Design4Life

Design4Life is a research group at the University of Liverpool dedicated to advancing human wellbeing and social inclusion through human-centred and engineering design. The group explores the application of AI, XR, and emerging technologies, and provides research consultancy services to support evidence-based innovation across industry and society.

Research themes

Design for Colour–Cognitive Performance Interaction in Immersive Environments

This research direction was first established through my work, defining colour–cognitive performance interaction in immersive virtual environments as a distinct field. It positions colour as a fundamental cognitive variable, demonstrating that colour actively interacts with attention, reasoning, and task performance under conditions of immersion and embodiment, an interaction that had not been systematically examined in immersive virtual environments prior to this work. By treating immersive systems as distinct perceptual–cognitive contexts, this research provides indispensable design knowledge for performance-critical XR applications, including mental health, healthcare, learning, and safety-critical environments, where cognitive performance and well-being are inseparable.

Design for Embodied XR Experience and Perception

This research frames XR as an embodied space rather than a technology to optimise. It examines how movement, spatial relations, and multisensory engagement shape perception, and how design actively structures lived experience instead of merely supporting it. XR becomes a design space where vision, sound, touch, and bodily action produce presence, meaning, and affect. This perspective is crucial in ethically and culturally sensitive contexts. In healthcare, immersive environments should support reflection, emotional regulation, and care rather than overstimulation. In cultural heritage, XR enables participatory encounters with history and memory. Overall, the research advances an experience-led approach to XR design that prioritises inclusivity, sensitivity, and depth over spectacle.

Design for Human–Data–AI Interaction

As data-driven and AI-enabled systems increasingly shape everyday decisions, this research asks how humans can remain active and reflective participants rather than passive endpoints of automation. It examines how data and AI are encountered and negotiated through design, focusing on agency, transparency, and trust. AI is treated not as a purely technical system, but as a design material and collaborator shaped by interaction and context. Spatial, immersive, and embodied interfaces, including XR, are used to make data experientially meaningful and support sense-making. This approach is critical in ethically sensitive contexts such as health, neurodiversity, and social care, where misinterpretation can cause harm. By foregrounding human values and lived experience, the research advances design-led methods for creating adaptive, interpretable, and inclusive human–data–AI systems.