Jo-Anne is a design anthropologist and Senior Research Fellow at the Helen Hamlyn Centre for Design, based at the Royal College of Art. She oversees the academic funded research at the centre. Her research has predominately focused on how users experience the built environment. However, she is also interested in the use of design Ethnography in practice based research and delivers the design ethnography training unit for LDoc and other RCA programmes.
Jo-Anne has led and worked on a number of people-centred design research projects, and regularly lectures on ethnographic practice for designers. Her ethnographic research has taken place in a range of environments from neuroscience labs, corporate offices and public toilets. She currently leads the HHCD’s Work and City research lab, coordinating a team of design researchers from architecture, innovation, product and communication design.
Jo-Anne holds a BSc in Social Anthropology from Goldsmiths College and a MSc in Science Communication from Imperial College London and a PhD from University College London. She has published numerous peer reviewed journal papers, conference papers, book chapters and has co-authored a number of books and design guides. Jo-Anne is currently seconded to the University of Brighton as a Professorial Fellow.