Lorna Macdonald

Lorna Macdonald serves as a Lecturer - Teaching Focused and Director of Student Experience in the School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at the University of Queensland. She delivers courses at the intersection of design, technology, and humanity, with her interaction and technology interests leaning towards the tangible and physical. Macdonald's research focuses on location-based systems and reinventing the value of design frameworks for education. Her background in product and three-dimensional design has been applied to the technology arena, where she teaches design-related courses emphasizing an iterative, user-centred design process. She is involved in the human-centred computing team and contributes to projects exploring location-dependence and materials of participation.

Macdonald holds a Certificate IV of Assessment and Workplace Training from the Global Institute for Learning and Development, a Bachelor of Design Studies from Queensland College of Art, and a Bachelor (Honours) from The University of Queensland. Her research interests include design education—specifically the teaching and assessment of design and design process in a human-centred computing context—and developing and evaluating tools to support students-as-designers as they navigate unfamiliar design problems and contexts. She explores tangible and alternative interactions, leveraging the tactile and material experience in day-to-day interactions with technology. Her doctoral research focuses on the design of playful, location-dependent interactive experiences that utilize locative technologies in public spaces or privately owned locations to reveal hidden traces, augment the physical world, educate, and engender a sense of belonging. Key publications are 'Design guidance for location-based play: a review of research frameworks' (2020, co-authored with Ben Matthews and Stephen Viller, Design Research Society), 'Designing for Location Dependence - A Framework' (2017, The University of Queensland), 'The Pedagogical Practice of Locative Experience' (2006, co-authored with Ann Morrison, Ian MacColl, and Matthew Simpson, Leonardo Electronic Almanac), and 'Designing for Location-Dependence' (2005, Digital Arts and Culture Conference).