Safe Interactions Lab
Stratford School of Interaction Design and Business,ÌýUniversity of À¶Ý®ÊÓƵ.
How might we create useful, usable, and delightful digital experiences while enabling secure and safe interactions?
Professor Leah Zhang-Kennedy leads the Safe Interactions Lab focusing on understanding and developing digital experiences that improve people's understanding, knowledge, and technology practices through research and design. We use human-centred research methods and tools that span multiple disciplines in human-computer interaction (HCI), user experience (UX), and user interface (UI) design to answer research questions relating to digital literacy, online privacy, and computer security. Our goal is to develop and nurture a collaborative multidisciplinary research team with diverse backgrounds to approach these issues from various perspectives.
Research Projects
Visit our ProjectsÌýpage to learn more about our current and completed research projects.
Research Areas
human-computer interaction (HCI), usable privacy and security, user experience (UX), child-computer interaction, information visualisation, persuasive technology
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News
Exploring Safe Child-Robot Interactions at ICSR 2025
This September, we travelled to Naples for the . PhD student JaeEun Jen Shin presented our latest work on how children and parents think about privacy when interacting with humanoid robots. The study, created in collaboration with the Active & Interactive Robotics LabÌýand jointly funded by UÀ¶Ý®ÊÓƵÌýCybersecurity and Privacy Institute andÌýRoboHub,Ìý highlighted the need for social robots to be designed with clear privacy controls, child-friendly features, and meaningful parental oversight to support safe and trusted interactions at home.
Hilda Successfully Defends PhD Dissertation
We are thrilled to announce that Hilda has successfully defended her PhD dissertation titled, "."ÌýCongratulations, Dr. Hilda, on thisÌýmajorÌýacademic achievement!Ìý
Hilda is continuing at À¶Ý®ÊÓƵ as a Postdoctoral researcher this Fall.Ìý
Shanza Received an Outstanding Interdisciplinary Poster Award at the CPI Graduate Student Conference
Shanza and Bella presented posters at the University of À¶Ý®ÊÓƵ’s Cybersecurity and Privacy Institute (CPI) Graduate Student Conference.ÌýÌý
Shanza received anÌýOutstanding Interdisciplinary Poster Award for her current research on Cultural Informed Solutions for Shared Device Use by Immigrant Families in Canada. Congratulations, Shanza!
Contact
Leah Zhang-Kennedy
Associate Professor, InteractionÌýDesign and User ExperienceÌýResearch
Stratford School of InteractionÌýDesign and BusinessÌý
University of À¶Ý®ÊÓƵ
E:Ìýlzhangkennedy@uwaterloo.ca