I’m a design researcher with an industrial and interaction design background. My work involves interdisciplinary and collaborative research, often partnering with local communities and organisations. My research interests centre on socially complex design contexts, from ageing to health to safety.
☞ jsheahan@ed.ac.uk ︎
☞ CV ︎
A bit more about me
Originally from Canberra, Australia, I moved to Melbourne to train as an industrial designer, working in artisan lighting, public placemaking, and plastics fabrication while I studied at RMIT University. During my honours year, I developed a multisensory wellbeing intervention with health professionals in a regional dementia ward, forming a passion for research through design.
This was followed by PhD research centred on exploring socially engaging technologies for older Australians. I conducted two participatory, community-based projects as part of my studies that explored explored ways of re-connecting in a post-pandemic contect. Alongside my studies I took on additional teaching and research roles with interdisciplinary teams such as Shaping Connections (focusing on connectedness and technology use among older Australians) and Safeness by Design, (an initiative using design to inform safeness, across a broad range of environments and contexts).
I have since undertaken a two research fellowships focusing on co-design apporaches to issues of health, ageing, and care. The first was with Edinburgh’s Institute for Design Informatics, co-ordinating the Informal Networks of Care project at the Advanced Care Research Centre. Collaborating with Scottish communities, this research built on my doctoral work by exploring the value of informal care in later life and how it could be supported by emerging technologies.
Returning to RMIT University in the new year, I will be using qualitative co-design methodologies to engage with people experiencing long-COVID and their health providers as part of the MRFF-funded Long-COVID Assessment Management and Practice (LAMP) project. This work further positions me within the health and social care context, as a design researcher bringing essential skills and knowledge to the complex realities of living with multiple long-term conditions.
In my spare time, I enjoy trips into the outdoors, finding local trails to cycle on, and playing with photography ︎
☞ jsheahan@ed.ac.uk ︎
☞ CV ︎
A bit more about me
Originally from Canberra, Australia, I moved to Melbourne to train as an industrial designer, working in artisan lighting, public placemaking, and plastics fabrication while I studied at RMIT University. During my honours year, I developed a multisensory wellbeing intervention with health professionals in a regional dementia ward, forming a passion for research through design.
This was followed by PhD research centred on exploring socially engaging technologies for older Australians. I conducted two participatory, community-based projects as part of my studies that explored explored ways of re-connecting in a post-pandemic contect. Alongside my studies I took on additional teaching and research roles with interdisciplinary teams such as Shaping Connections (focusing on connectedness and technology use among older Australians) and Safeness by Design, (an initiative using design to inform safeness, across a broad range of environments and contexts).
I have since undertaken a two research fellowships focusing on co-design apporaches to issues of health, ageing, and care. The first was with Edinburgh’s Institute for Design Informatics, co-ordinating the Informal Networks of Care project at the Advanced Care Research Centre. Collaborating with Scottish communities, this research built on my doctoral work by exploring the value of informal care in later life and how it could be supported by emerging technologies.
Returning to RMIT University in the new year, I will be using qualitative co-design methodologies to engage with people experiencing long-COVID and their health providers as part of the MRFF-funded Long-COVID Assessment Management and Practice (LAMP) project. This work further positions me within the health and social care context, as a design researcher bringing essential skills and knowledge to the complex realities of living with multiple long-term conditions.
In my spare time, I enjoy trips into the outdoors, finding local trails to cycle on, and playing with photography ︎