
Oussama Metatla
Associate Professor of HCI and co-director of BIG.
My work is associated with BIG::Diverse & BIG::Tech. My research themes and interests include cross-sensory interaction, crossmodal cognition, diverse-ability interaction, fabrication, inclusive design & shape-change.
I'm interested in how HCI as an applied field of inquiry can contribute to making human society more inclusive of disabled people. I do this by investigating how cross-sensory interaction could be used to design more inclusive interactions between disabled and non-disabled people across a range of domains. I use a mixed-methods approach in my research, combining theory with field work, co-design, and controlled studies and evaluation.
Between 2016 and 2021, I was awarded an EPSRC Early Career Research Fellowship that helped me push the agenda of inclusive education technologies for blind and visually-impaired children in mainstream schools.
Between 2023 and 2028, I have been awarded an ERC Consolidator grant to consolidate my research agenda on diverse-ability interaction, focusing on investigating how theories of cross-sensory perception and embodied cognition could radically change the landscape of inclusive assistive technology design.
Collaborators
Doctoral Students
Faculty
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Anne Roudaut
Professor of Human Computer Interaction and the director of BIG -
Atau Tanaka
Visiting Professor of Sonic Interaction -
Paul Marshall
Associate Professor of Human Computer Interaction -
Kirsten Cater
Professor of Human-Computer Interaction -
Kenton O'Hara
Professor of Human-Computer Interaction -
Dan Bennett
Lecturer in Human-Computer Interaction -
Kyle Keane
Senior Lecturer in Assistive Technologies
Researchers
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Min Susan Li
Research Associate -
Zhuzhi Fan
Research Associate -
Jialin Deng
Research Associate -
Amy Ingold
Research Associate -
Elaine Czech
Research Associate
Visiting & Honorary
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Cecily Morrison
Senior Principal Research Manager, Microsoft -
Alison Oldfield
Lecturer in Education -
Ute Leonards
Professor of Neuropsychology -
Feng Feng
Visiting Researcher -
Liz Coulthard
Professor of Cognitive Neurology
Recent Publications
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"I Feel It Like I Actually Feel It": How HCI Can Support the Experiences of Synaesthesia
Mamoru Watanabe, Oussama Metatla & Atau Tanaka
ACM CHI Conference on Human Computer Interaction, 2025. -
"It Helps Us Express Our Feelings Without Having To Say Anything": Exploring Accompanying Social Play Things Designed With and For Neurodiverse Groups of Children
Brooke Morris, Hayati Havlucu, Alison Oldfield & Oussama Metatla
ACM CHI Conference on Human Computer Interaction, 2025. -
Lost in Translation: A Cross-Cultural Examination of Linguistic Inaccessibility in HCI
Eszter Vigh, Ellen Weir, Grace Stangroome, Alex Tcherdakoff, Yelu Gu, Oussama Metatla, Mamoru Watanabe, René Schäfer, Sophie Hahn, Konrad Mikolaj Krawczyk, Marcela Godoy, Rodolfo Cossovich, Randy Morin, Kristine Dreaver-Charles, Marguerite Koole & Frank Lewis
CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI ’25), 2025. -
Understanding Break-ability through Screen-based Affordances
Richard Grafton, Oussama Metatla & Anne Roudaut
CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI ’25), 2025. -
"Put Your Hands Up": How Joint Attention Is Initiated Between Blind Children And Their Sighted Peers
Katherine Jones, Martin Grayson, Cecily Morrison, Ute Leonards & Oussama Metatla
CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI ’25), 2025.