Professor Joyce Sheau Roei Yee

Professor

Department: Northumbria School of Design, Arts and Creative Industries

I am a design researcher, author and designer in the areas of design and social innovation, service design and interaction design.I am a Professor of Design and Social Innovation at Northumbria School of Design. I hold a BFA in Graphic Design, an MA in Visual Communication and a PhD in Design. I lead the subject development in the school at various undergraduate, postgraduate and doctoral levels. I primarily teach undergraduate Interaction Design students and supervise a number of doctoral students in the subject of service design, design and social innovation and emergent interaction design practices.

My research focuses on the role, value and impact of design in organisational context. Specifically, I am interested in the ways design is used to support, enable and drive change through the creation of innovative practices in organisations. I was the lead investigator for the Valuing Design project, an AHRC funded research that identified and mapped the impact and value of design in public and voluntary and community sector organisations. Building on this work, my 2017 book, Transformations: 7 Roles to Drive Change by Design introduces 7 roles that design play in driving change in organisations. This book builds on a previous book, Design Transitions (2013) that explored how design practices are changing and identified a key requirement for designers to externalise their approaches and demonstrate value beyond design in service innovation projects.

Extending my interest in design in social spaces, I co-founded the Designing Social Innovation in Asia-Pacific network (www.desiap.org) with Yoko Akama at RMIT, Australia. DESIAP (previously funded by the AHRC Research Network grant) is a research platform, a community of practice, and a network for collaboration and ongoing knowledge sharing for various practitioners, researchers, communities, and professionals working in the Social Innovation space in the UK and the Asia-Pacific region. I also co-founded the inaugural Research Through Design (RTD) conference with Jayne Wallace as an experimental conference series for disseminating practice-based design research.

Campus Address

Squires Annexe, Room 108
City Campus
Newcastle
NE1 8ST

Email Joyce Sheau Roei

Research Themes and Scholarly Interests

Joyce’s research focuses on the role, value and impact of design in organisational context. Specifically, she is interested in the ways design is used to support, enable and drive change through the creation of innovative practices in organisations. She was the lead investigator for the Valuing Design project, an AHRC funded research that identified and mapped the impact and value of design in public and voluntary and community sector organisations. Building on this work, she published a book, Transformations which introduces 7 roles that design play in driving change in organisations. Her previous book, Design Transitions explored how design practices are changing and identified a key requirement for designers to externalise their approaches and demonstrate value beyond design in service innovation projects. Extending her interest in design in social spaces, she co-founded the Designing Social Innovation in Asia-Pacific network (www.desiap.org) with Yoko Akama. DESIAP (funded in 2015 by the AHRC Research Network grant) is a research platform, a community of practice, and a network for collaboration and ongoing knowledge sharing for various practitioners, researchers, communities, and professionals working in the Social Innovation space in the UK and the Asia-Pacific region.

Key Publications

Please visit the Pure Research Information Portal for further information
Designing as Infrastructuring to Impact Policy, Yee, J., Spencer, N., Defeyter, M. 23 Jun 2024, In: DRS Biennial Conference Series
Invisible Designing: Emotional and Affective Labour in Relational Participatory Practices, Yee, J., Akama, Y., Avendano Franco, A., Chen, K., Imanishi, H., Kikuchi, Y., Kushinsky, S., Ralston, N., Teasley, S., Teerapong, K. 31 Aug 2024, PDC '24: Proceedings of the Participatory Design Conference 2024: Exploratory Papers and Workshops - Volume 2, New YorK, US, ACM
Recasting ‘shadows’: expanding respectful hierarchies in participatory design practices, Akama, Y., Chen, K., Imanishi, H., Kikuchi, Y., Kushinsky, S., Teasley, S., Teerapong, K., Yee, J. 29 Aug 2024, PDC '24: Proceedings of the Participatory Design Conference 2024: Full Papers - Volume 1, New York, USA, ACM
Before the Tech Bit: Observations on the Workings of a Scottish Community Fridge, Kiden, S., Strohmayer, A., Yee, J. 8 Jan 2023, GROUP '23: Companion Proceedings of the 2023 ACM International Conference on Supporting Group Work, New York, US, ACM
Building a shared relational identity: shifting notions of self in designing social innovation, Petrella, V., Yee, J. 28 Nov 2023, ServDes.2023, Linkoping, Sweden, Linkoping University Electronic Press
Calling on “aunties” and “nieces”: empowering women in creative sectors in Southeast Asia through designing mentorship, Yee, J., Teerapong, K., Akama, Y. 17 Nov 2023, Entanglements of Designing Social Innovation in the Asia-Pacific, New York, USA, Routledge
Calling on “aunties” and “nieces”: Empowering women in creative sectors in Southeast Asia through designing mentorship, Yee, J., Teerapong, K., Akama, Y. 17 Nov 2023, Entanglements of Designing Social Innovation in the Asia-Pacific, New York, US, Routledge
Celebrating the plurality of design research, Rodgers, P., Yee, J. 31 Jul 2023, The Routledge Companion to Design Research, Abingdon, Routledge
Entanglements of Designing Social Innovation in the Asia-Pacific, Akama, Y., Yee, J. 17 Nov 2023
Intergenerational care of ecologies through social learning, Majid Cooke, F., Yee, J., Akama, Y. 17 Nov 2023, Entanglements of Designing Social Innovation in the Asia-Pacific, New York, USA, Routledge

Current and Recent Projects

Please visit the Pure Research Information Portal for further information
Birmingham - HAF Plus – Co-designing a HAF Plus Service Blueprint and Policy, with Secondary School Pupils and Experts, of Holiday and Out of School Provision, Defeyter, G. (Principal Investigator), Yee, J. (Co Investigator), StreetGames, £19,994.00
London - HAF Plus – Co-designing a HAF Plus Service Blueprint and Policy, with Secondary School Pupils and Experts, of Holiday and Out of School Provision, Defeyter, G. (Principal Investigator), Yee, J. (Co Investigator), Mayor’s fund for London, £19,994.00
Northumberland - HAF Plus – Co-designing a HAF Plus Service Blueprint and Policy, with Secondary School Pupils and Experts, of Holiday and Out of School Provision, Defeyter, G. (Principal Investigator), Yee, J. (Co Investigator), Northumberland County Council, £19,998.00
Women's leadership in designing social innovation: mutual learning in the Asia-Pacific, Yee, J. (Principal Investigator), Arts & Humanities Research Council, 01/11/21 - 31/01/23, £135,450.00
Developing Community-led Evaluative Practicest at the Young Foundation, Yee, J. (Principal Investigator), Young Foundation, 01/07/20 - 31/12/20, £4,150.00
Creative and Cultural Districts in Thailand, Yee, J. (Principal Investigator), British Council, 29/08/19 - 28/02/20, £39,723.00
CLEAR (Cambodian Leadership Excellence and Responsibility), Yee, J. (Principal Investigator), Impact Hub Phnom Penh, 01/07/18 - 31/01/19, £4,033.00
Design for Social Innovation Research Network: Bridging the UK and Asia-Pacific Practices, Yee, J. (Principal Investigator), Arts & Humanities Research Council, 01/04/16 - 31/03/17, 0.00
Valuing Design from Multiple Perspectives, Yee, J. (Principal Investigator), Arts & Humanities Research Council, 03/03/14 - 02/09/14, £46,780.00

Professional Activity

Please visit the Pure Research Information Portal for further information
Examination: PhD Examination (Internal) 2023
Other: Adjunct Professor (Taylor's University, Malaysia) 2022
Other: Adjunct Professor (RMIT, Australia) 2019
Other: Programme External Examiner (Kingston University, UK) 2017
Other: Programme External Examiner (Royal College of Art, UK) 2017
Other: Programme External Examiner (University of South Wales, UK) 2016
Other: Programme External Examiner (Ballyfermot College of Further Education) 2012
Other: Programme External Examiner (Dundee University, UK) 2012

PGR Supervision

Viola Petrella The role and value of relationships in Design and Social Innovation: insights from Asia Pacific contexts Start Date: 01/10/2018 End Date: 07/03/2023
Anthony Forsyth The Design of Poetic Things Start Date: 12/11/2013 End Date: 18/11/2020
Kiersten Hay Growing Forward Together: Exploring the Design of Social Support Interventions alongside Women Living with HIV in the UK Start Date: 11/06/2020 End Date: 19/11/2022
Katie Hill Place in social design Surfacing and working with characteristics of place in social design Start Date: 18/01/2021
Sarah Kiden Explorations Towards Designing Trustworthy Internet of Things with Communities Start Date: 19/11/2020 End Date: 25/06/2024
Christopher Wilson Post-digital Letterpress Practice: Integrating Digital Manufacturing Tools with Letterpress Printing Start Date: 01/04/2014 End Date: 04/03/2023
David Parkinson Developing an Understanding of Storytelling at the Design Pitch: Relating Approach to Impact Start Date: 20/09/2010 End Date: 25/03/2015
Mark Green Design interventions: Revealing, initiating and sustaining communities of design practice within organisations Start Date: 23/03/2016 End Date: 10/11/2017
Cyril Tjahja Reorienting and Sustaining Design and Social Innovation: Insights from Asia-Pacific Practices Start Date: 01/10/2015 End Date: 04/03/2020

Qualifications

Design Studies PhD September 01 2003

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