Teaching & Speaking

Introducing non-human personas and biomimicry to students in a forest classroom

Politecnico Design School, Milan, Italy

In 2024, I was invited to assist Fabio di Liberto’s forest-based “Designing from a Plant’s Perspective” 5-day studio, teaching 40+ students about giving nature a voice with non-human personas and biomimicry. My engagement included:

• Helping refine the curriculum
• Presented my life-centred design framework and my LCD tools
• Guided students in the forest and classroom on incorporating non-human personas, biomimicry, and circular design into their projects
• Co-graded final presentations and submissions
• Created a documentary

Teaching my “More Than Human Milan” Design Studio

Politecnico Design School, Milan, Italy

In 2025, I was invited back to Politecnico to create and teach my own 5-day life-centred design studio to 40+ service, system, and communication design students from around the world. I guided the class to redesign Milan urban spaces to nurture both humans and urban wildlife.

Using my LCD Lab’s exclusive more-than-human design tools, the students explored how life-centred design and non-human personas could be used within educational and urban contexts to expand who cities are designed for. My engagement included:

• Designing and facilitating the 5-day curriculum
• Presented my life-centred design framework and my LCD tools
• Guiding students in the classroom, and out in the city, on incorporating non-human personas and circular design into their projects
• Co-grading final presentations and submissions
• Created a documentary

Teaching creatives non-human personas to support their UN Sustainable Development Goals projects

‘Design For Good’ Program, Royal College of Arts, London, UK

Design For Good, in conjunction with The Royal College of Art, London, invited me to teach a module on life-centred design and non-human personas in support of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). It was an honour to be invited along with other design heroes of mine, such as Don Norman and Daniel Christian Wahl. My engagement included:

• Presented my life-centred design framework and my LCD tools
• Guiding students on creating and innovating with non-human personas

“Life-centred Futures” Keynote Talk & Workshop for Climate Adaptation

‘Design For Good’ Program, Royal College of Arts, London, UK

To support the Australian state of New South Wales (NSW) to adapt to climate change, I as invited by Adapt NSW in 2023 to present a keynote talk to 140+ climate professionals on how life-centred design could support climate adaptation and mitigation, followed by facilitating a 2-hour non-human persona workshop.

• Present a 20 min keynote talk on life-centred design to 140+ climate professionals
• Designing & Facilitating my 2-hour More Than Human City workshop with non-human personas and futures thinking

Introducing LCD and Ecosystem mapping to school business partners and students

NOVA School of Business, Lisbon, Portugal

In 2024, I was invited by NOVA School of Business, in Lisbon, Portugal, to present and workshop life-centred design to the school’s innovation partners and its students. My engagement included:

• Presenting a 30 min talk on life-centred design to 40+ business professionals and students
• Designing & Facilitating my Ecosystem Mapping workshop to show organisations how to see the impacts of their product and business lifecycles, and how to innovate more planet-friendly solutions.

Presenting Life-centred Design to business design students

RMIT University, Australia

Invited by RMIT University, I shared my Life-centred Design framework with business design students to push the their design thinking beyond human-centred design to whole-life impacts.

Presenting Life-centred Design to a banking design lab

ING ReImagine Lab, Australia

Invited by ING ReImagine Lab, I shared my Life-centred Design framework with their designers and product owners to expand their approach beyond human-centred to life-centred.

Presenting Life-centred Design to service designers in Finland

Laurea University of Applied Sciences, Finland

Invited by Laurea University in Finland, I shared my Life-centred Design framework with service designers to expand their human-centred design to also include consideration of sustainable, environmental, and social implications.

Introducing LCD to students of responsible innovation

University of Sydney, Australia

I was invited by ‘The Responsible Design for Innovation’ course at The University of Sydney to introduce students to strategies for tackling complex problems with responsible, regenerative, and inclusive innovation, and creating and using non-human and non-user personas.

My engagement included:

• Presenting a 30 min talk on life-centred design to 40+ design students
• Designing & an online workshop for innovative data use from product lifecycles.
• Designing & an online workshop for using non-human personas in design.

Free workshops for global climate action programs

Climate Action Week & AlterCop30, Sydney Australia

With Dr Susie Pratt, Stephanie Bhim, and Samuel Yu, I co-hosted several free workshops for Climate Action Week & AlterCOP30, guiding participants through the use of Non-human Personas to redesign Sydney to support the needs of its urban wildlife.

Introducing future planet-friendlier product innovation to futurist students

ECHOS School of Design, Sydney, Australia

Guest lecturing a class for the ECHOS Designing Futures course, sharing my Rapid Future Product Design method, merging speculative design with life-centred product design. My engagement included:

• Designing my rapid future product innovation workshop to slot into Echos’ online course curriculum
• Facilitating the workshop

Designing life-centred future products with futurists from around the world

Speculative Futures Sydney Meet Up, Australia

In 2021 I was invited to facilitate my Future Scouting® game for the Speculative Futures Sydney Meetup with budding futurists from around the world. Future Scouting has since been played in the Netherlands, Pakistan, Singapore, Sri Lanka, and Australia, and it received a Notable Design Education Initiative Award in the Core 77 Design Awards 2021.

Introducing future thinking and speculative design to Vodafone designers to explore future connectivity needs

Vodafone, Australia

While working as a UX Designer for Vodafone Australia, I ran my Future Scouting workshop with UX designers, product owners, and copy writers. Using futuring methods, we explored potential connectivity needs of customers in various future scenarios impacted by climate change and the COVID pandemic and designed future products as provocations for longer-term thinking.

Presenting & Workshopping Sustainable UX and Ethical AI

Sustainable UX Network, Hamburg, Germany

Together with with Thorsten Jonas (Sustainable UX Network) and Sandy Dähnert (Green The Web), I co-hosted presentations and workshops about Sustainable UX and ethical AI with 40+ digital designers and innovators from around Europe.

Introducing Life-centred Digital Design to the WooliesX digital design team

WooliesX Design Team, Sydney, Australia

Invited by the WooliesX Design Team to share life-centred design, foresight and speculative design, I also take the designers through a workshop about connecting their design projects to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, and a ‘decentring’ exercise to use their privileges as design powers to help others through design choices.

Introducing Sustainable UX to digital designers at Telstra

Telstra Design Teams, Sydney, Australia

At Telstra, I’ve taken Sustainable UX directly to the designers making product decisions every day — UX, service, and UI designers — raising awareness of the energy use and carbon output that digital design choices create, and sharing practical ways to design products that are better for people, business, and the planet.

I’ve also given them access to my Sustainable UX Buddy tool, putting actionable solutions directly in their hands as they design.

Teaching UX Fundamentals online to new design students

Harness Projects, Sydney, Australia

I’ve taught UX Design & Research Fundamentals online for Harness Projects, mentoring up to 12 new design students over 3 months, as they learned the end-to-end UX process whilst working on projects with real-world companies. My work included:

• Preparing weekly slides
• Coordinating sessions with our real-world clients
• Facilitating weekly lessons and feedback sessions
• Providing one-on-one guidance
• Grading final submissions