Prof. Chris Speed

If informatics is the study of the flow of information, then design should be the design and study of the flow of value.

Chris Speed is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh and Chair of Design Informatics at the University of Edinburgh, where he collaborates with various partners to explore how design provides methods to adapt and create products and services within a networked society. He especially favours transgressive design interventions to help identify and promote the values we care about most. These may include coffee machines that order their ethical supplies, hairdryers that ask you to wait for the right time to blow dry your locks, and apps for sham marriages. Chris co-directs the Institute for Design Informatics that is home to a combination of researchers working across the fields of design, social science, data science, and the PhD, MA/MFA, and MSc and Advanced MSc programmes. He has an established track record in directing large complex grants with industry partners that apply methods to challenges in the creative industries, banking, international development, and cultural heritage sectors.