I hold an academic post as Assistant Professor of Digital Design and Innovation at Heriot-Watt University. My responsibilities include leading the development of the Digital Design discipline area and contributing to the merits of the University’s teaching and research agendas, philosophy and strategies.

I graduated from the University of Edinburgh in 2018, and was awarded a PhD in Immersive Experience Design by University of Leeds in 2022, funded by School of Design Postgraduate Research Scholarship. My areas of interest are Colour design, Immersive and transformative experience design, Data-driven design/storytelling, Digital Enterprise, and Neuro design. My research is widely appreciated in the field of Digital Design for its strong interdisciplinarity. I have built collaborations with various industrial partners and my design products have been applied in numerous fields such as healthcare, education, business, fashion, and engineering. 

I am a Review Editor for Frontiers in Imaging (Imaging Application), a member of InterAct Peer Review College (Made Smarter Innovation funded, lead by Economic and Social Research Council), and a regular reviewer for many prestigious publishers, including Sage (Lighting Research and Technology), Routledge (Taylor & Francis) (The Design Journal), MDPI (International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health), Wiley (Color Research and Application) and Springer (SN Computer Science). I'm also a Fellow of Royal Society for Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (FRSA).

I welcome motivated PGR students, Visiting Academic/Research Fellows in the following areas. Please kindly send me an email (g.xia@hw.ac.uk) should you find my research interesting. 

Research interests:
Colour Design: Exploring and extending the design potential of colour and light in product design, interior design, cognition, and mental health & wellbeing. (Keywords: colour emotion, colour preference, colour harmony, colour meaning, and colour forecasting)

Immersive and Transformative experience design (VR/AR/MR): Avatar, wellbeing, aversion therapy, wearable healthcare technology, automobile, metaverse, and digital education.

Data-driven design: A decision-making approach to the design process that relies on understanding or collecting data about people’s behaviour and attitudes. (Keywords: design for sustainability, big data, machine learning, Artificial Intelligence, Internet of things).

Data-driven storytelling: Developing innovative structured approaches for communicating data insights through data visualiztions, inforgraphics, and other visual elements.

Course Leader for:

E11DG - Digital Design Innovation Lab

E11CP - Creative Programming

E11DN - Digital Enterprise Lab

E11UX - User Experience Design

E11FI - Final Project (from Sept 2021 to Aug 2022)

BA (Honours)/MA/MSc/PhD Supervisor

External appoinment:

Review Editor for Frontiers in Imaging

Reviewer for InterAct Commissioned Research Programme

Research Supervision:

C. Lin, PhD, 2023.05 - current - Immersive learning experience design (Primary Supervisor)

Z. Xu, PhD, 2022.05 - current - Holographic experience design (Second supervisor)

Visiting Academic Scholar(s):

Project: Virtual Reality (VR) as a means of embracing craft heritage values contemporary fashion design

Y. Wang, Associate Professor of Print Art, Harbin Normal University, China. (2023.03 -2024.03)

H. Yu, Associate Professor of Lacquer Painting, Harbin Normal University, China; Collaborate with Dr Phil Henry from University of Leeds (2023.05 -2024.05) (External)