Hi there, i’m a design researcher exploring our health futures
Enhancing Networks of Care
Research Fellow
University of Edinburgh
2023 - Present
Research Fellow
University of Edinburgh
2023 - Present
Focusing on supporting healthier and more resilient networks of care, within the Advanced Care Research Centre ︎ and Institute for Design Informatics ︎, I coordinated a work package component that investigated the role of community-led, service-enabled, and technology-driven care networks.
Project - Improving Technology-supported Care Networks
Project - Designing for Ecologies of Care in Later Life
Project - Developing Support Pathways with Caregivers
Project - Improving Technology-supported Care Networks
︎ Article (2024): Navigating Mediated Kinship & Care while Ageing-in-Place
︎ Article (2024): Exploring Generative Postcard Futures with Older Adults
︎ Article (2024): Designing with Friction - Inverting Notions of Seamless Technology
︎ Presentation (2024): Tech Caregiving & Networks of Care
︎ Article (2024): Exploring Generative Postcard Futures with Older Adults
︎ Article (2024): Designing with Friction - Inverting Notions of Seamless Technology
︎ Presentation (2024): Tech Caregiving & Networks of Care
Project - Designing for Ecologies of Care in Later Life
︎ Article (2024): Eliciting Networks & Ecologies of Care in Later Life
︎ Report (2023): CareTree Cultural Probe Study
︎ Report (2023): CareTree Cultural Probe Study
Project - Developing Support Pathways with Caregivers
︎ Report (2024)
Creating an Alternative Support Pathway for Older Informal Carers
︎ Grant (2023-2024): Wellcome Trust iTPA Springboard Grant
︎ Grant (2023-2024): Wellcome Trust iTPA Springboard Grant
Designing for Social Engagement in Later Life
PhD Researcher
RMIT University
2019 - 2023
PhD Researcher
RMIT University
2019 - 2023
Designing social engagement technologies with older Australians, my doctorate demonstrated how modes of interpretative flexibility can support interaction designers in co-creating with ageing communities.
︎ Thesis (2022): Designing for Social Engagement in Later Life
Project - Social Engagement Technologies in Later Life
︎ Article (2022): Gaining Resolution when Creating Imagery of Aging
Project - Pet Playing for Placemaking
︎ Article (2021): Tacit Learning in Serious Location-based Games
︎ Presentation (2021): Placemaking with Pets around a Pandemic
︎ Grant (2021): Give Where You Live Foundation
Project - Social Engagement Technologies in Later Life
︎ Article (2022): Gaining Resolution when Creating Imagery of Aging
Project - Pet Playing for Placemaking
︎ Article (2021): Tacit Learning in Serious Location-based Games
︎ Presentation (2021): Placemaking with Pets around a Pandemic
︎ Grant (2021): Give Where You Live Foundation
Long-COVID Patient Journeys
Research Assistant
RMIT University
2022
Research Assistant
RMIT University
2022
Recognising the lack of understanding around the experiences of people with long-term, I supported a 3-month study mapping patients' experiences, as part of the multi-school, multi-College collaborative research project ‘Eat Move Heal‘ ︎. Our longitudantal mixed methods analysis highlighted the role of agency and social support in their lives
︎ Article (2024): Journey Mapping Long COVID
︎ Article (2023): Australian Long COVID Services & Guidelines
︎ Article (2023): Australian Long COVID Services & Guidelines
In collaboration with WorkSafe Victoria, I supported the Safeness by Design ︎ undergraduate studio to employ research and design innovation and provoke conversations around creating safer urban environments.
︎ Article (2022): Designing to Enable an Ageing Workforce
︎ Article (2022): Re-Imagining Industrial Design Education
︎ Report (2022): Future of Work Report
︎ Report (2021): Enabling an Ageing Workforce Report
︎ Article (2022): Designing to Enable an Ageing Workforce
︎ Article (2022): Re-Imagining Industrial Design Education
︎ Report (2022): Future of Work Report
︎ Report (2021): Enabling an Ageing Workforce Report
Co-designing Participatory ICT Strategies With Older Adults
Research Assistant
RMIT University
2020 - 2022
Research Assistant
RMIT University
2020 - 2022
Towards better equipping older Australians to engage with the digital economy, through the Shaping Connections ︎ programme, I helped coordinate and explore the perceived ICT risks that affect older Australians and co-designed strategies with them – connecting practices with perceptions.
︎ Article (2024): Factors influencing seniors’ anxiety in using IC
︎ Article (2024): Playing with Persona
︎ Article (2023): Strength-based co-design that EMPOWERs
︎ Report (2022): Co-designing Participatory Strategies With Older Adults
︎ Article (2022): Co-Creating ICT Risk Strategies with Older Australians
︎ Report (2021): Reducing Perceived Risk & Promoting Digital Inclusion
︎ Grant (2020): ACCAN Project Grants
︎ Article (2024): Factors influencing seniors’ anxiety in using IC
︎ Article (2024): Playing with Persona
︎ Article (2023): Strength-based co-design that EMPOWERs
︎ Report (2022): Co-designing Participatory Strategies With Older Adults
︎ Article (2022): Co-Creating ICT Risk Strategies with Older Australians
︎ Report (2021): Reducing Perceived Risk & Promoting Digital Inclusion
︎ Grant (2020): ACCAN Project Grants
2024, Debate Article
Navigating Mediated Kinship & Care Ageing-in-Place ︎
Sheahan, J.
Journal of Anthropology and Aging
Navigating Mediated Kinship & Care Ageing-in-Place ︎
Sheahan, J.
Journal of Anthropology and Aging
Nearly three decades after Marilyn Strathern suggested the implications of innovation at birth, today, we are also grappling with technology's impact on later life. As assemblages of technologies have become essential to how and to whom we care, today, we also struggle with a future seemingly trapped by present choice as techno-determinist dogma appears to bind our society. Beyond imaginaries of robotically assisted and real-time monitored ageing, I examine how these new forms of kinship can serve us in realising “desirable” futures with the depth and aspirations so many have for ageing-in-place.
2024, Conference Proceedings
Exploring Generative Postcard Futures with Older Adults ︎
Sheahan, J., Cardamone, E., Vines, J.
NordiCHI 2024, Uppsala, Sweden.
Exploring Generative Postcard Futures with Older Adults ︎
Sheahan, J., Cardamone, E., Vines, J.
NordiCHI 2024, Uppsala, Sweden.
Speculative approaches to technology-enabled ageing futures often struggle against reductive and immaterial imaginaries that diverge from everyday realities, a challenge being compounded by the mainstream embrace of generative artificial intelligence (AI) tools. We detail emergent findings from a series of workshops employing a generative postcard approach with a local community group in Scotland. The workshops captured precarious visions, generational perspectives, and potential ways of reconfiguring care futures. We highlight how the techno-deterministic visions of generative AI are both a feature and tool for critique as we link ageing futures with everyday realities.
2024, Conference Proceedings
Designing with Friction: Troubling the Development of Seamless Digital Technologies ︎
Sheahan, J., Chatting, D., Collins., R., Bley, J., Eriksson, A., Rozendaal, M.C., Taylor, N.
NordiCHI 2024, Uppsala, Sweden.
Designing with Friction: Troubling the Development of Seamless Digital Technologies ︎
Sheahan, J., Chatting, D., Collins., R., Bley, J., Eriksson, A., Rozendaal, M.C., Taylor, N.
NordiCHI 2024, Uppsala, Sweden.
There is growing unease and a sense within the design community of the value placed on efficient, simplified, and seamless interactions, with a growing awareness and documentation of their unintended consequences across society. By prioritizing ‘frictionless’ finance, healthcare, education products, and services, there has been a consorted effort to reduce or eliminate our daily frictions in the pursuit of efficiency and ease of use. In seeking a more balanced understanding of friction in systems design, this workshop will offer ways of bringing friction to the fore of design and examining its role across the domains of care, privacy, security, repairability, and autonomous vehicles.
2024, Journal Article
Factors influencing seniors’ anxiety in using ICT ︎
Reid, M., Aleti, T., Figueiredo, B., Sheahan, J., Hjorth, L., Martin, D.M., Buschgens, M.
Social Sciences
Factors influencing seniors’ anxiety in using ICT ︎
Reid, M., Aleti, T., Figueiredo, B., Sheahan, J., Hjorth, L., Martin, D.M., Buschgens, M.
Social Sciences
The ability of older adults to engage with information and communication technologies (ICT) is crucial in today’s more digital and connected world. Drawing on consumer behaviour and ICT frameworks and a quantitative survey of 706 older Australian adults, this paper examines factors influencing anxiety in engaging with ICT. Our findings show that perceived anxiety was associated with increased subjective norms or when others placed pressure on older people to engage more with ICT and when older adults perceived increased risks associated with ICT engagement. The results highlight the importance of building, renewing, and reinforcing digital competencies in older consumers
2024, Conference Proceedings
Eliciting Network & Ecologies of Care in Later Life ︎
Sheahan, J., Wilson, C., Pschetz, L., Dixon, B., Vines, J.
Design4Health Conference, Sheffield
Eliciting Network & Ecologies of Care in Later Life ︎
Sheahan, J., Wilson, C., Pschetz, L., Dixon, B., Vines, J.
Design4Health Conference, Sheffield
While a large body of research has documented people’s experiences of care in later life, very little of this work has explored the complex networks and entanglements of care people experience in old age. This study draws inspiration from the expanding use of care concepts like ecologies and entanglements to unravel complex care relations, offering valuable insights for design considerations. Sent to 18 older adults across Scotland, the probe encouraged reflections on daily life, leading to revelations about care expectations, preparedness, and meaningful design possibilities within caringscapes.