Petra Salaric

BA at School of Design, University of Zagreb, Croatia
MSc cum laude at Delft University of Technology, the Netherlands

Pronouns: She/her
  • Doctoral Researcher

Petra Salaric is a designer and a researcher, working in the area of design for wellbeing. She focuses on behaviour change and emotions, and specialises in the area of design for taboo topics. Currently, Petra is undertaking her PhD on the topic of the impact of online communication on intimacy building in the early stages of romantic relationships. Prior coming to Loughborough, she finished her master’s degree in Delft University of Technology with distinction. In her master thesis, Petra has developed a game to be played in family homes in India to battle the taboo of menstruation and enhance the wellbeing of pre-menstrual girls. Petra continues to work on the taboo topics, both in academia and in the industry.

Thesis: Fostering intimacy-building in the early stages of relationships in online communication environments: Towards a design for wellbeing approach.

With her research, Petra aims to develop interactions and practices that can enhance wellbeing of the individuals and society as a whole. Petra is also fascinated by human behaviour and human relationships. The inspiration for her PhD thesis came from the fundamental need of relatedness and how this need is affected by the increased usage of online communication and the behaviour that results from the online environment. In her thesis, she investigates the correlation between the construction of online communication and the currently present behaviours of romantic relationships. She aims to define the influences of the interaction design on the outcome intimacy of romantic relationships and what this means for the wellbeing of long-term relationships.

PhD Supervisors: Prof. Rebecca Cain and Dr. Emilene Zitkus.