Professor Janet Mcdonnell
Title
College
Central Saint Martins
Email address
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Researcher Research
Biography
McDonnell was originally educated in engineering at Imperial College London. She practiced as a chartered engineer designing engineering information systems, before holding a series of academic posts in departments of Computer Science. She joined CSM in 2006. She holds a PhD for work on elicitation and computer modelling of design knowledge. For the last 25 years she has published research in information and knowledge representation, design expertise, expertise acquisition, and empirical studies of collaboration in design practice. She is the editor-in-chief of the journal CoDesign.McDonnell's research interests are in studying design and other kinds of creative practice in natural settings where many competing pressures are at play. The focus of work is on bringing practices to notice: making practices ‘visible’ e.g. the methods in use, the decision-making behaviour, how ideas get introduced and established, the informational bases (sources, uses and quality) that individuals and groups rely on, and the influences of assumptions and norms. The overarching themes uniting different studies are an interest in supporting critical, reflective design practice, enabling user engagement in design, and understanding how effective collaboration occurs. She is currently working on a series of studies of long term creative collaborative practice.