Charles Njoku
I am an MSc student in Safety & Human Factors in Aviation at Cranfield University, currently advised and mentored by Dr. James Blundell, and Dr. Wen-Chin Li.
I spent the last 7 years designing and building digital products for businesses in various industries, with a stint co-founding a UX research and product testing startup. Now I am focused on HCI research with particular interest in how interaction design can aid performance and ensure safety in complex socio-technical systems.
My current MSc research examines Wicken's Multiple Resource Theory, and whether different interface interaction styles, and their properties, influences how operators access available cognitive resource pool to manage interference in a dual-task scenario.
- UX Research Methods and UI Design
- Rapid Prototyping; Javascript, React, Python, R,
- Statistical Analysis: ANOVA and Regression
FLIDIS is a light-weight web-based simulator for studying interaction mechanisms in flight deck systems. Currently, it features a Primary Flight Display with a continuous primary tracking task (pitch & roll correction to maintain level flight) and a concurrent data-entry secondary task (programmed callout entered via six different interaction styles).
I am currently using FLIDIS as the experimental platform for my MSc research, and plan to make it available as an open-source tool.
ECS is defined as the ratio of total deviation corrected to total control input applied across a continous tracking task. Unlike RMSE and control effort, it captures the efficiency of control inputs in correcting deviations, and thus the operator's effective control during the task.
I am currently validating ECS against established performance metrics, and exploring its sensitivity to different interaction styles and workload conditions in FLIDIS.
Research focus: interaction modalities in flight deck interface design, cognitive workload, and human–automation teaming in future flight systems.
Democratized UX research for startups: participant recruitment, contextual feedback collection, and rapid analysis tooling used by solo founders and small product teams.
Led product (UX) design across healthcare, fintech, and civic technology. Highlights: an Open Banking access framework for 13M+ digitally-excluded users; 3D-printed drone prototypes for emergency medical supply delivery in rural Nigeria; open-source tools with 25,000+ users.
Professional memberships
I took up running mid 2025 for fitness and quickly found it an effective reset alongside research. I am currently training for three half-marathons (1 down, 2 more to go), using each one to raise money for causes I care about.
I am running to raise money for three causes: heart research in memory of mothers, HIV care and support through Sussex Beacon, and ending child abuse through the NSPCC. Any contribution means a great deal.
I have been part of several community initiatives throughout my career, from design communities in Lagos to open-source contributors’ groups in London. I continue to mentor early-career designers and founders where I can.