Chris is an award-winning people-centred designer, researcher and writer with over fifteen years of experience on a broad range of projects in inclusive design, which have been successfully commercialised, exhibited and disseminated internationally.
Chris is a Senior Research Fellow at the Helen Hamlyn Centre for Design (HHCD) where he leads the Age & Diversity Research space. He is a graduate of Strathclyde University where he completed a Masters degree in Product Design Engineering, receiving the Outstanding Team Design Award from The Society of Design Engineers. He then went on to study at the Royal College of Art/Imperial College where he completed a Masters degree in Innovation Design Engineering, receiving the Anthea & Thomas Gibson Scholarship for two consecutive years. After a year working freelance in concept development and communication for brands such as Becks and One Little Indian, Chris joined the Helen Hamlyn Centre for Design as a Research Associate in 2004, working on numerous user-focused projects for a broad range of industry clients.
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Practice
Chris is an award-winning people-centred designer, researcher and writer having worked in the field of inclusive design for over 15 years on a broad range of projects, which have been successfully commercialised, exhibited and disseminated internationally. His research interests explore inclusive design, progressing design ethnography and the role of empathy towards creating people-centred design proposals that improve lives. He was research lead of several highly successful, high-profile collaborative projects, such as ‘Design Bugs Out’ with PearsonLloyd and Kirkton Healthcare, which was tendered by the Design Council and funded by the Department of Health. The resulting award-winning hospital commode redesign is widely used in the UK and Europe, and features in the permanent collection of the Design Museum. At the Centre he has lead the research-to-design translation on a range of projects that include: medication packaging to address compliance issues with GlaxoSmithKline; cooker redesigns with a focus on the elderly for Osaka Gas, Japan; domestic lighting design for people with low vision, for the Thomas Pocklington Trust; landscape design for adults with Autism for the Kingwood Trust; and community connection projects for BlackBerry.
Chris is a principle researcher/designer on a range of projects, and leads on all ‘age and diversity’ projects for a host of major global private, public and third sector companies. He was instrumental in developing the proposal for the new Design Age Institute (DAI), where he has a role linking work between HHCD research and DAI implementation.
Research
In 2008 Chris undertook a full-time EPSRC funded PhD in Design Research at Brunel University, which focused on designers use of information and empathy to support people-centred design. Whilst at Brunel he was a founding member the Inclusive Design Research Group (IDRG) and the Design Research Society’s Special Interest Group (SIG) for Inclusive Design. Upon completion of his PhD he was awarded The Human Centred Design Research Prize, from the Human Centred Design Institute; and The Hamilton Prize for Best Thesis in Design Research.
Chris has led the research aspect of several highly successful collaborative interdisciplinary projects such as ‘Design a Safer Pint Glass’ for the Design Council/Department of Health that looked to reduce the impact of glass injuries in alcohol-related violence; and the New London Taxi, a collaboration with Turkey based Hexagon and Karsan, to redesign a ‘hyper-inclusive’ vehicle for the streets of London.
He is currently PI on the Knowledge Transfer Partnership project, PALLS (Pioneering Architecture for Later Life Sector); and Wellcome’s £1M interdisciplinary project Heart n Soul at The Hub which explores new and exciting ways of working and collaborating by bringing together people, with and without learning disabilities. In addition to being C o-I on projects such as Remote Extra Clinical Monitoring of ADHD In the NHS (REMAIN) with Kings College, London.
Publications, exhibitions, other outcomes
Books
Gheerawo, R., McGinley, C. and Gorzaneli C. (2014) ‘Inventory: 7 years | 7 projects. Collaborative work from BlackBerry and the Helen Hamlyn Centre for Design at The Royal College of Art’, Helen Hamlyn Centre for Design, Royal College of Art, London
McGinley, C. (2012) Supporting people-centred design through information and empathy. PHd Thesis. Brunel University
McGinley, C. and Gaudion, K. (2012) ‘Green Spaces: Exploring outdoor environments for adults with autism’. Helen Hamlyn Centre for Design, Royal College of Art, London
McGinley, C. and Till, C. (2010).'Design Out Crime: Using design to reduce injuries from alcohol related violence in pubs and clubs', Design Council. Online publication
Book Chapters
Gheerawo, R., and McGinley, C (2015). ‘Communities and communication: Socially Inclusive Design Across the Age Spectrum’. Ageing, Ingenuity & Design: International Cases Collection. Lee, Y. and Moore, P. (eds). Hong Kong Design Institute
McGinley, C. and Dong, H. (2009). 'Accessing user information for use in design', In Stephanidis, C. (Ed). Universal Access in HCI, Part 1, HCII2009, LNCC 5614. Heidelberg: Springer Berlin, pp 116-125
Peer-reviewed Journals
Lowe, C., Gaudion, K., McGinley, C. Kew, A. (2014) ‘Designing living environments with adults with autism’, Tizard Learning Disability Review, Vol. 19 Issue: 2, pp. 63-72
Dong, H., McGinley, C., Nickpour, F., Cifter, A. (2013) ‘Designing for designers: Insights into the knowledge users of inclusive design’, Applied ergonomics
McGinley, C., and Macredie R (2011) 'Towards Diversity and Empathy in Design Development', In Zoontechnica: The Journal of Redirective Design, Volume 1, Number 1, November 2011
McGinley, C., and Dong, H. (2011) 'Designing with information and empathy: delivering human information to designers', in The Design Journal, Volume 14, Number 2, June 2011, pp. 187-206(20)
Conference Proceedings
Renel, W., McGinley, C., Aktu, A., Ogogo, B., Degia, C., Habibur, R., Steward, R., and Fryer, T. (2020) ‘The Wall of Change: Inclusive Futures Designed by People with Learning Disabilities and Autistic People’, In Christer K. Craig C. and Chamberlain P., eds. 2020. Proceedings of the 6th European Conference on Design4Health, 1st-3rd July 2020. Amsterdam
Salisbury, L., McGinley, C. and Gheerawo, R. (2019) ‘Wearing Your Recovery: 3.0.’ Design Research for Change (DR4C) 2019 Symposium, Design Museum, London
McGinley, C., Gheerawo, R., Salnot, F. (2018) ‘Approaches for Capturing and Communicating Individual Narrative Timelines Reflecting Real Life (Retirement).’ Design Research Society, University of Limerick, Ireland
Neagu, E., Raby, E., McGinley, C. (2017) ‘Stigma and the weight it carries when establishing a user experience Strategy: User research discoveries around mobility related issues.’ Design4Health Melbourne, Australia
Neagu, E., Raby, E., McGinley, C. (2017) ‘Empowering People with Osteoarthritis to Find Products and Tips Through a Digital System of Information Finding’. EuroIA 2017, Stockholm, Sweden
Grover, S., Atkin, R. & McGinley, C. (2015), `Certainty as a Provocation: The design and analysis of 2 Quant-Qual tool dyads for a qualified self technology project' at Research Through Design, Cambridge, March 2015
McGinley, C. (2014) ‘Digital propositions co-created through cultural and community engagement: The HHCD BB Student Programme’. Creative Citizens Conference, Royal College of Art, UK
McGinley, C. (2014) 'Designing Materials for Engagement and Insight: Findings from the AKTIVE project'. AKTIVE Conference, University of Leeds, UK
McGinley, C., Gheerawo, R., Toriumi, K., Furetta, A., and Hsu. S. (2014) 'Designing with Community: The Designers Role in Innovative Local Travel Service Co-creation'. The 5th International Conference for Universal Design, Tokyo
Yeandle, S., Buckle, P., Fry, G., Hamblin, K., Koivunen, E.-R. and McGinley, C. (2014) 'The AKTIVE project's social, design and prospective hazard research: research methods'. University of Leeds, UK
McGinley, C., Dong, H. & Macredie, R. (2013) ‘Exploring the potential of people-based information and empathy resources with professional designers.’ IASDR 2013, Shibaura Institute of Technology, Tokyo, Japan
McGinley, C., and Dong, H. (2010) 'Co-design insights: workshop with designers and the public' The 3rd Universal Design Conference, Hamamatsu, Japan, 30 October-3 November
McGinley, C., Macredie, R. and Dong, H. (2010). 'Probing for Insight: developing human information resources', Include 2011, London, UK, 18-20 April
McGinley, C., Bound, J. and Dong, H. (2010). 'Contextualising data for design' CWUAAT 2010, Fitzwilliam College, 22-25 March 2010, Cambridge, UK
McGinley, C., and Dong, H. (2009) 'Design Bugs Out: a real world investigation of hospital bedside chairs and commodes'. The 17th World Congress on Ergonomics (IEA'09), 9-14 August 2009, Beijing, China
McGinley, C., (2009) 'The collection, communication and inclusion of user data in design', Research Student Conference, ReSCon09, School of Engineering & Design, Brunel University, London, UK 22-24 June
McGinley, C., Gheerawo R, Slater A (2008). 'Enlightened: Designing domestic lighting for older people', International Federation of Ageing 9th Global Conference 'Ageing & Design' Montreal, Canada pp 4-7, September
McGinley, C., Gheerawo R, Matsunami H (2006). 'Inclusive Konro - Improving Kitchen Stoves in Japan', The 2nd International Conference for Universal Design, Kyoto, Japan pp 22-26, October
Articles and Reports
Gaudion, K. McGinley, C. and Myerson, J. (2014) 'Artworks I like: Exploring Artwork Preferences with Autistic People'. [online] http://www.paintingsinhospitals.org.uk/downloads/artworks-i-like_exploring-artwork-preferences-with-autistic-people_2014.pdf [accessed 11 November 2014].
Yeandle, S., Buckle, P., Fry, G., Hamblin, K., Koivunen, E.-R. and McGinley, C. (2014) 'The AKTIVE project’s social, design and prospective hazard research: research methods' AKTIVE Research Report Vol.3, Leeds, CIRCLE, University of Leeds
McGinley, C., Gheerawo, R. and Salnot, F. (2014). ‘Retirement Tales’. Nesta
McGinley, C., Gheerawo, R. and Salnot, F. (2013) 'Retirement Tales'. Technical Report. The Helen Hamlyn Centre for Design, Royal College of Art
McGinley, C. & Gaudion, K. (2013) ‘Outdoor environments for adults with autism’, World Health Design, January
McGinley C (2010) 'Bridging the 'human information' gap between professional designers and those they design for'. Inclusive Design Research in Action, in Design for All newsletter special issue 5(6), Design for All Institute India, pp19-27, June
Keynotes and Invited Presentations
McGinley, C. (2019) ‘Design as a tool to engage citizens and communities towards innovation’, Biennale Internationale Design Saint-Etienne, France. April 2019
McGinley, C. and West, J. (2019) ‘Inclusive Health’. Include 2019, Detroit, USA. July 2019
McGinley, C (2018) ‘Inclusive design: an approach to improving lives’, Senior Citizens Lab International Sharing Conference (supported by The British Council), Taipei, Taiwan. October 2018
McGinley, C. (2018) ‘What Should a Neighbourhood of the Future Look Like’, Agile Ageing Alliance Annual Conference, London, May 2018
McGinley, C. (2018) ‘Future needs inspired through inclusive design approaches.’ Global Disability Innovation (GDI) Hub Hack, London, February 2018
McGinley, C. (2018) ‘Empathy and Design Thinking.’ Wellcome, London, February 2018
McGinley, C. (2018) ‘ People-Centred Research and Design.’ Central Saint Martins, London, January 2018
McGinley, C. (2017) Empathy Approaches for Design Thinking, Design Thinking Deep Dive, Russia, 5 July 2017
McGinley, C. (2017) Connecting Communities Through Design, Include 2017, Knowledge of Design Week, Hong Kong, 12-16 June 2017
McGinley, C. (2016) Engaging Diverse Partners in the Design Process, Construction Industry Summit: Fit for an Inclusive Future, London, 21 September 2016
McGinley, C. (2016) Ageing, Diversity and Design: Exploring 10 Principles, The Age of No Retirement’s Festival of Age Disruption, London, 30 September 2016
McGinley, C. (2016) Designing for Inclusive Living, Kitchen Design Residential Weekend, Bucks New University, 14 October 2016
McGinley, C. (2016) Design Thinking for Innovation in Healthcare, Design Thinking Workshop, Health Foundation, 6-10 March 2017
McGinley, C. (2015) `Challenging Interventions: Empathy and people centred approaches'. at International Society of Behavioural Nutrition and Physical Activity Satellite, University of St Andrews, Fife, 7 June 2015
McGinley, C. (2015) `Designs For Life'. at Long Term Care Revolution Live, NatWest Headquarters, London, 13 May 2015
McGinley, C. (2015) `Empathy: Understanding the messiness of everyday life.' at Rising Minds, Shoreditch House, London, 19 February 2015
McGinley, C. (2014) `Design, Care and Home', at Kyushu University, Japan, 15 December 2014
McGinley, C. (2014) `Ethical Design: An inclusive research and design perspective', at Royal College of Art, London, 5 December 2014
McGinley, C. (2014) `Designing for Real Life'. At Visa Europe Design Jam, at Royal College of Art, London, 6 February 2014
McGinley, C. (2014) 'Redesigning Retirement'. Dirty Rotten Socials: Design Like you Give a Damn, London, UK
McGinley, C. (2014) ‘Design and Care Homes’. Care Homes Workshop: Kyushu University, Fukuoka, Japan
McGinley, C. (2014) ‘People Centred Design: A Designer/Design Researcher Perspective’. University of Brighton, UK
McGinley, C. (2014) ‘People Centred Design Research Case Study: Safe Ways In Glass’. University of Brighton, UK
McGinley, C. (2014) ‘Human Centred Design: Principles and Practice’. Imperial College, UK
McGinley, C., (2014). ‘Designing Materials for Engagement and Insight’ Aktive Conference - Technology, Care and Ageing: Enhancing Independence, Leeds, April 2014
McGinley, C. Dong, H. & Macredie, R. (2013) ‘Exploring the potential of people-based information and empathy resources with professional designers.’ IASDR 2013, Shibaura Institute of Technology, Tokyo, Japan
McGinley, C. (2013) ‘Designing for Later Years’, Add Healthy Years to Longer Lives Conference, London
McGinley, C. (2013) ‘People centred approaches: route to information, insight and inspiration.’ Telecare and Independent Ageing Conference, London
External collaborations
Scientific Committees/Expert Panels:
Chris sits on a wide variety of scientific committees and expert panels based around inclusion, design and innovation, a selection are listed below:
- AXA PPP Awards
- BSI PAS 6463, Design for the Mind
- COST Action CA15122
- Global Disability Innovation Hub
- International Association of Universal Design, Japan
Reviewer (all ongoing):
- Advanced Human Factors and Ergonomics (AHFE)
- Applied Ergonomics
- Cambridge Workshop on Universal Access and Assistive Technology (CWUAAT)
- Design Research Society (DRS)
- Designing Interactive Systems (DIS)
- European Academy of Design (EAD)
- Include
- International Association of Design Research Societies (IADRS)
- Journal of Engineering Design
- Journal of Policy and Practice in Intellectual Disabilities
- Routledge
- Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) Publishers
- Wolfson Trust
Visiting Lecturer:
- Brighton University
- Brunel University
- Bucks New University
- Central Saint Martins
- Imperial College
- Kyushu University
- Royal College of Art
Examiner:
- Royal College of Art (Internal - MA, PhD)
- Strathclyde University (PhD)
- Duncan Jordanstone College of Art and Design (BA/BEng)