Playful Health Technology Lab

The Playful Health Technology Laboratory (PHT Lab) is an interdisciplinary research team affiliated with the School of Informatics, Computing, and Cyber Systems department at Northern Arizona University. The lab's mission is to design, Implement, and study human-computer interaction technologies that enhance the experience of improving or maintaining health among underserved populations with health disparities, including people with disabilities.

We are always looking for motivated students to join our group or to help out on projects. For questions about how to get involved with NAU PHT Lab, please email Jared Duval or stop by his office, located in the School of Informatics, Computing, and Cyber Systems (Building 90), room 206.

#HumanComputerInteraction#AssistiveTechnology#SeriousGames4Health#Play#DisabilityAdvocacy

Recent News

10.28.2024 Jared: DREEM: Moving from Empathy to Enculturation in Disability Related Human-Centered Design published at ASSETS Conference. Read the paper.10.02.2024 Jared and Tochukwu: CardioCare Quest Grant funded by RCMI ($150,000)10.01.2024 Jared: Application to Host Study Abroad Program in Japan with Visits to Nintendo, Sony, Capcom, and Mount Fuji submitted for Summer 2024!09.28.2024 Jared: New Immersive Media and games course "Creative Strategies for Designing Interactive Media" developed for the General Studies Program09.27.2024 Jared: Official Launch of New Game Design Club at NAU! Join the club!09.25.2024 Jared: New Immersive Media and games course "Indigenous Enculturation for Situated Play Design" developed for the General Studies Program09.26.2024 Jared: Guest Lectures for Health Sciences on Serious Games! 09.20.2024 Jared: Presentation of Games for Social Good at Flagstaff's Festival of Science07.01.2024 Jared: Receives NIH LRP Award from the National Institute of Health’s Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders ($50,000)08.26.2024 Jared: Teaching his IMG 186 Course on the History and Theory of Games08.14.2024 Jared: Visiting Lecture at Tufts University on Games for Health06.29.2024 Jared: Hosts NAU's second Game Jam with the theme "Nothing is Permanent."06.20.2024 Chaithanya and Jared: Host Summer intern through CARE Program for Indigenous students05.24.2024 Playful Health Technology Lab featured in Fairness First Blog! Read the blog.05.13.2024 Jared: Attended Ancestral Knowledge: Braiding Curriculum Seminar 1-week workshop for Indigenous pedagogy05.11.2024 Jared: Virtual Reality for Health and Wellbeing of People with Disabilities Panel Published at CHI Conference. Read the Abstract.05.02.2024 Tochukwu and Jared:  CardioCare Quest: A Co-Created Game for Improving Hypertension Treatment Adherence funded by SHERC ($100,000)04.18.2024 Jared and Tochukwu: Co-Designing Location-based Games for Broadband Data Collection published in DIS. Read the paper.03.05.2024 Jared: Challenging Ableism: A Critical Turn Toward Disability Justice in HCI published in XRDS: Crossroads, the ACM Magazine for Students. Read the article.02.26.2024 Jared: Winter edition of the SIGACCESS Accessible Computing Newsletter published. Read the article. Read the article.02.12.2024 Jared: Removing Algorithmic Bias and Evaluating Cleft Speech Therapy Game published in RCMI Conference. Read the abstract (Page 113)All News

Design Makes a Difference.

When designed well, technology can change the world.

Allyship is Paramount.

Disability is a natural and beautiful part of diversity—Let's listen and collaborate.

Play is Powerful.

We cannot be healthy or happy without play. 

Our Agenda

Our research is grounded in Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) and explores the intersection of social computing, health, and play. To better understand the complex, intersecting dynamics at the heart of disability, technology, and healthcare, we forge interdisciplinary research teams and community partnerships to develop a more holistic understanding of how to address the long-standing barriers faced by populations of people with disabilities. When we think well about how and what we design, we have an opportunity to make technology that is a cost-effective, personalized, data-driven, connected, and motivating context for otherwise tedious and repetitive wellness routines. We employ Research through Design (RtD) to build and study systems that aim to improve the experience and effectiveness of meeting or maintaining health goals. 

This agenda is challenging because: 

Our Approach

Considering these challenges, our research has three approaches:

Our approach to research is to build real systems and prototypes that address authentic problems and opportunities for engaging with the needs of people with disabilities. We believe that cross-discipline and cross-cultural collaborations hold the key to new perspectives, innovation, and high-quality research. We work in partnership with community members and stakeholders through community-based frameworks to serve as a conduit for reaching their goals—our research benefits from acknowledging the expertise of groups, both within and outside of academia. 

We are particularly captivated by play and the potential for it to move us forward. Play affords a unique opportunity for studying how various populations appropriate tools and technology to serve their needs. We believe play contains qualities that are naturally healing and is a great vehicle for addressing society’s Wicked Problems because it enables us to explore outside current norms and barriers. Play is naturally iterative with ever-changing rules and possibilities—it provides an effective approach to conducting Research through Design.