Dr Natasha Dwyer is a Senior Lecturer in Digital Media at Victoria University. She coordinates the postgraduate digital media program and the undergraduate digital media specialisation.

Natasha is a user experience (UX) design researcher exploring the dynamics of digital trust, an area she worked in as Research Fellow at British Telecom. Of particular interest is the use of social and learning analytics to inform design. As a registered scrum master, Natasha adapts lean methodologies for use in the curriculum.

For 10 years, alongside her position at VU, she worked as an interactive designer for the Australian Centre for the Moving Image (ACMI). Her role was to facilitate public access to ACMI’s collections. Projects she designed included the Memory Grid, a touch-screen interface that provided video-on-demand services to ACMI’s visitors. The MAP (memory and place) project invited visitors to submit films about locations in Victoria to an interactive map.

Areas of expertise

  • Creative industries & innovation
  • Cross-platform media
  • Digital media
  • Privacy
  • Trust

Contact details

(03) 9919 4754

Recent publications

Book chapters & journal articles

Dwyer, N and Marsh, S 2016, ‘To Trust or Distrust: Has a Digital Environment Empowered Users to Proceed on Their Own Terms?’, in W.Reif et al (eds.), Trustworthy Open Self-Organising Systems, Springer Int. Publishing, Cham, Switzerland

Dwyer, N and Marsh, S 2015, ‘Social Network Culture Needs the Lens of Critical Trust Research’, in C. Jensen, S.Marsh, T.Dimitrakos, Y.Murayama, Trust Management IX, Springer Int. Publishing, Cham, Switzerland

Dwyer, N and Marsh, S 2015, ‘The Detail of Trusted Messages: Retweets in a Context of Health and Fitness’, in C. Jensen, S.Marsh, T.Dimitrakos, Y.Murayama, Trust Management IX, Springer Int. Publishing, Cham, Switzerland

Marsh, S, Dwyer, N, Basu, A, Storer, T, Renaud, K, El-Khatib, K, Esfandiari, B, Noël, S, Bicakci, M 2014, ‘Foreground Trust as a Security Paradigm: Turning Users into Strong Links’, in A. Kayem and C.Meinel eds. Information Security in Diverse Computing Environments, IGI Global, Hersey, U.S

Dwyer, N 2012, ‘Online Trust: A Moving Target’, in S.Apostel and M.Folk eds. Online Credibility and Digital Ethos: Evaluating Computer-Mediated Communication, IGI Global, Hersey, U.S

Conference papers

Dwyer, N and Marsh, S 2016, ‘How Students Regard Trust in an Elearning Context’, Privacy, Security and Trust, Auckland, New Zealand

Marsh, S, Dibben, M and Dwyer, N 2016, ‘The Wisdom of Being Wise: A Brief Introduction to Computational Wisdom’, 10th IFIP WG 11.11 International Conference on Trust Management, Damstardt, Germany

Dwyer, N and Marsh, S 2014, ‘What can the hashtag# trust tell us about how users conceptualise trust?’, Privacy, Security and Trust (PST), 2014 Twelfth Annual International Conference on, Ontario, Canada

Dwyer, N, Basu, A and Marsh, S 2013, ‘Reflections on measuring the trust empowerment potential of a digital environment’, 7th IFIP WG 11.11 International Conference on Trust Management, Malaga, Spain, Springer Berlin Heidelberg: 127-135

Dwyer, N 2012, ‘Participants’ Concerns About Co-Creating Together: A Case Study’, Participatory Innovation Conference, Swinburne, Australia

Consultancy reports

Dwyer, N (2011), Research Report: Communicating, technology and the Family: an Australian Perspective, Working Paper, British Telecom, Ipswich, U.K.

Dwyer, N (2008), Research Report: Towards Trust-Enabling Technology, Traces of Trust, Working Paper, British Telecom, Ipswich, U.K.

Dwyer, N (2006), Research Report: Trust and the Young Digital User: The Significance of the Trustee’s Intention, Motivation and the Gift Exchange Process, Working Paper, British Telecom, Ipswich, U.K.

Invited lectures/panel

Keynote, ‘Is this Thing Working? A Look at Trust Environments from the Person’s Perspective’, International Conference on Self-Adaptive and Self-Organising Systems

Public lecture, ‘When Trust is in the Foreground for Users’, Hannover Medical School, Germany, Moderator: Urs-Vito Albrecht, 1 June 2015

Invited member, British Telecom’s ‘Culture, Communication and Change’ Panel. Design Council London, U.K, July 2011

Invited Policy Network Fellow, University of Cambridge, Centre for Science and Policy  (http://www.csap.cam.ac.uk/network/natasha-dwyer/)

Videos

Commissioned by IGI Global to produce a series of videos entitled ‘The Design of Digital Health’ (in progress).

Thesis

Dwyer, N 2011, Traces of digital trust: an interactive design perspective(Doctoral dissertation, Victoria University) (*a full written dissertation that includes discussion of two creative projects that I made during the time of my candidature).

Dwyer, N 2003, The Potential of Metaphor in Designing Art-based Interactives. RMIT University.

Research grants

  • Google Computer Science for High Schools scheme (6 person team), $8000
  • Victoria University, Teaching and Learning Fund 2015, (co-lead investigator), $19,000
  • Australian Broadcasting Commission (in conjunction with Bronwyn Purvis) 2009, $10,000
  • Australia Council 2003 (in conjunction with Phillip Crawford, Matthew Priestly), $50,000
  • British Telecom Consultancy 2013, $15,000

Industry experience

Interactive Designer, Australian Centre for the Moving Image, 2000 - 2010

Research Fellow, British Telecom, 2006 - 2008

Interactive Designer, Big hART (not-for-profit arts organisation), 2003 and 2009 - 2010

Freelance Designer, Australian Film Institute, Melbourne Film Office, Multimedia Victoria, 1999