Andy Polaine

Current

• Forschungsdozent / Research Fellow & Lecturer at Hochschule Luzern
• Online Lecturer, COFA Online at University of New South Wales
• Writer and Journalist at Self-Employed

• Interaction & Experience Designer, User Insights Researcher at Self Employed

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Past

• Casual Lecturer at Hochschule Offenburg
• Gastprofessor Gestaltung medialer Umgebungen at Bauhaus University Weimar
• Senior Lecturer, Interactive Media at The University of New South Wales

• Head of School of Media Arts at The University of New South Wales
• Co-Founder at Thread (Sole Proprietorship)
• Interactive Director at Animal Logic
• Interactive concept designer/producer at Massive Interactive
• Producer, interactive designer and programmer at MCM Interactive
• Senior Creative Producer/Conceptual at Razorfish, UK
• Co-founder/Interaction Designer/Producer at Antirom
• Interactive Direction & Technical Researcher at CHBi
• Myelin Ltd. at Interactive Concept Designer / Developer / Producer
• Freelance Interactive Designer at 1st Call Interactive
• Freelance Sound Designer at TripMedia
• The Armchair Travel Company at Freelance Designer

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Education

• University of Technology, Sydney
• University of New South Wales
• University of Westminster

• Colchester Institute

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Recommended

12 people have recommended Andy

Connections

335 connections

Industry

Design

Websites

• My Website
• The Designer's Review of Books
• Twitter

Andy Polaine’s Summary

I have over 16 years experience in interaction and experience design ranging from small projects in the arts through to large corporate redesigns. Throughout this time I have been involved in higher education research, e-learning and global creative collaboration projects as well as commercial user insights research for service design projects.

Experience and interaction design is still part of what I offer my consulting clients, but these days I am more involved in service design-oriented projects, where I can blend my experience design, research and writing expertise.

Andy Polaine’s Specialties:

interaction design, experience design, research, online education, journalism, writing, service design, user insights research

Andy Polaine’s Experience

• Forschungsdozent / Research Fellow & Lecturer

  Hochschule Luzern

  (Higher Education industry)

  September 2009 — Present (4 months)

• Online Lecturer, COFA Online

  University of New South Wales

  (Educational Institution; 5001-10,000 employees; Higher Education industry)

  January 2007 — Present (3 years )

  Although I am no longer full-time at COFA in Sydney, I still teach online courses from here in Germany, specifically "Design, Interactivity and Emerging Media" and "Graphics and Contemporary Society". I am also part of the Omnium Research Group.

• Writer and Journalist

  Self-Employed

  (Writing and Editing industry)

  November 1999 — Present (10 years 2 months)

  I have worked as a freelance writer since 1999 and write a regular column for Desktop magazine in Australia as well as writing for Creative Review, Computer Arts and IdN. I have published over 160 articles as a freelance journalist ranging from design and new media to emerging cultural trends.
  
  As an academic I have written several refereed papers on interactivity, play and online education (e-learning). I maintain a popular blog at: http://www.polaine.com/playpen and am the Editor of The Designer's Review of Books: http://www.designersreviewofbooks.com

• Interaction & Experience Designer, User Insights Researcher

  Self Employed

  (Design industry)

  July 1994 — Present (15 years 6 months)

  I have over 15 years experience working in interactive media - the name of what I do has changed over the years from interaction design to experience design, but the essence of creating engaging experiences for end users remains the same. I work across a range of projects and roles including interaction & experience design, user insights research for service design.

• Casual Lecturer

  Hochschule Offenburg

  (Higher Education industry)

  September 2007 — June 2009 (1 year 10 months)

  I'm a casual lecturer on the Media and Communications at the University of Applied Sciences, Offenburg. (Masters Medien und Kommunikation, Hochschule Offenburg in the faculty of Media and Information Systems (Medien und Informationswesen). I teaching Multimedia Authoring and Interfaces and Usability.

• Gastprofessor Gestaltung medialer Umgebungen

  Bauhaus University Weimar

  (Educational Institution; 5001-10,000 employees; Higher Education industry)

  October 2006 — March 2007 (6 months)

  Guest Professor in Gestaltung medialer Umgebungen at the Bauhaus University in Weimar. This roughly translates to "design for mediated environments". You can find out more here: http://www.polaine.com/bauhaus

• Senior Lecturer, Interactive Media

  The University of New South Wales

  (Educational Institution; 10,001 or more employees; Higher Education industry)

  October 2001 — December 2006 (5 years 3 months)

  Senior Lecturer in Interactive Media at the College of Fine Arts and, previously, Head of the School of Media Arts (see position posted below this). I have developed many courses and curricula at undergraduate and post-graduate level and taught interaction design, coding and writing as well as general creative mentoring.
  
  Additionally, I have written two completely online courses on The Language of Interactivity. I supervise a range of research students in both time-based media arts and digital media areas.
  
  I am the co-convener of The Omnium Creative Network, a non-profit, global network of creative people (students, professionals, educators, theorists, writers) collaborating together online in discussion (visual and textual) and projects concerned with issues relating to contemporary art & design in an ethical and social awareness context.
  
  URL: http://www.omnium.net.au

• Head of School of Media Arts

  The University of New South Wales

  (Educational Institution; 10,001 or more employees; Higher Education industry)

  January 2005 — March 2006 (1 year 3 months)

  As Head of School I was directly responsible for all staff in approximately 400 students under my care. I maintained control over the school’s budget and was a key member of the faculty’s senior
  management group. This included strategic decision making about the direction of the faculty, school and programme. (During this time I also maintained my usual teaching and research - see above position).

• Co-Founder

  Thread (Sole Proprietorship)

  (Sole Proprietorship; 1-10 employees; Design industry)

  January 2001 — January 2002 (1 year 1 month)

  Co-founder of the Thread collective. Thread was a cross-media group working in the fields of interactive media, music promos, animation, music and writing. The structure allowed for personal and commercial work side-by-side.
  
  Clients included the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, FoxTel, zspace and IBM.

• Interactive Director

  Animal Logic

  (Privately Held; 51-200 employees; Design industry)

  February 2000 — May 2001 (1 year 4 months)

  Interactive Director and senior member of the Animal Logic Design team. Responsible for setting up and heading the interactive department, AL-Play, at Animal Logic, Australia's premier post-production company. The department undertook a broad range of work within a variety of interactive media and my role was to direct the creative and conceptual output of the team. This included projects for clients such as the Art Gallery of New South Wales and film director, Alex Proyas.

• Interactive concept designer/producer

  Massive Interactive

  (Public Company; 11-50 employees; Design industry)

  November 1999 — December 1999 (2 months)

  Conceptual interactive design consultant. Liaised with client, researched and scoped strategic ideas for a large Australian financial institution's online share-trading service (Macquarie Bank).

• Producer, interactive designer and programmer

  MCM Interactive

  (Design industry)

  November 1999 — December 1999 (2 months)

  This freelance project involved liaising with one of Australia's largest property developers, the Lend Lease Corporation, and building interactive presentations and tools for a major multi-million dollar project pitch.

• Senior Creative Producer/Conceptual

  Razorfish, UK

  (Public Company; 501-1000 employees; Design industry)

  January 1999 — September 1999 (9 months)

  Senior Creative Producer/Concept on a complete web overhaul for National Westminster bank, the largest retail bank in the UK. The role involved directing a team of around 25 people with a budget of over £1m. Also producer/architect of a micro-payment system prototype for NatWest's special projects division.

• Co-founder/Interaction Designer/Producer

  Antirom

  (Partnership; 11-50 employees; Design industry)

  February 1994 — January 1999 (5 years )

  Co-founder of the award-winning interactive media collective, Antirom. Antirom was born out of a New Collaborations grant from the Arts Council of Great Britain and my work ranged from interactive research, design, production and creative direction as well as co-managing the business and clients such as Levi Strauss and Co.,BBC, Toyota, The Science Museum,
  MTV, Channel 4 and Guinness.
  
  Constantly striving to push the boundaries of interactive media Antirom comfortably crossed the artistic and commercial worlds placing as much emphasis on personal work as commercial. Antirom has won a number of awards including a D&AD Silver Pencil for the Levi’s Interactive kiosk. Antirom has gained international press and industry recognition and its members have
  written, lectured, performed and exhibited around the world.

• Interactive Direction & Technical Researcher

  CHBi

  (Privately Held; 11-50 employees; Online Media industry)

  1995 — 1995 (less than a year)

  Interactive Director & Technical Researcher for X-Change ISDN networked video-linked dating game project.

• Myelin Ltd.

  Interactive Concept Designer / Developer / Producer

  (Privately Held; 1-10 employees; Design industry)

  December 1994 — July 1995 (8 months)

  Interactive Concept Designer / Developer / Producer on several CD-ROM projects. Also consultant for Tank Girl PC Game.

• Freelance Interactive Designer

  1st Call Interactive

  (Privately Held; 1-10 employees; Design industry)

  June 1994 — December 1994 (7 months)

  Interactive Designer, Guide to Hong Kong CD-ROM.

• Freelance Sound Designer

  TripMedia

  (Privately Held; 11-50 employees; Design industry)

  July 1994 — August 1994 (2 months)

  Sound Designer 'Burncycle' CD-i project.

• The Armchair Travel Company

  Freelance Designer

  (Privately Held; 1-10 employees; Design industry)

  June 1994 — August 1994 (3 months)

  Designer, 'Mystery at Awkward Manor' CD-ROM.

Andy Polaine’s Education

• University of Technology, Sydney

  PhD , Interactive Media , 2004 — 2009

  Currently a part-time PhD research student. Thesis title: Developing a language of
  interactivity through the theory of play.

• University of New South Wales

  GradCert , University Learning and Teaching , 2003 — 2004

  Whilst I was teaching at the College of Fine Arts, UNSW I also undertook a Graduate Certificate in University Learning and Teaching. (After all, universities are one of the few places you can teach without having any teaching qualifications - I wanted to know what I was doing).

• University of Westminster

  BA (Hons) , Contemporary Media Practice , 1991 — 1994

  Contemporary Media Practice was the new name for the Photography, Film and Video course when our year arrived as it was the first year to work with digital and interactive media. I specialised (majored) in interactive media and gained a First Class Honours. It was here that many of the members of Antirom met each other.

• Colchester Institute

  NDip , Art and Design Foundation , 1989 — 1990

Additional Information

Andy Polaine’s Websites:

• My Website
• The Designer's Review of Books
• Twitter

Andy Polaine’s Interests:

Interaction design, service design, writing, Iyengar Yoga, blogging (of course), play, interactive media, writing, storytelling, photography, languages (German), music (I play the tenor sax, flute and occasionally piano).

Andy Polaine’s Groups:

BKS Iyengar Yoga Association Australia, The Omnium Creative Network, IxDA

•    Art Directors Club
•    Interaction Design Association
•    Boxes and Arrows
•    UX Professionals
•    University of Westminster Alumni Association
•    User Experience
•    International Service Design Network
•    D&AD
•    Johnny Holland
•    .DIGITAL .EXCHANGE
•    Morgan Kaufmann
•    Service Design Network
•    Service Design Education

Andy Polaine’s Honors:

Notable Activities/Honours
2009 Interactive Jury member for the Art Directors Club Awards
2008 Editorial Board Member, Fibreculture Journal
2007 Presenter, Flash on the Beach
2007 Jury member, Webcuts 2007, Germany
2006 Conference referee, Engage, UTS, Sydney
2006 Co-convener, The Omnium Creative Network
2005 Special Guest lecturer for Creative Waves: ICOGRADA & The Omnium Project.
2005 Conference referee, IE2005, UTS, Sydney.
2004 11th AIMIA Awards judging panel
2004 Guest Professor, Tainan National College of the Arts, Taiwan
2003 Conference referee, Create.ed Conference, RMIT
1999 AWARD Awards judge, Australia

Awards & Grants:
2004 UNSW Postgraduate Coursework Learning and Teaching Award
2004 COFA Online Fellowship
2004 UNSW Faculty Research Grant
1997 D&AD Silver Pencil winner
1994 New Collaborations grant - The Arts Council of Britain, UK.

Andy Polaine’s Contact Settings

Interested In:

• career opportunities
• consulting offers
• new ventures
• job inquiries
• expertise requests
• reference requests
• getting back in touch