Hannah Heilbuth
PhD Student and PGTA,
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Biography
Hannah is a doctoral researcher at the School of Law. She is currently carrying out an interdisciplinary Law and Computer Science PhD which explores the impact that video game design has on players and the extent to which existing Consumer Law protects gamers from harms caused by game design. She is supervised by Professor Richard Hyde (Law) and Assistant professor Martin Flintham (Computer Science).
Teaching Summary
Hannah teaches Consumer and Marketing Law and Cybercrime, Cybersecurity and Surveillance.
Research Summary
Hannah's PhD is focused on exploring experiences of consumer harm in video games and the extent to which existing UK consumer law protects gamers from this harm. She is using an interdisciplinary… read more
Current Research
Hannah's PhD is focused on exploring experiences of consumer harm in video games and the extent to which existing UK consumer law protects gamers from this harm. She is using an interdisciplinary methodology that combines doctrinal legal analysis with empirical, qualitative, Human-computer interaction (HCI) methods. Empirical HCI research methods will be used to explore players' experiences of harm in online multiplayer games and how game mechanics and other design decisions in video games as well as factors in the surrounding gaming ecosystem impact players' consumer decision making. These findings will be used to evaluate whether UK consumer law is protecting the decision-making autonomy of consumers from unfair interference by video game companies.