Dr Nicole Vickery

Biography

Dr Nicole Vickery is a Lecturer of Visual Communication within the School of Design. She is an experienced teacher and lecturer focusing on graphic design and transdisciplinary teaching across a range of units. Her research explores how to design playful experiences to prove people’s health and wellbeing.

Dr Vickery received her PhD from QUT in 2019, exploring how videogames can be designed to facilitate player’s cognitive flow. She went on to work as a post-doctoral research fellow on DP200100723 on Enabling Children’s Active Play using Novel Technology. This project developed her interests in designing tangible and embodied experiences for young children, which culminated in a Faculty Funded Early Career Researcher grant that explored how to design tangible playful experiences to encourage young children to engage in nature play.

Currently, Dr Vickery is a Chief Investigator on the Australian Research Council Discovery Project (DP240102717) Designing Distanced Intergenerational Interaction with Tangible Technology, which utilises her expertise in working with young children and designing playful digital technology. She is also a part of a successful 2024 Alastair Swayn Design Strategy Grant, Making Memories Visible: Design for Meaningful Engagement in Residential Aged Care.

Dr Vickery’s core research interests include: Playful design; interaction design for children; playful tangible technologies; cultural studies of play and games.