Member
Lara Piccolo 
Research Fellow
My personal mission is to design technology for triggering positive social changes.
Beyond pursuing adequate and pleasant user interactions, my research aims at exploring design methods and artefacts to design with a socio-technical approach, taking into account also the impact of technological innovations on people's lives and their communities.
With this perspective, I have worked mainly in designing technology for people unfamiliar with ICTs and engaging communities in the design process.
I have worked on Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) for more than 15 years, first in Brazil and now in the UK. My background is Computer Engineer and my PhD was obtained at UNICAMP, in Brazil, in 2015. Since then, my research has addressed energy conservation supported by a public and tangible eco-feedback, smart meters, and social media; social media to promote community resilience in disasters; co-creation of chatbots for children's online safety and, most recently, strategies to fight misinformation spread online.
Keys: Community engagement, users engagement, social change, socially-aware design, motivation, social media, energy awareness, climate change
Team: Harith Alani, Gregoire Burel, Anna De Liddo, Miriam Fernandez, David Goddard, Christina Myers
News
26 Oct 2020
14 Nov 2019
11 Jun 2019
23 Apr 2019
17 Dec 2018
Publications
Puska, A., Baroni, L., Canal, M., Piccolo, L. and Pereira, R. (2020) WhatsApp and false information: a value-oriented evaluation, IHC ’20: 19th Brazilian Symposium on Human Factors in Computing Systems, Diamantina, Brazil
Piccolo, L., Joshi, S., Karapanos, E. and Farrell, T. (2019) Challenging Misinformation: Exploring Limits and Approaches, 17th IFIP TC 13 International Conference (INTERACT 2019), Paphos, Cyprus
Goddard, D., Mulholland, P. and Piccolo, L. (2019) Deriving Personas Based on Attitudes to Interruption and Information Overload, Poster at 17th European Conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work, Salzburg
Piccolo, L., Mensio, M. and Alani, H. (2019) Chasing the Chatbots: Directions for Interaction and Design Research, Conversations 2018: 2nd International Workshop on Chatbot Research, St Petersburg, Russia
Farrell, T., Piccolo, L., Perfumi, S. and Alani, H. (2019) Understanding the Role of Human Values in the Spread of Misinformation, Truth and Trust Online, London, UK