Human Insight Lab
Welcome to the Human Insight Lab
At the Human Insight Lab, also known as HI-Lab, we uncover and apply insights from human behaviour to optimise business performance. Whether we’re studying how consumers engage with an app or website, understanding their emotional responses to complex decisions, or co-developing a digital product, our aim is to identify what works – and why.
The Human Insight Lab applications
- User experience (UX) testing
- Interaction design (IxD)
- Marketing and communication strategies
- Product design
- Experience design
- Consumer engagement and motivation
- Player experience in games
We achieve this by leveraging our expertise in human psychology, behaviour, and design research. Our multidisciplinary team of academics brings a wealth of experience in designing and conducting psychometric experiments, drawing from fields like organisational psychology, marketing, business analytics, economics and more.
State-of-the-art technology
The Human Insight Lab is equipped with a world-class biometric research facility, ideal for conducting consumer behaviour studies using psychophysiological measurements. Our cutting-edge tools includes mobile, screen-based, and VR eye-trackers, alongside biosensors that measure facial expression analysis, electrodermal activity, optical heart rate, and electroencephalogram.
With these technologies, we can capture:
- Attention: Understanding where and how consumers focus on visual stimuli, offering insights into their cognitive processes and behavioural intentions.
- Emotional reaction: Identification of seven core emotions -joy, anger, fear, surprise, sadness, contempt, and disgust- in real time.
- Emotional intensity: Providing deeper insights into the emotional impact of stimuli by measuring physiological and psychological responses.
- Motivation: Exploring the cognitive processes behind consumer behaviour, including levels of alertness, motivation, and engagement.
By combining these technologies with methodologies like interviews, focus groups, and surveys, we deliver comprehensive insights into consumer decision-making, offering solid, data-driven recommendations to your needs.
Collaborate with us
The Human Insight Lab operates from two convenient locations on the University of Surrey’s Stag Hill campus. We also offer flexible research options, including field studies and on-site business collaborations.
We welcome partnerships with both academic and commercial entities. If you think we can support your research or help design and run experiments, get in touch with Andy or Pablo!
Co-Director of The Human Insight Lab
Dr Pablo Pereira Doel
Director of Undergraduate Hospitality Programmes; Human Insight Lab co-director; Sustainability fellow and Water programme co-lead at the Institute for Sustainability; Visiting Fellow, Center for Tourism Research at Wakayama University (Japan)
Biography
Dr Pablo Pereira-Doel is the director of the Undergraduate Hospitality Programmes at Surrey Business School, the lead of the Institute for Sustainability's Water literacy and sustainable water behaviour programme, and the co-director of the Human Insight Lab.
After several years in the hospitality/tourism industry in Spain, France, The Gambia, and the UK, he is now an applied social scientist who uses sustainability-oriented innovations, consumer nudging, persuasive communication, design thinking, and experimental research methods to create pro-environmental behaviour change. His consumer and industry testing research contributed to developing a smart water-saving technology to nudge users to take shorter showers.
Pablo's problem-solving transdisciplinary research has involved partnerships with several companies in the hospitality industry (e.g. Scandic, Hilton Hotels & Resorts, TUI, Hostelling International, and others) and beyond (e.g. Aguardio ApS, Anglian Water, Northumbrian Water, L'Oréal, and the UN Environment Program).
His research has been funded through internal scholarships, an ESRC SeNSS Industry Engagement Fund, three ESRC Impact Acceleration Funds, a UKRI Global Challenges Research Fund, and an ESRC Postdoctoral Fellowship. Pablo is the first researcher in the UK to be awarded an ESRC postdoctoral fellowship in hospitality/tourism.
Co-Director of The Human Insight Lab
Dr Andrew Hill
Senior Lecturer in Business Analytics
Biography
Andy is a lecturer on the Business Analytics MSc. His main research interests lie how to translate complex quantitative analysis into useful insights understood by anyone. His specialism lies in quantitative operational research methods, including Monte Carlo simulation, Machine Learning and Data Analysis.
Andy started out as a Risk Analyst at the Animal and Plant Health Agency, helping deliver the scientific evidence behind various UK policies and EU regulations in food safety and exotic disease control, working with Defra, the UK Food Standards Agency, the European Food Safety Authority and commercial companies such as Novartis and Unilever. Andy has also spent time as a Principal Modelling and Analysis Consultant at BAE Systems, delivering solutions to various problems including inventory forecasting and optimising processes for new digital technologies in forensics and warship energy management.
Get in touch with our researchers
Nicole Cocolas
Lecturer in Transport Management
Dr Irina Cojuharenco
Reader, Founding Director of the University of Surrey Business and Economic Experiments (USBEE) Laboratory
Professor Xavier Font
Professor of Sustainability Marketing
Dr Marion Karl
Senior Lecturer in Tourism Marketing and Management
Dr Erin Ling
Lecturer (Assistant Professor) in Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Work
Safina Naz
Postgraduate Research Student
Dr Jonathan Skinner
Reader in the Anthropology of Events
Interested in participating in social science experiments?
Join now to participate in social science experiments with the HI-Lab!