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Dr Hena Ali

Profession

Course Leader, MA Service Design

College

London College of Communication

Person Type

Staff

Biography

Dr. Hena Ali is the Course Leader for MA Service Design at London College of Communication, UAL. She is a UK-based designer, researcher, academic, and journal reviewer. She is also a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and the Royal Society of Arts, London. She holds a practice-led doctorate in ‘Graphic Communication Design for Sustainable Social Innovation’ from Central Saints Martins, UAL.

Hena’s area of research and practice span areas such as communication for sustainability, service design innovation, and participatory design. Her expertise is contextual sense-making and designing customised projects that drive social transformation in culturally diverse contexts. She engages service design and participatory design practice as a primary tool to create social impact. Her research and academic practice include developing live projects that engage local London councils, academia, professionals, and students through co-creation projects. She also supervises MA Service Design projects and dissertations that tap into sustainable policy-making, health innovation, technology for social engagement, and design futures.

Hena is the first to hold a practice-led doctorate in Graphic Communication Design in Pakistan and is the first Pakistani doctoral graduate in the history of Central Saint Martins. She is an advisor on the board of studies at Indus Valley School of Art and Architecture and the advisory board of the International Journal of International Media and Communication, Pakistan.

In her professional practice, Hena is the principal innovation consultant at InfoBridge Global Ltd. InfoBridge is an indenting agency that provides product and systems solutions and trainings to a local and international clientele. Her role within the consultancy focuses on driving transformation by introducing market-competitive innovation and human-centred optimisation for service systems.

Hena is an experienced leadership panel expert and keynotes speaker for organisations such as Higher Education Academy, UK, British Council UK/Pakistan, Common Purpose UK, Mass Accelerator UK, SIL Labs, LUMS, Pakistan, and Faculty of Design, Slovenia. She has published in high-impact journals and has presented at international conferences.

Related area

View the MA Service Design course page.

Other resources

Selected Publications

Book Chapters:

Ali, H., & Shakeel, R. (2022). A virus that does not discriminate but a system that does: Gender [X] Pakistan. In COVID-19 Assemblages (pp. 155-163). Routledge India.

Panel Expert 2022

Practice Research in Social Design Symposium, 19-20 May 2022. Social Design Institute, UAL

Design for Sustainability/ Post Pandemic and Current World Challenges, 10^th May 2022. Fakelteta Za Desajn, Ljubljana, Slovenia

Justujo and Khoj Faculty Development Programme, a Collaborative Project by Indus Valley School of Art and Architecture & USAID 2021-2024

Academic Articles:

Ali, H. (2018). Visual fashion landscapes: Gender and class in Lollywood billboard advertising. International Journal of Fashion Studies, 5(2), 407-415.

Biagioli, M., Grimaldi, S., & Ali, H. (2018). Designer’s emotions in the design process. Design Research Society Conference. Limerick: Ireland

Ali, H. (2017). ‘Can Graphic Design Save Your Life? Exhibition Wellcome Collection 7 September 2017–14 January 2018. Communication Design, 5(1-2), 273-277.

Ali,H. Grimaldi,S. and Biagioli,M. (2017) Service Design pedagogy and effective student engagement: Generative Tools and Methods. The Design Journal, 20. ISSN 1756-3062

Ali, H. (2017) Rethinking design education in Pakistan: Design Institutions as sustainability incubators for innovation projects. Design Evolution. ISBN 978-969-9343-03-2

Ali, H. (2015). Graphic communication design practice for sustainable social advocacy in Pakistan: Co-developing contextually responsive communication design (GCD) methodologies in culturally diverse contexts (Doctoral dissertation, University of the Arts London).

Links

InfoBridge Global