The UCD research group brings together two strands in a cross-unit collaboration between CSAD and PDR. In recent years we have developed further interests connected to the importance of the prototype as a focus around which ethnographical research methods can be deployed in design praxis. The group places a great deal of emphasis on the applied and works on the development of UCD tools and process. We have worked closely with blue chip companies such as Sony-Ericsson and Kenwood as well as NGOs, and many of the techniques developed through the group’s research are deployed directly in commercial design projects through PDR’s commercial UCD offering.