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.
![risca_2](https://studio-m.design/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/risca_2.png)
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
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
![risca_1](https://studio-m.design/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/risca_1-1.png)
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
![risca_3](https://studio-m.design/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/risca_3.png)
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.
![risca_2](https://studio-m.design/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/risca_2.png)
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).
![a-book-on-books](https://studio-m.design/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/a-book-on-books-1.jpg)
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.
![risca_2](https://studio-m.design/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/risca_2.png)
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.
![mare-illustration](https://studio-m.design/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/mare-illustration-1.jpg)
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.
![madeira](https://studio-m.design/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/madeira.jpg)
![risca_2](https://studio-m.design/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/risca_2.png)