The Glasgow School of Art

Stuart combines science, technology and design practices together into one multidisciplinary design approach. Graduating in 1978 from the University of Glasgow with a degree in Natural Philosophy, or Physics as we call it now, Stuart worked in design and development in communications and aerospace. Later, craving a more human-centred design approach, he returned to Glasgow in 1989 to study Product Design at GSA, graduating in 1992. Stuart then practised as a designer, opening his own studio in 1998 in Tradeston, Glasgow.

Having been a visiting tutor since 1996, Stuart joined the School of Design teaching staff full-time in 2006; teaching design to product design and product design engineering students within the widening technological, social and cultural context of product service systems and across both undergraduate and postgraduate programmes.

Stuart’s research practice within GSA considers complementary areas within service design: the investigation of how organisations engage with design processes to innovate products and services; and the roles and contributions of non-design-trained service designers in relation to those who are design-trained. His research investigates the role of the designer and the act of designing within organisations. In particular, the work looks into how design visualization and design narrative enables innovation and implementation within an organisation by facilitating collaboration and enabling shared decision making.

An application of this research has been evidenced through Stuart’s collaboration with NHS Ayrshire & Arran. The outcomes of the project involving year 3 product design students were discussed in the presentation “Innovating Patient Care: a human-centred design approach,” presented at the Transformation Through Open Innovation event at Queen Elizabeth Hospital Campus Teaching Learning Centre, Glasgow, December 2015 - an event organised by NHS Scotland and Scottish Enterprise’s Open Innovation Programme.

Stuart presents at conferences and workshops internationally. His research and writings have contributed to service design and service thinking within an organisational context. Stuart delivered a workshop on “applying design thinking and methods to services” at ServDes 2009 in Oslo, a Case paper at ServDes 2010 in Linköping and presented conference papers at ServDes 2012 and EAD2013, and co-presented ‘Embedding Design in the Public Sector; changing our thinking” with Sarah Drummond of Snook at SDN Global Conference 2011 in San Francisco. Stuart has also worked with GSA’s international partner institutions at KISD, Cologne; Audencia, Nantes; Chiba University, Japan and Ambedkar University Delhi, India.

During the period 2012 to 2014, as a member of the Service Design Research UK advisory board Stuart was a core research network participant and his work with Daniella Sangiorgi and Alison Prendiville on the SDR UK network led to a subsequent collaboration with Sabine Junginer on ‘Designing vs Designers’ in Designing for Service, Bloomsbury, 2017.

Stuart’s research-teaching linkages is evidenced in his undergrad and postgrad teaching through projects where students are encouraged to see their design practice in the context of design narratives and how this benefits their design process and communication; a creative dialogue with themselves, colleagues, clients, organisations, producers, manufactures and public audiences.