Patricia Wright [Universidade de Cardiff – País de Gales /Reino Unido]

Abstract

                                

Patricia Wright is a behavioural scientist interested in how information design can support communication with the general public whether by public or commercial organisations.
After leaving University College London in 1966 with a PhD in Psychology, this interest took her to Cambridge, UK to work at the Medical Research Council's Applied Psychology Unit until 1998 when she moved to a Chair in the School of Psychology at Cardiff University, UK where much of her research has been concerned with health information and multimedia documents. The topics have ranged from personal IT aids for people with memory problems, to a web-based a decision explorer for men thinking about the PSA test for prostate cancer. When she explored interfaces to help people see how changes in their lifestyle could change their health risks, she found that older people differed from young men in the interface they preferred and most successfully used. This led to studies of the information design needs of other sections of the public such as people for whom English was not a first language and adults who considered themselves poor readers. This research suggested that interface designs which offer people choices of how information is presented to them, can accommodate diversity more successfully than trying to find a single solution to fit everyone. She has lots of publications, is a member of the Editorial Board of several journals, is a Fellow of the British Psychological Society, the Institute of Scientific and Technical Communicators (UK) and an Honorary Fellow of the Society for Technical Communication (USA), and The Brazilian Society of Information Design. In 2005 she received the Goldsmith Award for Distinguished Contributions to Engineering Communication from the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE).