Australian grant to study impact of digital technology

MEDIA RELEASE

17 December 2015

Australian government grant to study the impact of digital technology

A Victoria University of Wellington researcher has won a prestigious grant from the Australian government to study the impact of digital technology on relationships between organisations and their customers.

Dr Mary Tate, a senior lecturer in the School of Information Management in Victoria Business School, has been awarded $298,000 from the Australian Research Council to investigate how people perceive digital services and what factors could optimise their experience.

“I want to find out what happens when you put technology into the middle of the relationship between organisations and customers.”

Dr Tate says organisations—be they business or government agencies—are increasingly pushing customers from face-to-face interactions into digital or self-service models, sometimes offering no alternatives.

“A high proportion of users struggle with the technology and in the worst cases may be excluded from accessing important services. It can be quite disempowering for people who have less digital know-how or access.

“On the other side of the coin, it also reduces the amount and quality of feedback organisations get—if you aren’t personally dealing with customers, you can’t tell what their experience is like.”

Dr Tate will be based at Queensland University of Technology (QUT) in Brisbane while she carries out her research.

“QUT has excellent connections with industry and with the Australian government’s Department of Human Services (DHS). I’ll be able to contribute to a project to redesign how the DHS delivers its services, from the ground up.”

Dr Tate will also be examining predictive and preventative services such as those that monitor selected health indicators, or automatically pre-enrol children in kindergarten or school when their birth is registered.

“I’ll be asking whether things like that can—or should—happen without human intervention. Is it better service, or do people feel that’s an invasion of privacy?”

Dr Tate says her research has potential to empower groups such as the elderly, people with impairments, or those in remote communities with poor infrastructure who may have difficulty accessing or using technology.

“I’d like to focus on those disenfranchised people to help them use digital services more effectively.”

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