Recurring themes in her research and professional practice focus on utilizing design methods as a catalyst for community and civic engagement. She is currently looking at the design of products that allow participants agency over their own learning space. They are invited as co-creators in the design process, a process that they may eventually engage and sustain on their own. Most recently, this question has led her to explore game design, examining learning processes and ways that play spaces provide a powerful platform for uninhibited learning. Other projects include Click! Urban Adventure, an interactive role-playing game designed to immerse middle school girls in discipline-specific science, technology, engineering and mathematics activities. Hughes also collaborated on explanatoids, an interdisciplinary project funded by the National Science Foundation.