Design Heuristics for GenAI Educational Platforms
Exploring how to scale up the Ryelands AI Lab project
Making Design Research.... Work
Our mission is to show the world what it can gain from Design Research
Latest Updates
Shadowplay at Windermere Science Festival
Taking part in this amazing event on the shore of Windermere
BRIDGES Network: Harnessing technology to help people living with dementia
Announcing the launch of a new network for dementia and technology research
Invitation to Campus in the City
Shadowplay featuring at this event in Morecambe and Lancaster on 11th and 12th April 2025
Co-Creating Portraits of Dementia
As part of ongoing collaboration with Jennifer MacRitchie and AgeUK we used our PromptTank system to co-create portraits of dementia with a group living with early onset dementia
Muhammad Adamu: Does Design Research Work?
After a couple of years of expansive chats about Design, Research, and the World.. Muhammad has produced this interesting reflection on his view of Design Research Works
Klanghaus Collaboration
We visited the wonderful Klanghaus crew at their base in Norwich for some AI image generation experimentation
Shadowplay Demo & WLDRF Gig @ ThingsCon
While demo-ing Shadowplay at ThingsCon we did an impromptu AI-powered VJ set using our PromptJ interface
Shadowplay and Play of Light at Light up Lancaster
Showing our ever-evolving AI-powered installation at Lancaster's amazing light festival
Seminar and Talk at Politecnico di Milano
Presenting Permission to Muck About and running a Regenerative Design and More-Than-Human Seminar with Dr Maria Luce Lupetti
Paper @ Half Way to the Future
Presenting a paper, Permission to Muck About, Knowledge, and the Grammar of Intuition, at the Half Way to the Future Conference in Santa Cruz
Permission to Muck About @ Detroit Imagines Harder
Taking part in a Design Fiction Summit on the Future of Work
Best Paper Award for Ryelands AI Lab
Our project exploring AI curriculum with 7-8 year olds wins a best paper award at the Designing Interactive Systems conference
Responsible AI Licences Generator
The Responsible AI Licences (RAIL) initative tries to use the licensing system to help developers share their innovations responsibly
Research through Design as a 'Rapid Response Methodology'
Workshop paper speculating about the meta role of Research through Design and Design Research
Shadowplay Installation at Electromagnetic Field Camp
Exhibiting our live interactive Shadowplay installation to over 3000 people at Electromagnetic Field Camp
Responding to Generative AI with Research through Design
Exploring how creating AI curriculum highlights a unique strength of Research through Design
Call for Applications: Design Researchers in Residence
We are inviting proposals to be researchers in residence with Design Research Works
AI for inclusive workshop participation
Using a physical input to AI image generation with participants who are living with dementia
What has AI got to do with free speech?
In this article for The Conversation we explore why the Responsible AI Licensing project might help protect something as important as free speech
Productive Oscillation as a strategy for doing more-than-human design research
Exploring strategies for multidimensional more-than-human practice
Reflections on the Jamboree
The Jamboree gathered 30 people together for a retreat about Design Research
Generative AI Whitepaper
What, if any, challenges does generative AI pose to design education? And what should we do about them?
AI Summit North West
Exploring how Creative Industries in the North West of England are journeying through the new AI landscape
Putting design research to work
New book chapter in Flourish by Design exploring the mysterious case of design's future disappearance
Design Research Society Conference Special Track
Inviting submissions to a special track on the subject of More-Than-Human Design in Practice, for the 2024 edition of the Design Research Society conference
Designing Technology for More-Than-Human Futures
Book chapter co-authored with Paul Coulton appearing in Routledge Companion to Design Research (2nd ed.)
Implications of Generative AI on Higher Education Assessment and Design Research
This short paper reports on work conducted at Lancaster University to explore the impact of generative AI on education assessments as well as on Design Research practice
Review of Ron Wakkary's 'Things We Could Design'
Review of Ron Wakkary's book discussing more-than-human design issues
Entoptic Field Monitor @ MozFest House Amsterdam
Exhibiting the latest version of the Entoptic Field Monitor at this year's MozFest
Economist Babbage Podcast: What if generative AI destroys biometric security?
Appearing on the Economist's tech podcast to discuss the design issues arising from the security implications of generative AI
Ways of seeing design research: A polyphonic speculation
In this paper we discuss six speculative designs that all explore the challenge of representing the broad corpus of Design Research in the form of an interactive data repository.
Ryelands AI Lab: Collaboration with a Lancaster Primary School on Generative AI
We designed and deployed six lessons on Generative AI for a local primary school.
Paper on the AI-driven Entoptic Field Camera
We presented a paper at this year's CHI conference on Human Factors in Computing
Beyond Academic Publication: Alternative Outcomes of Research
Call for Participation: workshop exploring diverse research outcomes and situated knowledge
UbiFix Workshop: Tackling Repairability Challenges
Call for Participation: workshop tackling repairability challenges in smart devices
Is data a 'design material' - maybe knots have the answer
We contributed this collection of poetry to a CHI workshop exploring the materiality of data as a design material
Lab Engagement: Edinburgh Design Informatics
Fieldwork trip in Scotland visiting the Institute for Design Informatics - a collaboration between Edinburgh College of Art and University of Edinburgh
Trust as a distributed concern
Part of work funded by the Trustworthy Autonomous Systems Hub, this paper introduces the idea of 'Trust as a Distributed Concern' as a way of conceptualising issues of Trust in the context of autonomous computer systems
Advancing ethical review practices for AI research
This article, organised by Partnership on AI, explores how ethical review processes may help to mitigate the potential harms and unintended consequences arising from AI research
Lab Engagement: OpenLab and Northumbria School of Design
Fieldwork trip in the North East of the UK visiting both Newcastle University's interaction design group OpenLab and Northumbria School of Design
Conversation Paper: Notes on Communicating the Value of Design Research
A summary and writeup of the conversation we hosted at the Design Research Society's 2022 conference in Bilbao
Lab Engagement: The Oslo School of Architecture and Design
A week long fieldwork trip to Oslo to visit the Centre for Design Research
RNIB Connect Radio Appearance
Appearing on the Royal National Institute for the Blind Radio discussing the the Seeing with Sound project with host David Hogg
Interaction Design and Architectures Journal: 'Meet the Authors' Video
This is a video recorded for a 'Meet the Authors' session relating to a Special Issue of the Interaction Design and Architectures Journal. It gives a quick overview of our paper in the issue.
Lab Engagement: Eindhoven University of Technology
The second of our back-to-back visits in the Netherlands took us to TU Eindhoven
Lab Engagement: Delft University of Technology
This lab engagement took us to TU Delft in the Netherlands
Visionary Award for 'Seeing with Sound' co-design project
The coming together of Zach's PhD work and funding received from the Vice Chancellor's Prize for Participatory Research and a fantastic collaboration with Sight Advice South Lakes has resulted in us winning an award from sight loss organisation, Visionary
Lab Engagement: University of Washington, Seattle
Our international lab engagements take us to Seattle to explore the teaching and research culture around Design Research at the University of Washington
Entoptic Field Monitor and Shape of Trust at the V&A
Showing our work at the V&A Museum as part of the Ethical Dilemma Cafe at London Design Festival
Lab Engagement: Simon Fraser University, Vancouver
For the first of our international lab engagement series we visited Vancouver's Simon Fraser University to run workshops, give presentations, and conduct interviews with two prominent research groups
Near Future Lab Podcast Appearnce: A 21st Century Enlightenment?
A podcast where we discuss ways to bridge the gap between academic and non-academic Design Research... and how that relates to a '21st Century Enlightenment'
Lab Engagement Series
Facilitating exchanges, contributions, community building, and sharing with Design Research labs around the world
Podcast: Design Fiction and the Generalist
Appearing the Near Future Laboratory Podcast with Julian Bleecker
Communicating the Value of Design Research
A Conversation session hosted at the Design Research Society's 2022 conference in Bilbao
Podcast: Can AI be Ethical?
Appearing on the Trustworthy Autonomous Systems Hub's Podcast series discussing AI and ethics
Play at Work: Design Research Society Conference Presentation
Paper documenting our experince of using and creating Gather Town to create shared spaces
More-than-Human: A creative fuel, or short-term fad for design?
Panel discussion at Design Research Society's 2022 conference in Bilbao
'Seeing with sound' Lancaster University's VC's Prize for Participatory Research
In December 2021 we were awarded the Vice-Chancellor's Prize for Participatory Research for a project exploring audio-only games with blind and partially sighted gamers.
The Interview Box
This paper is about 'The Interview Box'. Back in late 2020 we were optimistic that the pandemic was over. We thought we could travel and conduct interviews. We were wrong, so we built the Interview Box. This is a paper about what we learned.
Fixing the Future: The Right to Repair + Equal-IoT
New £1.2m project engaging with technology and the right to repair
MozFest and the Ethical Dilemma Cafe
We had several projects at Mozilla's Ethical Dilemma Cafe in Manchester this year.
Work, Talk, or Play... Presentation at CHI
Workshop paper and talk exploring what embodiment means for humans participating in shared virtual spaces
Trust me? I'm an autonomous machine
Pump-Priming project in association with the EPSRC Trustworthy Autonomous Systems Hub
The Ultimate Measure of Success for Speculative Design (or Design Research, period) is to Disappear Completely
In this article we argue that once we don't have to explain the value of Design Research approaches like Speclative Design, then the project will have succeeded
Design Research and Ambiguity
A paper published at the European Academy of Design Conference based on interviews with several leading design researchers that argues the field is inherently ambiguous
Machine Learning vs Digital Portraits: A Design Researchers Perspective
In this research pictorial apply a Design Research lens to the topic of material interactions between machine learning and digital portraiture
Telling the tales of Design Research
In this 1 day workshop developed for the PETRAS Cybersecurity hub, I introduce the art and science of documenting Design Research.
What is an AI's view of the Design Research landscape?
Twitter bot that responds with views about the world of Design Research.
Making Design Research Funny at Bright Club
Trying my hand at stand up comedy? Whatever could go wrong! (Contains lots of bad language, so watch with discretion)
The Revolution Will (Sort of) Be Televised
In this Design Informatics Webinar Joe and Dave discuss the high levels if Design Research Works.
What is Research through Documentary?
In this invited talk, I discussed my experiences as a researcher and documentary-maker in various professional and research contexts.
QuBr: A community-based interactive documentary about Design Research
QuBr ('Question Bridge') is a novel approach to understanding current issues relating to the Design Research community inspired by a documentary film
Room For Improvement in Video Conferencing 'Space'
A paper published at the Association of Internet Researchers Conference disucussing the future of video conferencing
An Experimental Murmuration at Uroborus Festival
Where to start with this? A crazy paper, rejected by reviewers, has second life at Czech design festival via Gather Town? I think that about covers it.
The World's First Paper That is Not a Paper
This contribution to the ever-popular alternative track at the Human Factors in Computing Conference (alt.CHI) offers a novel lens on what the future of conferences could be.
Uncanny AI: How to Spot a Mutant Algorithm
A paper and interactive event at the Economic and Social Research Councils Festival of Social Science