (2017). Developing resources for sentiment analysis of informal Arabic text in social media. Procedia Computer Science, 117, 129-136. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.procs.2017.10.101

Itani, M., Roast, C., & Al-Khayatt, S. (2017). Corpora for sentiment analysis of Arabic text in social media. In 8th International Conference on Information and Communication Systems (ICICS), (pp. 64-69). IEEE: http://doi.org/10.1109/IACS.2017.7921947

Roast, C., Leitao, R., & Gunning, M. (2016). Visualising formula structures to support exploratory modelling. In Uhomoibhi, J., Costagilola, G., Zvacek, S., & McLaren, B. (Eds.) CSEDU 2016 : 8th International Conference on Computer Supported Education, (pp. 383-390). SCITEPRESS: http://www.scitepress.org/PublicationsDetail.aspx?ID=ATYR26cWH2I%3d&t=1

Roast, C., & Uruchurtu, E. (2016). Reflecting on the Physics of Notations applied to a visualisation case study. In Cornejo, R., & Mayora Ibarra, O. (Eds.) MexIHC '16 : 6th Mexican Conference on Human-Computer Interaction. ACM: http://doi.org/10.1145/2967175.2967383

Majnu, A., Bates, C., & Roast, C. (2016). Dimension of non-trivial online forms. In Proceedings of the British HCI Conference 2016. BCS / ACM: https://www.scienceopen.com/document/read?vid=42ecf067-9b8d-46ac-8c84-3a551f4e204e

Roast, C., Leitao, R., & Gunning, M. (2016). Visualising formula structures to support exploratory modelling. In International Conference on Computer Supported Education (2016), Rome, Italy, 21 April 2016 - 23 April 2016. http://www.csedu.org/

Phelan, I., Arden, M., Garcia, C., & Roast, C. (2015). Exploring virtual reality and prosthetic training. In Höllerer, T., Interrante, V., Lecuyer, A., & Swan, J.E.I.I. (Eds.) 2015 IEEE Virtual Reality Conference (VR) , Arles, France, 23-27 March, 2015, Proceedings, (pp. 353-354). Piscataway, NJ: IEEE: http://doi.org/10.1109/VR.2015.7223441

Liang, S., & Roast, C. (2014). Five features for modelling augmented reality. In Stephanidis, C. (Ed.) HCI International 2014 - Posters’ Extended Abstracts : International Conference, HCI International 2014, Heraklion, Crete, Greece, June 22-27, 2014. Proceedings, (pp. 607-612). Springer: doi:10.1007/978-3-319-07857-1_107

Leitão, R., & Roast, C. (2014). Developing visualisations for spreadsheet formulae: towards increasing the accessibility of science, technology, engineering and maths subjects. In 9th Workshop on Mathematical User Interfaces, Coimbra, Portugal, 10 July 2014. http://ceur-ws.org/Vol-1186/

Roast, C., & Uruchurtu, E. (2013). Formative evaluation for complex interactive systems. In Collazos, C., Liborio, A., & Rusu, C. (Eds.) Human Computer Interaction : 6th Latin American Conference, CLIHC 2013, Carrillo, Costa Rica, December 2-6, 2013, Proceedings, (pp. 47-54). Springer Verlag: doi:10.1007/978-3-319-03068-5

Christopher, R., & Xiaohui, Z. (2012). Exploring the motivations involved in context aware services. In Cowan, B., Bowers, C., Beale, R., & Baber, C. (Eds.) HCI 2012 : 26th BCS Conference on Human Computer Interaction, Birmingham, 12 September 2012 - 14 September 2012 (pp. 274-279). Birmingham UK: BISL: http://ewic.bcs.org/category/17169

Roast, C. (2012). Constraining and creating solutions - reflections on the analysis of early design. In Human-centered software engineering : 4th International Conference, HCSE 2012, Toulouse, France, October 2012, Proceedings, (pp. 130-145). Springer

Roast, C., Dearden, A., & Uruchurtu, E. (2011). Using and utilizing an innovative media development tool. In Proceeding of IHC & CLIHC 2011 : Proceedings of the 10th Brazilian Symposium on on Human Factors in Computing Systems and the 5th Latin American Conference on Human-Computer Interaction, (pp. 149-156). Porto Alegre, Brazil: Brazilian Computer Society / ACM

Roast, C., Uruchurtu, E., & Dearden, A. (2011). The programming-like-analysis of an innovative media tool. In Psychology of Porgramming Interest Group Annual Conference, University of York, 6 September 2011 - 8 September 2011.

Uruchurtu, E., Lockley, E., Roast, C., Keefe, T., & Williams, N. (2010). Understanding user requirements and expectations of digital learning resources. Workshop Proceedings of the 18th International Conference on Computers in Education, ICCE 2010, 158-166.

Gancet, J., Motard, E., Naghsh, A., Roast, C., Arancon, M.M., & Marques, L. (2010). User interfaces for human robot interactions with a swarm of robots in support to firefighters. 2010 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation. http://doi.org/10.1109/robot.2010.5509890

Naghsh, A., & Roast, C. (2009). User interfaces for robots swarm assistance in emergency settings. In HCI 2009 Conference, 23rd BCS conference on Human Computer Interaction, Cambridge, 1 September 2009 - 5 September 2009. http://www.interaction-design.org/references/conferences/proceedings_of_the_hci09_conference_on_people_and_computers_xxiii.html

Uruchurtu, E., Lockley, E., Roast, C., & De Bleecker, I. (2009). Usability evaluation of OpenWeb transcoding. In 11th International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction with Mobile Devices and Services, Bonn, Germany, 15 September 2009 - 18 September 2009. http://mobilehci.uni-siegen.de/proceedings2009/ic318-uruchurtu.pdf

Uruchurtu, E., Lockley, E., Roast, C., & De Bleecker, I. (2009). Usability evaluation of OpenWeb transcoding. ACM International Conference Proceeding Series.

Williams, N., & Roast, C. (2009). Creativity for readers in digital poetry. In Understanding the creative conversation: modeling to engagement, Berkeley Art Museum and UC Berkeley, 27 October 2009.

England, D., Hornecker, E., Roast, C., Romero, P., Fergus, P., & Marshall, P. (2009). Whole body interaction. CHI '09 Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems. http://doi.org/10.1145/1520340.1520748

Naghsh, A., & Roast, C. (2008). Designing user interaction with robots swarms in emergency settings. In 5th Nordic Conference on Human-Computer Interaction, Lund, Sweden, 20 October 2008 - 22 October 2008. http://www.nordichi2008.org/index.php

Naghsh, A.M., Gancet, J., Tanoto, A., & Roast, C. (2008). Analysis and design of human-robot swarm interaction in firefighting. In 17th IEEE International Symposium on Robot and Human Interactive Communications, Munich, Germany, 1 August 2008 - 3 August 2008. http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/ROMAN.2008.4600675

Fish, A., Khazaei, B., & Roast, C. (2008). Exploring human factors in formal diagram usage. In Gulliksen, J., Harning, M.B., Palanque, P., Van der Veer, G.C., & Wesson, J. (Eds.) Engineering interactive systems : EIS 2007 Joint Working Conferences, EHCI 2007, DSV-IS 2007, HCSE 2007, Salamanca, Spain, March 2007, selected papers, (pp. 413-428). Berlin: Springer

Roast, C.R., & Khazaei, B. (2007). An investigation into the validation of formalised cognitive dimensions. In Interactive systems: design, specification, and verification, (pp. 109-122). Berlin: Springer: http://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-69554-7_9

Dearden, A., Lauener, A.M., Slack, F., Roast, C.R., & Cassidy, S. (2006). Make it so! Jean-Luc Picard, Bart Simpson and the design of e-public services. In Proceedings of the Ninth Conference on Participatory design: Expanding boundaries in design, Trento, Italy, 1 August 2006 - 5 August 2006 (pp. 67-76). New York: ACM Press: http://doi.org/10.1145/1147261.1147272

Roast, C., Dearden, A., & Khazaei, B. (2005). Enhancing contextual analysis to support the design of development tools. In Fincher, S., Markopoulos, P., Moore, D., & Ruddle, R. (Eds.) People and Computers Xviii - Design for Life, (pp. 297-313). Springer: http://www.springer.com/computer/hci/book/978-1-85233-900-5

Roast, C. (2005). Viewing visual web site design in context. ACM International Conference Proceeding Series.

Wild, P.J., Johnson, P., Roast, C., & Czerwinski, M. (2004). The temporal aspects of work for HCI. CHI '04 Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems. http://doi.org/10.1145/985921.986207

Roast, C.R., O'Neill, P., & Hawley, M. (2002). Improved assistive technology prescription via usage log analysis. In Keats, S., Clarkson, P.J., Langdon, P., & Robinson, P. (Eds.) Universal access and assistive technology. Springer

Blackwell, A., Robinson, P., Roast, C., & Green, T. (2002). Cognitive models of programming-like activity. CHI '02 extended abstracts on Human factors in computer systems - CHI '02. http://doi.org/10.1145/506650.506654

Blackwell, A., Robinson, P., Roast, C., & Green, T. (2002). Cognitive models of programming-like activity. CHI '02 Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems. http://doi.org/10.1145/506443.506654

Blackwell, A.F., Britton, C., Cox, A., Green, T.R.G., Gurr, C., Kadoda, G., ... Young, R.M. (2001). Cognitive Dimensions of Notations: Design Tools for Cognitive Technology. In Lecture Notes in Computer Science, (pp. 325-341). Springer Berlin Heidelberg: http://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-44617-6_31

O'Neill, P., Roast, C., & Hawley, M. (2000). Evaluation of scanning user interfaces using real-time-data usage logs. Proceedings of the fourth international ACM conference on Assistive technologies. http://doi.org/10.1145/354324.354355

Roast, C.R., & Siddiqi, J.I. (1997). Towards a framework for managing interface delay. Advances in Human Factors/Ergonomics, 21 (A), 745-748.

Roast, C.R., & Siddiqi, J.I. (1995). Using the template model to analyse interface specifications. In Advances in Human Factors/Ergonomics, (pp. 483-488). Elsevier: http://doi.org/10.1016/s0921-2647(06)80263-7

Roast, C. (1995). Modelling interaction with distributed information so much information and so little time. IEE Colloquium (Digest), (223).

Roast, C.R., & Harrison, M.D. (1994). User Centred System Modelling using the Template Model. DSV-IS, 401-412. http://www.informatik.uni-trier.de/~ley/db/conf/dsvis/dsvis1994.html

Roast, C.R., Khazaei, B., & Siddiqi, J.I. Formal comparisons of program modification. Proceeding 2000 IEEE International Symposium on Visual Languages. http://doi.org/10.1109/vl.2000.874380

Graham, T.C.N., Curzon, P., Doherty, G., Palanque, P., Potter, R., Roast, C., & Smith, S.P. Usability and Computer Games: Working Group Report. In Interactive Systems. Design, Specification, and Verification, (pp. 265-268). Springer Berlin Heidelberg: http://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-69554-7_22

Roast, C., Patterson, D., & Hardman, V. Visualisation - it is not the data, it is what you do with it. In 16th International Conference e-Society 2018 Proceedings, (pp. 231-238). IADIS: http://www.iadisportal.org/digital-library/visualisation-%EF%BF%BD-it-is-not-the-data-it-is-what-you-do-with-it

Roast, C.R., & Siddiqi, J.I. Relating knock-on viscosity to software modifiability. Proceedings Sixth Australian Conference on Computer-Human Interaction. http://doi.org/10.1109/ozchi.1996.560014

Books

Pirhonen, A., Saariluoma, P., Isomäki, H., & Roast, C. (Eds.). (2005). Future Interaction Design. Springer-Verlag. http://doi.org/10.1007/b138650

(n.d.). Introducing the challenges of future interaction design. Springer-Verlag. http://doi.org/10.1007/1-84628-089-3_1

Theses / Dissertations

Featherstone, M. (2022). Optimising gamification using constructive competition and videogames. (Doctoral thesis). Supervised by Roast, C. http://doi.org/10.7190/shu-thesis-00501

Liang, S. (2018). Establishing Design Principles for Augmented Reality for Older Adults. (Doctoral thesis). Supervised by Roast, C. http://doi.org/10.7190/shu-thesis-00137

Itani, M. (2018). Sentiment analysis and resources for informal Arabic text on social media. (Doctoral thesis). Supervised by Roast, C., & Al-Khayatt, S. http://doi.org/10.7190/shu-thesis-00118

Thomas, S.F. (2008). The exploration and development of tools for active reading and electronic texts. (Doctoral thesis). Supervised by Hopkins, L., Green, G., Steggle, M., Roast, C., & Ritchie, I.

O'Neill, P.R. (2006). Enhancing electronic assistive technology prescription. (Doctoral thesis). Supervised by Roast, C., Siddiqi, J., & Hawley, M.

Hohl, M. (2006). This is not here : connectedness, remote experiences andimmersive telematic art. (Doctoral thesis). Supervised by Biggs, S., Press, M., Roast, C., & Rust, C.

Other activities

Postgraduate supervision

Sha Liang: "ESTABLISHING DESIGN PRINCIPLES FOR AUGMENTED REALITY FOR AGEING POPULATION"

Aathira Majnu: "Enhancing usability of non-trivial online forms using models"

Maher Itani: "SENTIMENT ANALYSIS AND TEXT CATEGORIAZTION OF DIALECTAL ARABIC TEXT IN SOCIAL NETWORKS"

Simon Bowen: (2006-2009) ‘The instrumental use of Critical Design: A new human - centered design methodology’.

Michael Hohl: (2002-2006) ‘This is not here : connectedness, remote experiences and immersive telematic art’.

Xiaohui Zhang: (2009-2014) 'A User Perspective of Design for Context-Aware Adaption'

Peter O'Neil “An investigation into the enhancement of service prescription of integrated computerised systems for people with disabilities” CRC Studentship (1999). 

Zhang, Xiaohui "Users' Perspectives of Design for Context-Aware Adaption" (2014).

Sha Liang “A Human Factors approach for Augmented Reality” (2018).

Maher M. Itani “Sentiment analysis of Arabic text in social networks” (2018).

Media

Chris is interested how our interaction with technology offers great opportunities and how they are often thwarted by misconceptions and complexities. Good design can make technology more accessible but often the actual complexity is badly hidden!

Chris has worked extensively with industry linking research activity with industry needs and innovation.

Computing, Research

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