Dr Jared Donovan

Program Leader - Design Robotics and Digital Fabrication

PhD (University of Queensland)

Dr Jared Donovan is a Senior Lecturer in Interaction Design in the School of Design at the Creative Industries Faculty, Queensland University of Technology. He has an educational background in Illustration and Information Technology. His main research interests are in the areas of Gestural and Embodied Interaction, Participatory Design, Design Robotics and Performance Robotics. The main aim of his research is to find better ways for people to be able to interact with new interactive technologies. He is also interested in finding better ways to involve people in the design process, such as by employing ‘provotypes’ (provocative prototypes) to spark discussion and debate.

Jared graduated from Griffith University, Queensland College of Art with a Bachelor of Visual Arts in Illustration in 1996. Jared furthered his studies with an honours degree in Information Technology from The University of Queensland in 2001. Following this, he worked as a research assistant and completed a PhD on gestural interactions at The University of Queensland in 2011.

From 2007-2011 Jared worked as a research fellow at the University of Southern Denmark, including for three years at the SPRIE Centre for Participatory Innovation, where he contributed user-centred design approaches to an inter-disciplinary research institute combining innovation management, interaction analysis, design anthropology, participatory design and theatre. During this time, Jared co-led an international PhD short course on Design Anthropology and also co-edited the book Design and Anthropology.

Jared has been working at QUT in the School of Design since 2011, where he teaches in the Interactive and Visual Design discipline and is co-lead of the Design Fabrication research platform at the Design Lab.

Jared has been involved as co-director in the production of a number of creative performances combining robotics, dance, music and interactive and visual design. In 2015, he was co-director of the closing performance for the Robotronica event, which involved 50 custom built robots, musicians and dancers in a 45-minute performance. In 2016, he was again co-director of a robotic performance for the CreateX event.

Jared has taught into numerous undergraduate and graduate level courses including Interaction Design, Introduction to Web Design, Programming for Visual Designers, User Experience Design, Critical Design, Embodied Interactions, Theories of Human Computer Interaction, Tangible Media. He was the academic lead of the QUT Ars Electronica Futurelab Academy 2013-2016.

Career History

• 2017: Senior Lecturer in Interaction Design, School of Design, Creative Industries Faculty, Queensland University of Technology
• 2012 – 2016: Lecturer in Interaction Design, School of Design, Creative Industries Faculty, Queensland University of Technology
• 2011: Research Fellow, School of Design / Institute for Future Environments, Queensland University of Technology
• 2008-2011: Research Fellow, SPIRE Participatory Innovation Research Centre, University of Southern Denmark, DK
• 2007: Research Assistant, Mads Clausen Institute, University of Southern Denmark, DK
• 2003-2007: Full-time postgraduate PhD candidate, Faculty of Information Technology and Electrical Engineering, The University of Queensland
• 2002: Research assistant, Faculty of Information Technology and Electrical Engineering, The University of Queensland

Significant Professional Achievements

• 2016 Workshops co-chair, Designing Interactive Systems Conference (DIS)
• 2015 Student volunteers co-chair, International Association of Societies of Design Research Conference (IASDR)
• 2015 Vice Chancellor’s award for excellence, Queensland University of Technology
• 2014 Invited Keynote, International Conference on Creative Industries (ICCI)
• 2013 Dean’s performance award, Creative Industries Faculty, Queensland University of Technology
• 2012 Co-editor, Design and Anthropology, Anthropological Studies of Creativity and Perception, Routledge
• 2011 Track co-chair, Participatory Innovation Conference (PINC)

Publications 

Please see Jared’s Google Scholar page for a list of publications and their citations:

• Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.com.au/citations?user=WMeBxU8AAAAJ&hl=en

Projects

• Augmented and Top-projected Visualisation of Real-time Data on a City-scale Model
• Cotton Rapid Customisation Feasibility Study
• The InstaBooth: Situated Community Engagement

Additional information