Since 2002, I have been continuously involved in the interdisciplinary field of Digital Humanities and Cultural Informatics, combining my degree in Education, with the BSc in Psychology, the MSc in Human Computer Interaction and the Doctoral degree in Computer Science. Central point in my research is the notion that technology now forms an integral part of people’s lives and as such is now crucial in the Humanities. At the same time, however technology is not just a tool that simply enhances human experiences, but I believe it changes the very nature of human activity. The result is that, from the point of view of technology, we need to re-examine existing knowledge in the humanities and see how human activity is affected by the use of technology. So, in my research I study what happens at the user experience level of new technologies in different environments.
In particular, I work with cultural technologies and ways to improve the visitor experience. In this framework I have been involved in the study of:
- Games in cultural heritage to function both as adver games (promotion of the cultural content) and as profiling tools (identify visitors’ diverse needs)
- Creation of ultimate teams for the collaboration in digital spaces, based on the team members’ personalities
- Enhancement of the emotional experience of visitors through the use of appropriate cultural content
- Increase of the social cultural experience through the use of collaborative interfaces as a novel way to avoid user isolation
- Evaluation of the technology use itself (satisfaction, usability, etc) with traditional and novel data collection and analysis methods. Such novel methods include analyses of social media data on cultural discussions
- Study of the potential of multiple tools for cultural heritage, like mobile devices, social media, crowdsourcing platforms, virtual and augmented reality
- Individual visitor characteristics for the creation of visitor profiles and the personalization of cultural content
I have been working intensively on national and European projects focusing on cultural technologies (proposal preparation, coordination, content creation, implementation and evaluation of technologies, reporting, etc). Because of my work in research projects and my personal research, I work closely with Historians and Archaeologists, Ephorates of Antiquities (e.g. East Attica, Arcadia), Departments of History and Archaeology (University of Peloponnese, University of Athens, University of Padova, University of Vigo). My experience from the collaboration as well as my training as a psychologist expert in technology allows me to understand in depth the interdisciplinary field of digital humanities. My role as a person to connect the two worlds of technology and humanities has been recognized by my co-workers and I believe I play an important role in the smooth functioning of interdisciplinary teams.