Introduction

As a design researcher and practitioner, I am strongly driven by the desire to explore, create, and perfect the design that truly shapes the way we live in this world. I believe that design can, and should (!), make the world a better and more sustainable place.

Wanjun Chu is initially trained as a UX designer. He is interested in exploring novel design theories and methods to understand and shape the technological implications of interactive products in people’s everyday lives. He has a cross-disciplinary background in interaction design (Bachelor of Arts), sustainability science (Master of Science), and behavioral psychology (as in his PhD research in Design).

This mixed background allows him to look at a design problem beyond the traditional user-centered view, to take into account not only the usefulness and effectiveness of potential design solutions, but also the complex dynamics between users, products, and interaction contexts. The activity-based sustainable design approach he proposed in his PhD thesis is one example of this design perspective.

Wanjun is currently teaching courses in user-centered product design, interactive products, advanced interaction design, design for sustainable everyday life. He is also conducting research projects on Human-AI Interaction (HAI), both from a pedagogical development perspective and an interaction design perspective.

Publications

2021

2020

2019

Research

Prototyping Platform for Human-AI Interaction Design 

An increasing number of AI-featured products, such as smart homes, delivery robots, and self-driving vehicles are permeating people’s everyday lives in all aspects. Interaction designers are confronting the challenge of incorporating emerging AI techniques to redefine and improve the UX of interactive products. This project aims

 

With the goal to bridge the emerging AI techniques and user-centered design methods, in this project, we built a semi-autonomous robotic platform, AIDA, for designers to fast prototype AI-featured user experiences. Three features made AIDA distinctive:

      Contextuality and In-situ perspectives: Allows designers to directly experience (through vision, audition, tactition) how the autonomous system perceives the world in embodied and situated contexts.

      Flexibility: Apply Woz and marionette techniques with user enactment methods to rapidly prototype the behavior of autonomous system.

      Accessibility and tinkerability: Improvise with available materials, both in terms of hardware and software, to build prototypes (similar to Lego concepts).

Organisation

News