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Jill is Deputy Head of the School of Digital Arts (SODA) and Reader in Digital Strategy and Pedagogical Innovation. She was previously Section Leader for Manchester Metropolitan iSchool. As Deputy Head Jill works with Toby to provide academic leadership, management and strategic direction for SODA.
Jill's teaching and research focuses on user experience (UX) and behaviour in varying contexts, including content and its creation, information and collections in cultural, academic and commercial sectors. Research includes regionally, nationally and internationally funded projects, including leading the Evaluation & Field Trials for the PATHS project – Personalised Access To cultural Heritage Spaces (EC funded under the FP7 programme).
Jill also leads on pedagogical innovation and has specific expertise with degree apprenticeship programmes. As one of three academics developing the first degree apprenticeship for Manchester Metropolitan University, the highly successful BSc Digital and Technology Solutions, Jill is an advocate for new approaches to higher education and is currently leading development of the BSc Digital User Experience degree apprenticeship programme for SODA.
Research and project collaboration
Always working on or thinking about the next project! Enquiries regarding potential research and project collaboration, as well as enquiries from prospective Postgraduate and Doctoral students, are always welcome.
Office hours
Term time drop in tutorials, no need for an appointment*
* Other days/times may be available, please email me for an appointment. Out of teaching term time please email me for an appointment.
Be open to new ideas, directions and influences! We are in the early days of the digital revolution and the more we understand about how we interact with digital information systems and technologies, the better we will build them.
3 words that sum up my teaching style:
I strive to be at the cutting edge of Information Behaviour and User Experience.
I’m involved in current research and development projects, which means that I bring prototype systems into the classroom whenever I can. You will be able to use these systems, learn from them and come up with new ideas.
I introduce students to the underlying theories of the subject areas and equip students with practical skills and experiences which will enhance their employability in the field.
1996
Master of Philosophy (M.Phil.) Information Science
Thesis title: Development of a specification for a full-text CD-ROM user interface.
Department of Information and Communications, MMU.
1992
BA (Honours) Information and Library Management, 2i
Department of Library and Information Science, Manchester Polytechnic, All Saints, Oxford Road, Manchester (now DIC as above).
February 2016 to date Principal Lecturer and Section Leader for Information and Communications, Department of Languages, Information and Communications, Manchester Metropolitan University.
Sept 2009 - February 2016 Lecturer, then Senior Lecturer in Information Studies, Department of Languages, Information and Communications, Manchester Metropolitan University.
January 2000 - September 2009 Research Associate / Fellow, CERLIM (The Centre for Research in Library & Information Management), Department of Languages, Information and Communications, Manchester Metropolitan University.
September 1996-Jan 2000 Associate Lecturer, Department of Languages, Information and Communications, Manchester Metropolitan University.
2001- 2006 Assistant Editor of The New Review of Information and Library Research (a Taylor Graham publication).
1991-1992 Librarian for the Arts Group, Manchester Central Library, St. Peter’s Square, Manchester.
Principal Lecturer
Section Leader for Information and Communications
Supervision and examination of Undergraduate, Postgraduate and Doctoral students
In this field changes in information systems have huge impacts on how we find information. Understanding how we look for information (Information Behaviour) and examining a system from a user's perspective (UX) can lead to exciting opportunities to influence how future systems are developed.
User Experience, UX
Digital Project Management
Portfolio supervision
Search & Retrieval
Web and Search Applications
Dissertation Supervision
Working with real, implemented services, such as MIMAS, and various JISC funded services and projects (e.g. PERTAINS and MOSAIC), and on prestigious European Commission funded projects such as PATHS and EIAO, I have researched and evaluated numerous information systems, and often bring these Protoype systems into the classroom for students to use, learn from and stimulate new ideas.I am a member of the Information Interactions Research Group, IIRG, within the Dept and the Digital Innovation group at MMU.
Research Interests
Research Projects (most recent first)
PATHS, Personalised Access to Cultural Heritage Spaces (as a Research Consultant for MDR Partners). The project developed a new online system for personalised access to the digital cultural heritage collections of Libraries, Archives, Galleries and Museums in order to enhance sense-making, learning and collaboration around themes, ideas, and narratives through the use of pathways, enabling an interactive personalised tour guide through digital collections. The system offered suggestions about items to look at and assist in their interpretation. Navigation is based around the metaphor of a path through the collection. My role involved UX, functionality, user requirements and evaluation activities across Europe involving 28 organisations and just over 200 participants.
UX evaluation of the MIMAS services Zetoc and Landmap, and development of a usability Framework Toolkit for their internal use. Funded by MIMAS.
W2C: extending the VLE through Widgets, Web- and Cloud-services. Funded by the JISC’s E-Learning Programme, under Strand B of the 03/10 Distributed Virtual Learning Environments call. Extending Manchester Metropolitan University's VLE with Widgets, Web- and Cloud-services.
UX evaluation of PERTAINS demonstrator. Funded by MIMAS. Building on work from the The Enhanced Tagging for Discovery (EnTag) project the PERTAINS project delivered service enhancements to the UK national aggregator services of research library OPACs (COPAC) and Intute the database of web resources for higher education.
UX evaluation of MOSAIC demonstrator. Funded by MIMAS. MOSAIC built upon the findings and recommendations of the JISC TILE project, which investigated ‘pain points’ in UK HE library take up of Web2.0 opportunities, in particular relating to the ‘context’ of users (e.g. their course) and their related use of resources.
The publication and dissemination behaviour of researchers and the influence of research assessment – funded by the Research Information Network (RIN) in collaboration with JISC. Joint project with LISU and Department of Information Science, Loughborough University, to investigate the dissemination, publication and citation behaviour of UK HE scholars, especially in light of considerations arising from research assessment.
DiSCmap – Digitisation in special collections: mapping, assessment, prioritisation. Funded under the JISC Digitisation Programme, in consultation with the Research Information Network (RIN) identified an inventory of the holdings of Special Collections throughout UK Higher Education and developed a framework for prioritisation for future digitisation based on the views of Intermediaries and end users.
Analyse This!!! – development of a re-purposable leaning object on data analysis, available at http://www.learnhigher.ac.uk/analysethis/# Funded by LearnHigher.
Collect This!!! – development of a re-purposable learning object on data collection, a sibling learning object to Analyse This!!! Available at http://www.learnhigher.ac.uk/collectthis/ Funded by LearnHigher.
MLearning – identification of current developments in mobile learning in UK higher education and development and evaluation of a mobile version of Analyse This!!! Funded by LearnHigher.
Argosi - Alternate Reality Games for Orientation, Socialisation and Induction ran from April 2008 to March 2009. It designed and piloted an Alternate Reality Game (ARG) to support the student induction process. Developed by MMU and University of Bolton, CERLIM’s involvement centred on running Argosi workshops with participants from a number of different UK universities.
EIAO – the European Internet Accessibility Observatory. The EIAO project will establish the technical basis for a European Internet Accessibility Observatory. A collection of formal measures of accessibility - web accessibility metrics (WAMs) - based on the checkpoints developed by World Wide Web Consortium for the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) are being developed. Tools for automated data collection and dissemination will be created and continuously improved on throughout the project by feedback from users. Funded by the European Commission.
NORRS - National Online Resources Requirement Survey. This project undertook a national survey of the UK FE and HE teaching and library communities to ascertain their requirements for online resources. Funded by JISC.
HaIRST - Harvesting Institutional Resources in Scotland Testbed – investigation and advice on some of the technical, cultural, and organisational requirements associated with the deposit, disclosure, and discovery of institutional resources in the Information Environment (IE). Funded by JISC.
SUNCAT - the National Serials Union Catalogue. Evaluation of the progress of the SUNCAT Project (developing a national union catalogue of serials held in research libraries throughout the UK) was conducted on behalf of JISC. Funded by JISC.
EDNER+ - Evaluation of the JISC Information Environment. CERLIM, in association with CSALT at Lancaster University, was awarded funding to extend the EDNER Projectto undertake a more broadly-based formative evaluation of the JISC Information Environment (IE) during 2003-4. Funded by JISC.
EDNER - Formative Evaluation of the Distributed National Electronic Resource (DNER) - was a three year project being undertaken by the Centre for Research in Library & Information Management (CERLIM) at the Manchester Metropolitan University and the Centre for Studies in Advanced Learning Technology (CSALT) at Lancaster University. Funded by JISC.
DEvISE - Dimensions in Evaluation of Internet Search Engine, ISE. The Project developed a framework for the evaluation of ISEs based on a multi-disciplinary approach with a strong emphasis on user-centred perspectives. Funded by the Library and Information Commission.
Royal Institution, London, UK
Manchester Institute for Research and Innovation in Art and Design (MIRIAD) , UK
The University of Sheffield, UK
North West Film Archive, UK
Samuel Johnson Birthplace Museum, UK
MIMAS, Manchester
JISC, London
MDR Partners, UK
i-sieve Technologies Ltd, Greece
Asplan Viak Internet Ltd (Avinet), Norway
Alinari 24 ORE (Alinari), Italy
The University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU), Spain
JR. Griffiths, F. Johnson, RJ. Hartley (2007). User satisfaction as a measure of system performance. Journal of Librarianship and Information Science. 39(3), pp.142-152.
JR. Griffiths, P. Brophy (2005). Student searching behavior and the web: Use of academic resources and Google. Library Trends. 53(4), pp.539-554.
D. Birrell, M. Dobreva, G. Dunsire, JR. Griffiths, RJ. Hartley, et al. K. Menzies. (2011). The DiSCmap project: Digitisation of special collections: Mapping, assessment, prioritisation. New Library World. 112(1-2), pp.19-44.
JR. Griffiths, J. Craven (2009). Development and Evaluation of a Generic Re-Purposable e-Learning Object on Data Analysis. pp.14-28.
JR. Griffiths, F. Johnson, RJ. Hartley (2007). User satisfaction as a measure of system performance. Journal of Librarianship and Information Science. 39(3), pp.142-152.
JR. Griffiths, P. Brophy (2005). Student searching behavior and the web: Use of academic resources and Google. Library Trends. 53(4), pp.539-554.
JR. Griffiths (2003). Evaluation of the JISC Information Environment: student perceptions of services. Inf. Res.. 8,
FC. Johnson, JR. Griffiths, RJ. Hartley (2003). Task dimensions of user evaluations of information retrieval systems. Inf. Res.. 8,
JR. Griffiths, RJ. Hartley, JP. Willson (2002). An improved method of studying user-system interaction by combining transaction log analysis and protocol analysis. Inf. Res.. 7,
JR. Griffiths, J. Siân Lambert (1995). CD‐ROM interfaces: full‐text databases. Library Review. 44(8), pp.20-27.
JR. Griffiths, J. Craven (2013). Data analysis. In: Research, Evaluation and Audit, Key steps in demonstrating your value. Facet,
JR. Griffiths (2012). User engagement with evaluation of digital libraries: A case study of the DiSCmap project. In: User Studies for Digital Library Development. Facet,
JR. Griffiths, NR. Glass (2011). Understanding the information literacy competencies of UK Higher Education students. In: .) Information literacy: infiltrating the curriculum, challenging minds. Chandos,
JR. Griffiths, K. Fernie, M. Stevenson, P. Clough, P. Goodale, et al. M. Hall, E. Agirre, RS. Bergheim. (2013). Personalising Access to Digital Cultural Heritage Spaces. Dublin, 2013.
D. Birrell, M. Dobreva, G. Dunsire, J. Griffiths, R. Hartley, et al. K. Menzies. (2009). The DiSCmap Project: Overview and First Results. In: Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics). pp.408-411.
Invited speaker at The 17th Conference of Greek Academic Libraries: Academic library evaluation as a measure of institutional quality assessment, as well as presenting at international conferences and workshops.
International Conference on Metadata and Semantics Research (MTSR ) Programme member.
Co-organiser of the Libraries Without Walls conference series
Funding awards from:
The European Commission under various Framework Programmes
The Joint Information Systems Committee, JISC
MIMAS
The Library and Information Commission
The Research Information Network, RIN
LearnHigher
Highly Commended Award Winner at the Literati Network Awards for Excellence 2012 as "one of the most impressive pieces of work the team has seen throughouout 2011" for Birrell, D., Dobreva, M., Dunsire, G., Griffiths, J.R., Hartley, R.J., Menzies, K. (2011) The DiSCmap project: Digitisation of Special Collections: mapping, assessment, prioritisation. New Library World, 112 (1/2), pp.19-44).