eWorkLife: work, life and wellbeing | Dr Conor Linehan - What can psychology tell us about designing technology for fitness and health? #4

Prof Anna Cox talks to Dr Conor Linehan, an expert in the design and evaluation of technology to support education and health behaviours.

Show Notes

Prof Anna Cox talks to Dr Conor Linehan, an expert in the design and evaluation of technology to support education and health behaviours. We cover his journey from being a psychologist to a leading HCI (Human-Computer Interaction) specialist, working on the application of behavioural psychology principles to technology design. Conor has a particular interest in gaming and gamification, and reveals how we already know which games are best at encouraging people to exercise over the longer term, so physical activity researchers are on a bit of a wild goose chase trying to improve on those. We also get the low-down on a ground-breaking, multi-disciplinary, behavioural intervention he’s been involved with to reduce harms from recreational drug-taking, that has been years in the making. Conor also lets us in on the secret of his own personal motivation for keeping fit and strong.

Dr Conor Linehan is a senior lecturer in Applied Psychology at University College Cork, Ireland, and an expert in the design and evaluation of technology to support education and health behaviours. He has a strong interest in how games and gamification can be useful in these contexts. He's worked on a wide range of research projects, investigating the design of educational games, vision therapy interventions, dietary interventions, wearable sleep monitors, and online mental health interventions.

Find out more about eWorkLife, including tips for managing your own wellbeing and work-life balance, on our website www.eworklife.co.uk/
Episode transcript and show-notes: www.eworklife.co.uk/podcast/

Music credit: ScottHolmesMusic.com

Producer: Clare Casson

What is eWorkLife: work, life and wellbeing?

Does technology just keep us all chained to our desks, glued to our screens and slumped on our sofas, or can we harness it to help us all to move more, do more and feel happier, more energetic, focused and creative? eWorklife is about work, life and wellbeing: the podcast where we talk to researchers in the field about productivity, wellbeing and work-life balance. We talk to scientists and others who can help us make the most of our technology to get our work done, keep connected to others, and support our health and wellbeing. Your host is Anna Cox, Professor of Human Computer Interaction at UCL in London. Her guests are colleagues and collaborators – all experts who are breaking new ground in fields as diverse as psychology, technology design and artificial intelligence. Anna gets up close and personal in a series of revealing interviews in which her guests share their personal journeys as researchers, how they got to where they are, and what they’ve learned along the way, as well as the secrets of their research, and the new discoveries they’re making about how technology can help us to thrive at work and in our home lives.

Find out more about eWorkLife, including tips for managing your own wellbeing and work-life balance, on our website https://www.eworklife.co.uk/ Episode transcripts and show-notes: https://www.eworklife.co.uk/podcast/

Music credit: ScottHolmesMusic.com

Season 1 producer: Clare Casson