Projects per year
Personal profile
SUMMARY of research interests (100 words)
I am a design researcher, game designer, coder, and data scientist. I find passion for tech adjacent research entangled in sustainability, rethinking the world of work, communities, systemic design, alternative futures, speculation, fun, talking to people, and creativity.
My research practice centres:
1) research through games design and creative methods for exploring system complexity
2) designing carbon-aware, sustainable, and just futures with communities
3) alternative and creative approaches for evaluating sustainability, systems and services
4) facilitating different conversations
Topics of interest: energy demand reduction; sustainable last mile logistics; games; carbon accounting; fair and just gig economy work; alternative futures; co-operatives
Related documents
User-defined keywords
- sustainability
- Game design
- Computing
- Social change
- Research through design
Collaborations and top research areas from the last five years
Recent external collaboration on country/territory level. Dive into details by clicking on the dots or
Projects
- 4 Finished
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Issues of precarity and interdisciplinarity for Early Career Researchers in Justice-oriented technology spaces
Strohmayer, A. (Principal Investigator) & Bates, O. (Co-Investigator)
12/07/21 → 22/10/21
Project: Research
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“What if you were controlled by all these apps?” - challenging indifference toward essential gig economy courier work.
Bates, O. (Principal Investigator), Kirman, B. (Team Member) & Friday, A. (Team Member)
1/05/21 → 30/11/22
Project: Research
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Switch-Gig - Exploring digital opportunities to switch the gig-economy to fair and just work
Bates, O. (Principal Investigator)
Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council
1/09/19 → 31/07/20
Project: Research
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‘I want it, and I want it now’ – demonstrating the transport and environmental impacts of last-mile parcel delivery.
Cherrett, T. (Principal Investigator), Wise, S. (Principal Investigator), Allen, J. (Principal Investigator) & Bates, O. (Principal Investigator)
1/04/19 → 9/09/21
Project: Other
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ContextViz: Making Context and Systems Knowledge Visible in Non-Domestic Energy Demand Dashboards
Remy, C., Bates, O. & Friday, A., 9/06/2025.Research output: Contribution to conference - Without ISBN/ISSN › Other › peer-review
File -
Conversations with Complexity: Making a Meal out of a Mountain
Bates, O. & Kirman, B., 19/03/2025, (Accepted/In press).Research output: Contribution to conference - Without ISBN/ISSN › Abstract › peer-review
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In this paper...
Guruge, D. (Artist), Mann, S. (Artist), Myers, R. (Artist), Bates, O. (Artist), Goldweber, M. (Artist), Williamson, A. (Artist), Lasenby, J. (Artist) & Brooks, I. (Artist), 2025Research output: Exhibits, objects and web-based outputs › Artefact
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Meta-crisis computing and you: Finding agency through the Two Loops model of change
Laurell Thorslund, M., Bates, O., Eriksson, E., Pargman, D., Biørn-Hansen, A., Bakhshoudeh, F. & Rajendran Menon, A., 18/08/2025, AAR '25: Proceedings of the sixth decennial Aarhus conference: Computing X Crisis. New York: ACM, p. 127-139 13 p.Research output: Contribution in Book/Report/Proceedings - With ISBN/ISSN › Conference contribution/Paper › peer-review
Open Access -
Playful Explorations: Non-domestic energy research through games design
Bates, O., Remy, C., Tyler, A., Smith, M. T. & Friday, A., 9/06/2025.Research output: Contribution to conference - Without ISBN/ISSN › Other › peer-review
File
Activities
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finding hope by making games as systems decay
Bates, O. (Speaker)
20/11/2025Activity: Talk or presentation types › Oral presentation
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Gaming Social Justice
Bates, O. (Speaker)
14/11/2025Activity: Participating in or organising an event types › Symposium
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Making a Meal out of a Mountain: Doing research through games design
Bates, O. (Speaker) & Kirman, B. (Speaker)
20/05/2025Activity: Talk or presentation types › Oral presentation
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Rebound Archetypes Workshop: A card-based tool to help designers think through Rebound Effects when designing for sustainability
Smith, M. (Speaker) & Bates, O. (Speaker)
14/05/2025Activity: Talk or presentation types › Oral presentation
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Speaker at Energy Systems Catapult Seminar
Friday, A. (Speaker), Remy, C. (Speaker), Bremer, C. (Speaker) & Bates, O. (Speaker)
5/02/2025Activity: Talk or presentation types › Invited talk
Prizes
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IEEE Computer Society 2021 Best Paper Award
Bates, O. (Recipient), Lord, C. (Recipient), Alter, H. (Recipient), Friday, A. (Recipient) & Kirman, B. (Recipient), 20/12/2022
Prize: Prize (including medals and awards)
File -
IEEE Computer Society 2024 Best Paper Award
Remy, C. (Recipient), Tyler, A. (Recipient), Smith, P. (Recipient), Bates, O. (Recipient) & Friday, A. (Recipient), 15/08/2025
Prize: Prize (including medals and awards)
File
Press/Media
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It’s not all doom and gloom: how computing can help us reformulate our relationship with the “meta crisis”
12/09/25
1 Media contribution
Press/Media: Newspaper Article
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Video Streaming and Sustainability
Widdicks, K., Hazas, M., Bates, O. & Friday, A.
12/05/19 → 14/10/22
8 items of Media coverage, 4 Media contributions
Press/Media: Research
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The hidden life of a courier: 13-hour days, rude customers – and big dreams
1/03/22
1 Media contribution
Press/Media: Other
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I tried the buzzy new shopping app from TikTok's parent company aimed to rival Amazon. It's totally hit or miss — here's why.
8/02/22
1 Media contribution
Press/Media: Other
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Academics are trying to fix the last mile gig economy
14/10/21
1 item of Media coverage
Press/Media: Other
Datasets
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Android device usage data investigating the time use and data demand of practices in everyday life
Widdicks, K. V. (Creator), Bates, O. E. G. (Other), Hazas, M. D. (Supervisor), Friday, A. J. (Supervisor) & Beresford, A. (Other), Lancaster University, 6/05/2017
DOI: 10.17635/lancaster/researchdata/125
Dataset
File