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More about me …

I am a user research lead and a UX & design lecturer, and have over 10 years of experience of developing, leading and teaching qualitative, mixed methods and creative user research projects in central government, academia, the NHS.

I was until recently the head of user research at Ofsted, where I established a brand new user research function. I worked previously as a senior user researcher and in various roles as a researcher and research fellow. I am also a design and user experience lecturer at The Open University. I completed my PhD in the area of digital health and user experience in June 2017 from the University of Warwick, where I was a researcher in Experiential Engineering (publications from my PhD can be found here).

I have worked as a postgraduate mentor at the University of Warwick, a part-time teacher, founder and managing editor of PhDViva, examiner at Edexcel, University Advisor at Mendeley, and actively blogged on my own website, at the PhDLife blog and The LSE Impact blog. I was also a community governor at an under-performing secondary school in Cambridge, and I have also worked as a social media consultant, web-designer and librarian.

I am a fellow of the Higher Education Academy and a member of the Q Community. I am also a reviewer on the Health Research Ethics panel at the University of Salford, and on the reviewer panel for NIHR. I also review journal papers for a number of academic journals including Nurse Researcher, Health Expectations, BMC Health and Quality of Life Outcomes, and the Journal of Medical Internet Research. I am on the Cambridge Scholars Health Editorial Advisory board.

I am an active blogger and contributor to debates about research methods and UX design. For example, my blogpost published on the LSE Impact blog was recorded as one of the 10 most popular blogs on their website, with over 9,684 views. My article on research paradigms has been viewed over 479,000 times to-date. I have also published articles on the GDS run government wide user research blog. I also published an article in the BMJ on colic for medical professionals. I have also taken part in Guardian HE Live Panels, on topics such as the impact of new technology on research and research communication.

View Salma Patel's profile on LinkedIn

My old University of Salford profile can be accessed here.

My old University of Warwick, WMG, e-Portfolio can be accessed here.

My academia.edu profile can be found here.

This website is archived by the UK Web Archive at the British Library and was listed in the Guardian HE Technology Blog List.