I believe that design has an important part to play in the development of a better society.

This conviction has been formalised through evidence-based design work and research, and is deeply engraved in the studio’s ethos. I believe that design can help bridge the gap between experts and the general population through thoughtful and engaging communication.

To date, my research has focused on two main areas: culture and sustainability.

Besides the applied projects, the research work has also resulted in several publications.

Publications

Towards Relatable Climate Change Data: Untangling Tensions in Engaging with a Hyperobject
Marta Ferreira, Nuno Nunes, Valentina Nisi
July 2024   |   DOI: 10.1145/3643834.3661606  |   PDF   |  DIS 2024, Copenhagen

Connecting Audiences with Climate Change: Towards Humanised and Action-focused Data Interactions
Marta Ferreira, Nuno Nunes, Pedro Ferreira, Henrique Pereira, Valentina Nisi
July 2024   |   DOI: 10.1016/j.ijhcs.2024.103341  |   PDF   | International Journal of Human-Computer Studies

Dear Nature: Using data drawings to promote sensemaking in human-nature relations
Marta Ferreira & Sherry Hsi 
July 2024   |   DOI: 10.1145/3643834.3660732  |   PDF   |  DIS 2024, Copenhagen

The Russia-Ukraine war and climate change: Analysis of one year of data-visualisations
Marta Ferreira, Nuno Nunes, Chiara Ceccarini, Catia Prandi, Valentina Nisi
October 2023   |   DOI: 10.21606/iasdr.2023.431  |   PDF   |  IASDR 2023, Mlian

Interactions with Climate Change: a Data Humanism Design Approach
Marta Ferreira, Valentina Nisi, Nuno Nunes
July 2023   |   DOI: 10.1145/3563657.3596003   |   PDF   |  DIS 2023, Pittsburgh

Interaction for crisis: a review of HCI and Design projects on climate change and how they engage with the general public
Marta Ferreira, Valentina Nisi, Nuno Nunes
November 2022   |   DOI: 10.1007/978-981-19-4472-7_56   |   PDF   |   IASDR 2021, Hong Kong

Designing HCI Strategies to Communicate and Suggest Action for Climate Change Mitigation
Marta Ferreira, Valentina Nisi, Nuno Nunes
November 2022   |   DOI: 10.1007/978-981-19-4472-7_240   |   PDF   |   IASDR 2021, Hong Kong

Catering for Students’ Well-being during COVID-19 Social Distancing: a Case Study from a University Campus
Shuhao Ma and Marta Ferreira, Hugo Nicolau, Catia Prandi, Augusto Esteves, Nuno Nunes, Valentina Nisi
September 2022   |   DOI: 10.1145/3524458.3547261   |   PDF   |   GoodIT’22, Limassol Cyprus 

Interacting with Climate Change: A Survey of HCI and Design Projects and Their Use of Transmedia Storytelling
Marta Ferreira, Nuno Nunes, Valentina Nisi
December 2021   |   DOI: 10.1007/978-3-030-92300-6_33   |   PDF   |   ICIDS 2021, Tallinn

Climate Change Communication in HCI: A Visual Analysis of the Past Decade
Marta Ferreira, Miguel Coelho, Valentina Nisi, Nuno Nunes
June 2021   |   DOI: 10.1145/3450741.3466774   |   PDF   |   ACM C&C21, Venice

Unusual suspects – visualizing unusual relationships of complex social phenomena with climate change​
Chiara Ceccarini, Marta Ferreira, Catia Prandi, Nuno Nunes, Valentina Nisi
September 2023   |   DOI: 10.1145/3582515.3609572   |   GoodIT 2023

Hitting the Triple Bottom Line: Widening the HCI Approach to Sustainability
Sabrina Scuri, Marta Ferreira, Nuno Nunes, Valentina Nisi, Cathy Mulligan
April 2022   |   DOI: 10.1145/3491102.3517518   |   CHI22

Addressing the Challenges of COVID-19 Social Distancing Through Passive Wi-Fi and Ubiquitous Analytics: A Real World Deployment
Miguel Ribeiro, Nuno Nunes, Marta Ferreira, João Nogueira, Johannes Schöning & Valentina Nisi
September 2021  |   DOI: 10.1007/978-3-030-85616-8_1   |  Interact 2021

See the World Through the Eyes of a Child: Learning from children’s cognitive maps for the design of child-targeted locative systems
Cláudia Silva, Catia Prandi, Marta Ferreira, Valentina Nisi, Nuno Jardim Nunes
June 2019   |   DOI: 10.1145/3322276.3323700  |   PDF   |   ACM DIS19

Towards Locative Systems for, and by, Children: A Cognitive Map Study of Children’s Perceptions and Design Suggestions
Cláudia Silva, Catia Prandi, Marta Ferreira, Valentina Nisi, Nuno Jardim Nunes
June 2019   |   DOI: 10.1145/3325480.3326568  |   PDF   |   ACM C&C19

Go to Research Gate | Google Scholar | Orcid

Sustainability

My research interests lie in the intersection between different media and their communication potential in a design for impact approach. I am now working on applying these areas of interest in projects related with sustainability, particularly focusing on climate change, through several design projects and a PhD in Design and Digital Media.

My PhD has been following a Research through Design approach (RtD), mainly focused on the development and study of consecutive design iterations of an interactive data-story prototype: Finding Arcadia. Click on the link to learn more about this research.

Culture

I’m particularly interested in the printed book as an object of communication. This interest led to the creation of a conceptual book that centres around the status of the book as object – A book on books (learn more).

This project then led to the exploration of the printed book as a creative medium of communication that would, simultaneously, help disseminate restricted printed assets to audiences that can’t have access to them. This process resulted in the creation of Book is a book is a book, my MA thesis project. The full MA thesis is available here.

Covid-19

During the Covid-19 pandemic, I collaborated in two projects that had the purpose of helping people go about their daily lives in safety.

The Maré Project had the vision that digital technologies could play an essential part in the mitigation of the pandemic. I helped design the Maré app and the Madeira Passive Wi-fi public-spaces map.

Feel free to get in touch regarding design projects and other awesome ideas.