I am a Carlsberg Foundation Oxford Visiting Fellow at the University of Oxford’s Human Centred Computing group.
My work focuses on attention and self-control in relation to use of digital devices like smartphones and laptops.
Outside of academia, I play various instruments in The Karaoke Collective. Previously, I was a festival producer at HowTheLightGetsIn.
Department of Computer Science
University of Oxford
OX1 3QD Oxford, UK
ulrik.lyngs@cs.ox.ac.uk
Recent work
Ulysses in Cyberspace: Examining the Effectiveness of Design Patterns for Digital Self-Control
Summary: How can we design digital devices that make it easier for people to stay in control of their use? My DPhil thesis attempts to answer this question by combining established psychological research on self-control with mixed-methods studies of the landscape of apps and browser extensions for digital self-control on online stores.
‘I Just Want to Hack Myself to Not Get Distracted’: Evaluating Design Interventions for Self-Control on Facebook
Summary: Many people use browser extensions such as ‘Newsfeed Eradicator’ to make Facebook less distracting. We studied how removing the newsfeed or adding goal reminders on Facebook affect behaviour and perceived control. Both interventions helped people stay on task and avoid distraction, with large — and distinct — effects on behaviour.
The ReDD Workshop: Supporting People in Regaining Control Over Digital Device Use
Summary: Constant digital connectivity can be challenging for mental wellbeing, and make it difficult to focus on work. With the University of Oxford Counselling Service, I run the ’Reducing Digital Distraction’ (ReDD) Workshop, where students reflect on struggles and goals for digital device use, and explore tools and strategies for regaining control.
Self-Control in Cyberspace: Applying Dual Systems Theory to a Review of Digital Self-Control Tools
CHI’19 Paper 
Honourable Mention award
Summary: Hundreds of apps and browser extensions promise to help people exercise self-control over digital device use by, e.g., removing distractions or limiting time spent. We reviewed design features in 367 such tools from the Google Play, Chrome Web, and Apple App stores and analysed them using a dual systems model of self-regulation.
Workshop teaching: Reproducible research with R Markdown
Summary: R Markdown lets you mix text written in markdown with chunks of code in languages such as R or Python. It can be used as interactive notebook for data analysis, or exported to a range of formats, such as HTML, Microsoft Word, and PDF. I teach a 2-day workshop introducing the essentials of R Markdown for reproducible research.
oxforddown: Writing a reproducible Oxford University thesis in R Markdown
Summary: I wanted to write my PhD thesis as a reproducible document in R Markdown, and use a traditional Oxford University LaTeX template for the formatting.
For this purpose, I created a package called oxforddown that combines bookdown (with heavy inspiration from thesisdown) and the beautiful and time-tested OxThesis LaTeX template.