Professor, College of Design and Innovation, Tongji University

Brief Introduction

Haian Xue is a Professor of Design at Tongji D&I (College of Design and Innovation, Tongji University) in Shanghai. His research and pedagogical interests include wellbeing innovation and technologies, design for experience, emotion, mood, spirituality, harmony, alternative epistemology and methodology, and designers’ connoisseurship cultivation. His research work he has been published in prestigious design research journals, such as She Ji, Design Studies (pre-2023), and International Journal of Design, and CoDesign. He has served as a reviewer for numerous high-profile journals and conferences, such as Design Studies (pre-2023), CoDesign, International Journal of Design, the International Journal of Human-Computer Interaction, Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction, IASDR, DRS, CHI, and DIS. He holds a Doctor of Arts (the Finnish equivalent of PhD in Design) from Aalto University School of Arts, Design and Architecture. Before joining Tongji D&I, Haian had accumulated 17 years of design research and teaching experience in the Netherlands (TU Delft), Finland (Aalto University), the UK (Central Saint Martins and Coventry University) and the USA (Parsons School of Design). 

Research

Haian Xue’s research centers on design for experience and wellbeing innovation. His interests include emotion-driven design (EDD) and mood regulation by design, as well as alternative (artistic/humanistic) epistemologies and methodologies for design research. He also explores cultivating designers’ emotional connoisseurship in the age of AI. His research findings are published in leading design research journals such as She Ji, Design Studies, International Journal of Design, and CoDesign.

Academic and social Post

Founding Executive Committee Member, Experience Research Society (EXPRESSO), 2020–present

Founding Associate Editor, Advanced Design Research, 2020–present

Board Member, International Design & Emotion Society, 2020–2023

Reviewer for international journals and conferences, including:

- Design Studies (until 2023)

- CoDesign

- International Journal of Design

- International Journal of Human-Computer Interaction

- Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction

- Conferences: CHI, DIS, IASDR, DRS

Member of MSc Program Selection Committee, Faculty of Industrial Design Engineering, TU Delft, 2022–2025

Member of Education Quality Assurance Committee (OKIO), Faculty of Industrial Design Engineering, TU Delft, 2024–2025

Education Background

2010.01–2017.06  Doctor of Arts (Design), Aalto University, Finland

2008.09–2009.12  PhD in Design (transferred to Aalto University), Central Saint Martins College, University of the Arts London, UK

2006.09–2008.06  Master of Arts in Industrial Design, Beijing Institute of Technology, China

2002.09–2006.06  Bachelor of Engineering in Industrial Design, Beihang University (Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics), China

Work Experience

2025.04–present  Professor, College of Design and Innovation, Tongji University, China

2025.04–present  Guest Professor, Faculty of Industrial Design Engineering, Delft University of Technology (TU Delft), Netherlands

2021.05–2025.03  Assistant Professor (tenured since May 2023), Faculty of Industrial Design Engineering, TU Delft, Netherlands

2017.10–2020.10  Postdoctoral Researcher, Faculty of Industrial Design Engineering, TU Delft, Netherlands

2010.01–2017.06  Doctoral Researcher & Lecturer, School of Arts, Design and Architecture, Aalto University, Finland

2013.09–2014.09  Visiting Researcher, School of Art and Design, Coventry University, UK

2012.08–2012.12  Visiting Scholar, Parsons School of Design, The New School, New York, USA

Publications

[1] Xue, H., van Kooten, K., & Desmet, P. M. A. (2025). A consent for myself/ourselves: designing for responsible use of autoethnography. CoDesign, 1-17. https://doi.org/10.1080/15710882.2025.2456609 

[2] Xue, H., Desmet, P. M. A., & Yoon, J. (2024). On the Cultivation of Designers’ Emotional Connoisseurship (Part 2): A Pedagogical Initiative. She Ji: The Journal of Design, Economics, and Innovation, 10(2), 143-168. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sheji.2024.06.002 

[3] Xue, H., Desmet, P. M. A., & Yoon, J. (2024). On the Cultivation of Designers’ Emotional Connoisseurship (Part 1): A Theoretical Positioning. She Ji: The Journal of Design, Economics, and Innovation, 10(1), 9-31. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sheji.2024.03.001

[4] Xue, H., & van Kooten, K. (2023). Inside out: Addressing the “how” of data collection in experience design research applying introspective methods. Advanced Design Research, 1(2), 109-125. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijadr.2024.02.001 

[5] Peng, Z., Desmet, P. M. A., & Xue, H. (2023). Mood in Experience Design: A Scoping Review. She Ji: The Journal of Design, Economics, and Innovation, 9(3), 330-378. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sheji.2023.09.001

[6] Desmet, P. M. A., Xue, H., Xin, X., & Liu, W. (2023). Demystifying emotion for designers: A five-day course based on seven fundamental principles. Advanced Design Research, 1(1), 50-62. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijadr.2023.06.002

[7] Xue, H., Zheng, Q., & Desmet, P. M. A. (2023). Touchy-feely: A designerly exploration of haptic representations of three mood states. In D. De Sainz Molestina, L. Galluzzo, F. Rizzo, & D. Spallazzo (Eds.), IASDR 2023: Life-Changing Design. Milan, Italy. https://doi.org/10.21606/iasdr.2023.325 

[8] Eichenlaub, J. A., Huisman, G., & Xue, H. (2023). Exploring Extended Mind-Wandering Through an Interactive Haptic Fidget Object. In Proceedings of the 2023 ACM Designing Interactive Systems Conference (DIS '23) (pp. 2657–2671). New York, NY, USA: Association for Computing Machinery. https://doi.org/10.1145/3563657.3596084

[9] Lomas, J. D., & Xue, H. (2022). Harmony in design: A synthesis of literature from classical philosophy, the sciences, economics, and design. She Ji: The Journal of Design, Economics, and Innovation, 8(1), 5-64. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sheji.2022.01.001

[10] Xue, H., Desmet, P. M. A., & Fokkinga, S. F. (2020). Mood granularity for design: Introducing a holistic typology of 20 mood states. International Journal of Design, 14(1), 1-18. http://www.ijdesign.org/index.php/IJDesign/article/view/3578/891 

[11] Xue, H., & Desmet, P. M. A. (2019). Researcher introspection for experience-driven design. Design Studies, 63, 37-64. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.destud.2019.03.001

[12] Desmet, P. M. A., Xue, H., & Fokkinga, S. F. (2019). The Same Person Is Never the Same: Introducing Mood-Stimulated Thought/Action Tendencies for User-Centered Design. She Ji: The Journal of Design, Economics, and Innovation, 5(3), 167-187. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sheji.2019.07.001

ORCID link：https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2351-9070

Honors and Awards

[1] 2024  Nominee, Most Inspiring Educator, Faculty of Industrial Design Engineering, TU Delft

[2] 2022  Best Paper Award, International Conference on Applied Human Factors and Ergonomics (AHFE)

[3] 2020  Nominee, Best Paper Award (Design Studies, 2019)

Contact

Email: haianxue@tongji.edu.cn