Dr Henry Collingham

Senior Research Fellow

School: Design Arts and Creative Industries

I am a product designer and researcher using participatory design, community co-creation, and technology for social good. My work centres on hearing and amplifying some of the quietest voices in our communities – principally people living with dementia – and on exploring what it means to practice design collaboratively, as an act of citizenship.

I hold a PhD in Design from Northumbria University (2021), my thesis is titled Product Design to support Creative Ageing for People with Dementia: A Practice-Based Inquiry.

I joined as a staff member in 2021, as an Innovation Fellow on the Centre for Digital Citizens project. I became a Senior Research Fellow in Design in 2025. Prior to Northumbria, I worked at Cinimod Studio in London, developing ambitious interactive artworks and architectural installations.

Much of my research takes place in community settings, working alongside people with dementia, care partners, and community organisations to co-create meaningful products, spaces, and experiences. Key projects include Dovetails, an exploration of reciprocal participatory making between adults with dementia and youth groups, Mariana's Song, a multi-sensory co-creation project with people living with advanced dementia, and Making History, a heritage co-creation initiative with young people from underserved communities.

I am the Innovation Lead for the Technology Empowered Dementia Independence (TEDI) Network Plus, a UKRI/EPSRC-funded collaborative research network working to build coordinated dementia pathways that integrate technology and services to support those affected by dementia.

Alongside academic research, I maintain an active design practice and have a particular interest in making and craft as modes of research inquiry. I am committed to participatory and co-productive approaches that place lived experience at the heart of the design process, and to advancing social justice through design research in our community.

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Key Publications

Please visit the Pure Research Information Portal for further information
Centring: Co-Creative Ceramics in the Living Museum, Wallace, J., Collingham, H., Kindleysides, M., Marston, B., Appleby, C. 12 Mar 2025, DementiaLab Conference 2025
Interactive workshops exploring caregivers’ perceptions of engagement among people with advanced dementia, Sakalidis, K., Collingham, H., Astell, A. 26 Dec 2025, In: Alzheimer's and Dementia
Digital Technologies for Smallholder Agriculture: Tensions and Speculations, Prost, S., Collingham, H., Rogers, J. 1 Jul 2024, DIS '24 Companion, New York, United States, ACM
Dovetails: Personhood, Citizenship, and Craft between Children and Older Adults, Collingham, H., Wallace, J., Brewster, J., Whittingham, R., Prost, S., Marshall, J., Kindleysides, M., Benson, W. 2024, In: Design for Health
Mariana's Song: Materializing Personhood through Non-Linear Multisensory Experiences Designed for People Living with Advanced Dementia, Collingham, H., Wallace, J., Crawshaw, P., Hunt, L. 1 Jul 2024, DIS '24: Proceedings of the 2024 ACM Designing Interactive Systems Conference, New York, US, ACM
'Stepping outside the red line': An exploration of two co-design methodologies exploring lived experiences of remote support for eating disorders throughout COVID-19 and beyond, Murphy-Morgan, C., Collingham, H., Malowaniec, P., Shaddock, H., Branley-Bell, D. 21 Jun 2024, Proceedings of the 7th International Conference on Design4Health, Sheffield, Sheffield Hallam University
Bringing Sustainability through, in, and of HCI into Conversation, Prost, S., Taylor, N., Strohmayer, A., Collingham, H., Leal, D., Krüger, M., Liu, J., Crivellaro, C., Vines, J. 10 Jul 2023, DIS '23 Companion: Companion Publication of the 2023 ACM Designing Interactive Systems Conference, New York, ACM
Walking and Talking: Place-Based Data Collection and Mapping for Participatory Design with Communities, Prost, S., Ntouros, V., Wood, G., Collingham, H., Taylor, N., Crivellaro, C., Rogers, J., Vines, J. 10 Jul 2023, DIS '23, New York, USA, ACM
Co-Creating a Virtuous Cycle: Fostering Citizenship-Alliances through Making and Gifting, Collingham, H., Wallace, J., Brewster, J., Whittingham, R., Prost, S., Marshall, J., Benson, W., Kindleysides, M. 19 Aug 2022, PDC '22, New York, US, ACM
Making Together Across Space & Time: Mapping Participatory Making when Co-Designing Asynchronously and/or without Colocation, Hay, K., Pschetz, L., Koulidou, N., Claisse, C., Dylan, T., Dixon, B., Collingham, H., Nissen, B. 19 Aug 2022, PDC '22, New York, US, ACM