Professor Karen Cham - embracing complexity in design

Karen is currently Professor of Digital Transformation Design at the University of Brighton; University Lead for the research theme ‘Connected Futures’ and Academic Lead of the Digital Catapult Centre Brighton (DCCB). She is a Women in Games Ambassador and with a background in experimental electronic arts, she has 24 years' experience designing human-centred experiences of next generation digital.

Her first website was 1994, touchscreen video narrative and live interactive game 1995, and machine intelligence project 1996. She won EU recognition for the micro-business model in 1997 and devised and established what is now Sprint0 at Evans Hunt Scott in 1998. Clients have included PlayStation, Diesel, ITV, Which?, Top Shop and EY. She has made work for iOS, Android, Windows, Cloud, Xbox, Playstation, Drones; digital audio and video, MIDI, haptics, holography, stereoscopy, AR, VR; she has used sensor tech, biometrics inc. eye tracking, facial recognition, EEG, EMG, GSR, computer vision, machine learning, predictive analytics, big data and automatic signal recognition, exploring neuromarketing and neurogaming, cognitive and sentient systems and AI.

Professor Karen Cham

Her research concerns design and complexity; in particular designing for Persuasion, Emotion and Trust (PET) and ethical singularities in IoT, robotics and immersive environments. Ten years ago, as part of the Complexity and Design Research Group in the 5* RAE rated Department of Design and Innovation at The Open University, she was invited to convene and chair an international symposium on Art and Complex Systems Science. The symposium was held in collaboration with Lighthouse and the University of Brighton, as part of the AHRC/EPSRC-funded Designing for the 21st Century research cluster "Embracing Complexity in Design".

This resulted in her book Chapter exploring the affordances of the image as a knowledge elicitation method as part of complexity theory. She has published over 100,000 words on the convergence of complexity and design in technological contexts for Intellect, Palgrave, BCS and IEEE.

Embracing Complexity in Design book cover

Inspiring others

As Associate Professor in The Design School, Kingston University, she wrote, won and led £250,000 worth of User Experience Design (UXD) Research and Development (R&D) design and build projects with commercial partners. Some projects were undertaken on a consultancy basis and others were funded by NESTA Digital R&D Fund and the AHRC's Creativeworks/London Fusion. She was the leading recipient from 38 partner institutions and featured in the Innovation Powerhouse Showcase.

She previously led a HEFCE-funded team on the digital transformation of postgraduate teaching, research and enterprise across four faculties in consultation with Sony Computer Entertainment Europe, Samsung Design Europe and Dreamworks. With R&D embedded in the curriculum students worked under Non Disclosure Agreements (NDAs) to Sony Worldwide 3D on Project Morpheus, which was later released to market as Sony VR; on biometric UX testing of Playstation pre-release games at SCEE London and for numerous SMEs. Alumni destinations included IBM, BSkyB, Framestore, Extra Mile Studios, Colossal Games and Criterion.

She is currently working on quantifiable cognitive UXD design patterns, and establishing a Catapult Data Privacy, Ethics and Nudge research lab. She is also co-leading their 5G Testbed SME innovation programme exploring next generation computing products and services that iterate the testbed itself, in collaboration with 5GIC at the University of Surrey as part of the UK Government's 5G Strategy.

Last year she was invited to speak on automation and digital economy alongside Tom Watson at the Labour Party Conference, and has recently joined a Foreign and Commonwealth Office business trip to India led by Baroness Rona Fairhead CBE, Minister for State for International Trade, to speak alongside the Chair of NHS England, the CEO of Jaguar Landrover and Creative Director of Framestore.