I am a design scholar, specializing in interaction and service design. But my interests stretch into the topics of human computer interaction, drama, rhetoric, and social psychology. My academic work is inspired by the somehow obvious (and perhaps optimistic) observation that people possess an astounding capability to adapt themselves to new situations and challenging environments. At the core of this capability lies people’s ability to form relationships with their  own selves, with other people and with their surrounding environments. Products can facilitate these relationships, giving them form and direction, whether they be tangible products or intangible services.

Map explaining the phases of the inquiry

My work explores how design can support people in forming these relationships. I have followed a three-part design inquiry: I develop an in-depth understanding of people’s problematic situations, I take action on their issues, and I search for artful ways to act on these issues. The understanding path has led me to study the theories of humanities and social sciences, the action path led me to practice design and make products, and the artful ways path led me to study design process. In a way, my work is a meaningful composition of these three paths, theory, practice and process. My inquiry follows the promise of Donald Schön’s ‘reflection in and on action’*, where theory and practice cultivate each other to transform a problematic situation into its preferred state***.  In identifying the problematic situation and working toward the preferred state, my design inquiry follows the five stages defined by John Dewey in The Patterns of Inquiry**: indeterminate situation, problem, hypothesis, development, and significance.