1343373
Associate Professor
Jared Donovan
Faculty of Creative Industries, Education & Social Justice,
School of Design,
Interaction Design
Biography
Jared Donovan is an Associate Professor in Interaction Design in the QUT Design Lab, Faculty of Creative Industries, Education and Social Justice, at the, Queensland University of Technology in Brisbane Australia. The main aim of his research is to find better ways for people to be able to interact with new interactive technologies in their work. His current research focusses on the Design of Robotics to improve manufacturing. Jared serves as a Design Lead in the Advanced Robotics for Manufacturing hub (ARM hub).Jared has an educational background in Visual Art (Illustration) and Information Technology. He graduated from Griffith University, Queensland College of Art with a Bachelor of Visual Arts in Illustration in 1996. He then completed a Bachelor of Information Technology and a PhD in Interaction Design, at The University of Queensland. 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 worked at QUT in the School of Design since 2011, where he teaches in the Interaction Design discipline and is co-lead of the Design Robotics and Digital Fabrication research program at the QUT 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 for the Robotronica and CreateX events in 2015-17. Jared has taught into numerous undergraduate and graduate level courses including Interaction Design, Introduction to Web Design, Creative Coding, User Experience Design, Critical Design, Embodied Interactions, Theories of Human Computer Interaction, and Tangible Media. He was the academic lead of the QUT Ars Electronica Futurelab Academy 2013-2016. Career History
- 2021: Associate Professor in Interaction Design, School of Design, Faculty of Creative Industries, Education and Social Justice, Queensland University of Technology
- 2017 – 2021: 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
- 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)
- Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.com.au/citations?user=WMeBxU8AAAAJ&hl=en
Personal details
Positions
- Associate Professor
Faculty of Creative Industries, Education & Social Justice,
School of Design,
Interaction Design
Keywords
Interaction Design, Gesture Interaction, Tangible Interaction, Embodied Interaction, Human-Computer Interaction, Participatory Design, User-Centred Design, Participatory Innovation, Design Anthropology
Research field
Other built environment and design, Design, Information systems
Field of Research code, Australian and New Zealand Standard Research Classification (ANZSRC), 2020
Qualifications
- PhD (University of Queensland)
Professional memberships and associations
Association for Computing Machinery
Teaching
Current Teaching
- Creative Coding: An introductory programming unit aimed at designers and creative practitioners. Uses the P5js JavaScript framework. Presents coding in a fun, engaging and creative way. (DXB211)
Previous Teaching
- Ars Electronica Futurelab Academy: A special project where students are mentored by international researchers from the Ars Electronica Futurelab to develop an interactive artwork. Students travel to Linz, Austria and present their work at the Ars Electronica Festival (Further details).
- Introduction to Web Design and Development: Students learn the foundations of how to create web-sites using current web technologies (KIB103).
- Embodied Interactions: Explores ways of designing interfaces that use more physical, bodily kinds of interactions. We want to make computers more fun, expressive and enjoyable to use (KIB309).
- Tangible Media: How can you give interactive technology more of a physical presence? Students learn how to create and test interactive electronic prototypes (KIB314).
Publications
- Boer, L., Donovan, J. & Buur, J. (2013). Challenging industry conceptions with provotypes. CoDesign, 9(2), 73–89. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/219484
- Donovan, J., Heinemann, T., Matthews, B. & Buur, J. (2011). Getting the point: The role of gesture in managing intersubjectivity in a design activity. Artificial Intelligence for Engineering Design, Analysis and Manufacturing: AIEDAM, 25(3), 221–235. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/56683
- Donovan, J., Sade, G. & Seevinck, J. (2013). Gestural, emergent and expressive: Three research themes for haptic interaction. Design, User Experience, and Usability. User Experience in Novel Technological Environments: Second International Conference, DUXU 2013, Held as Part of HCI International 2013, Proceedings, Part III [Lecture Notes in Computer Science, Vol 8014], 352–361. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/62891
- Rittenbruch, M., Sorensen, A., Donovan, J., Polson, D., Docherty, M. & Jones, J. (2013). The Cube: A very large-scale interactive engagement space. Proceedings of the 2013 ACM International Conference on Interactive Tabletops and Surfaces, 1–10. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/61900
- Gunn, W. & Donovan, J. (2012). Design and anthropology. Ashgate Publishing Limited. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/56679
- Gunn, W. & Donovan, J. (2012). Design anthropology: An introduction. In W. Gunn & J. Donovan (Eds.), Design and anthropology [Anthropological studies of creativity and perception] (pp. 1–16). Ashgate Publishing Limited. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/56680
- Donovan, J. & Gunn, W. (2012). Moving from objects to possibilities. In W. Gunn & J. Donovan (Eds.), Design and Anthropology (pp. 121–134). Ashgate Publishing Limited. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/56681
- Donovan, J., Howard, S., Satchell, C., Brereton, M., Robertson, T. & Vetere, F. (2012). Designerly analysis of a socio-physical design activity. Proceedings of the Participatory Innovation Conference 2012, 1–8. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/48149
- Boer, L. & Donovan, J. (2012). Provotypes for participatory innovation. Proceedings of the 9th ACM Designing Interactive Systems Conference, 388–397. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/50028
- Donovan, J. & Brereton, M. (2005). Movements in gesture interfaces. Proceedings of the Workshop: Approaches to Movement-Based Interaction, 6–10. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/26106
QUT ePrints
For more publications by Jared, explore their research in QUT ePrints (our digital repository).
Filter publications:
A complete list of publications is available at: https://www.qut.edu.au/about/our-people/academic-profiles/j.donovan
Supervision
Current supervisions
- An Investigation of Intent Communication Techniques for Robotic Guide Dogs
MPhil, Associate Supervisor
Other supervisors: Professor Jonathan Roberts, Professor Matthew Dunbabin - Beyond Motion Legibility: A Situated, Context-Sensitive Toolkit for Multi-Stage Intention Visualisation in HumanRobot Collaboration
PhD, Associate Supervisor
Other supervisors: Professor Markus Rittenbruch - Choreographic, Improvisation and Somatic Methods to Develop Embodied Artificial Intelligence for Human-Robot Interaction
PhD, Principal Supervisor
Other supervisors: Dr Steph Hutchison, Professor Jonathan Roberts - Co-Designing Multimodal Experiences with People with Intellectual Disability and Social Robots in Supported Environments
PhD, Associate Supervisor
Other supervisors: Associate Professor Laurianne Sitbon - Designing communication delivery for accessibility and better care navigation within lower limb orthopaedics
MPhil, Associate Supervisor
Other supervisors: Associate Professor Jeremy Kerr - From Generative Geometry to Robotic Assembly: A Fabrication-Aware Data Framework for AI-Driven Generative Architecture
PhD, Associate Supervisor
Other supervisors: Associate Professor Muge Fialho Leandro Alves Teixeira - How Can We Design for Human-Robot Collaboration, the Need for a Human-Robot Collaboration Prototyping Toolkit
PhD, Principal Supervisor
Other supervisors: Professor Markus Rittenbruch, Associate Professor Rafael Gomez, Dr Valeria Alessandra Macalupu Chira - Human-Centered Design of Collaborative Robot Interfaces within Industrial Manufacturing Applications
PhD, Principal Supervisor
Other supervisors: Professor Markus Rittenbruch, Dr Claire Brophy - Multimodal Neurosurgical Training Models
PhD, Principal Supervisor
Other supervisors: Professor Marianella Chamorro Koc
Completed supervisions (Doctorate)
- Additive Manufacturing Using Waste Materials "Towards Sustainable Architecture" (2026)
- Augmented Reality (AR)-enabled Human-Robot Collaboration (HRC) System for Creative Architectural Design-Fabrication Process (2025)
- DIATOMA: A Robotically Fabricated Biomimetic Lightweight Pavilion (2025)
- Methods for Robotic Surface Finishing (2025)
- Affordances in Collaborative Robotic Production for Artisan Crafts and Hybrid Design (2022)
- Designing Media Architecture with virtual reality in Architecture Studio Education (2022)
- Supporting affective connections between older adults through socially interactive robots: A design framework (2022)
- Emotion in Motion: Bodily Expressions of Emotion for Non-Humanoid Social Robots (2021)
- Place-Oriented Design: A Framework for Designing Interactive Installations for Public Spaces (2021)
- Fresh Eyes: A Human-Centred Design Approach to Diabetic Retinopathy Screening in Primary Care (2020)
Completed supervisions (Masters by Research)
- Understanding Perceptual Experiences of Algokinoptic Art (2025)
- Using communication mechanisms derived from social cues in industrial autonomous mobile robots to improve interactions (2023)
- Artistic Approaches to Machine Learning (2020)
- Do Touch: The Impact of Tangible Interaction on Situated Community Engagement (2019)
- Travelling an Unfamiliar Road: Implications for the Entry of Design Practitioners into Healthcare (2016)
Supervision topics
The supervisions listed above are only a selection.