Dr Tang Tang

Profile

I am passionate about creating meaningful design solutions for better health and social sustainability. My research interests include design for behavioural change, experience design, design for health and wellbeing, cross-cultural design and transformation design. I have extensive experience in promoting sustainable behaviour through user-centred and participatory design. 

I hold a BEng and MSc in Industrial Design and I earned my PhD in Design for Sustainable Behaviour to reduce environmental impact at Loughborough University. My postdoctoral and consultancy work was supported by EPSRC, E.On  and DECC, where I helped reduce domestic energy consumption. At the University of Leeds, I teach Sustainable Design modules and supervise BA, MA and PhD dissertations. 

I am currently Principal Investigator on an EU funded AMASS project which aims to address the European-wide lack of synthesis of the potential of the arts that can lead to generating alternative or unconventional solutions to societal challenges and policy development. The project objective thus is to discover and analyse the underpinning structures that influence the functioning of arts in societal challenges through arts-based Research and Innovation Action. I am also Co-Investigator on the SEEYouth project which addresses youth marginalisation and empowerment through design-led communication and participatory innovations.

I was Principal Investigator on the recently completed EU funded PARTY (Participatory Development with the Youth) project which studied the complex challenges of human development and reducing youth unemployment in the African San community through a series of participatory and explorative service design workshops, interventions and dissemination activities between researchers and key stakeholders in Finland, Italy, Namibia and South Africa. I was Co-Investigator on the “Downsizing” project which explored the potential of using design interventions to promote healthy eating and portion control, funded by the BBSRC DRINC, UK.

I am a regular reviewer for academic journals including The Design Journal, Journal of Cleaner Production, Journal of Design Research, International Journal of Sustainable Engineering, Journal of Internet Marketing and Advertising, International Journal of Environmental Technology and Management and International Journal of Information Technology and Management, Appetite, Waste Management & Research and Routledge Taylor & Francis Group.

Research interests

I specialise in user-centred design for behavioural change. My current research interests include design for healthy behaviour, design for emotion and wellbeing, cross-cultural design, the design of creative community-based participatory design and co-design methods for social sustainability. 

I welcome PhD proposals relevant to

• Design for behavioural change: Creating behaviour change towards more sustainable and healthier lifestyles
• Design for emotion and wellbeing: Eliciting enjoyable, playful and meaningful experiences and improving wellbeing
• Transformation design: Enabling effective interdisciplinary collaboration and cross-cultural communication

Email me directly with any enquiries. 

Recent projects

2020-2023: AMASS: Acting on the Margins: Arts as Social Sculpture (Principal Investigator), EU H2020 RIA, https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/870621

2020-2023: SEEYouth: Social Innovation through Participatory Art and Design with Youth at the Margins: Solutions for Engaging and Empowering Youth with Trans-Atlantic Mirroring (Co-Investigator), ESRC - Trans-Atlantic Platform Funding for Social Innovation

2019-2020: Packaging design for downsizing (Principal Investigator), BBSRC innovation enhancement follow-on funding 

2018-2019: Co-DigiTech – Co-designing participatory methods with older people to understand the role of digital technologies in social isolation (Co-Investigator), EPSRC small grant 

2018: Exploring precision intervention for infectious disease outbreaks using big data in Shenzhen, China (Co-Investigator), ESRC Impact Acceleration Account

2015-2019: Downsizing: using environmental prompts to understand healthy portion control and appropriate food servings in children, adolescents and caregivers (Co-Investigator), BBSRC DRINC 

2015-2019: PARTY: participatory development with the youth (Principal Investigator), EU Horizon 2020 MSCA-RISE 

2015-2016: Playful city jam (Principal Investigator), City seedcorn funding, 

2014-2015: Jamming: exploring the potential for enhancing a sense of community through collaborative design workshops (Principal Investigator), Ignite, 

Qualifications

• PhD in Design
• MSc in Industrial Design
• Postgraduate Certificate in Learning and Teaching in Higher Education
• BEng in Industrial Design

Professional memberships

• Member of the AHRC Peer Review College (Academic; International)
• Member of the Design Research Society
• Fellow of the Higher Education Academy
• Member of the Sustainable Design Network

Student education

I am teaching a range of sustainable design and design relevant modules for students at undergraduate, MSc and MA levels.

Current postgraduate researchers

• Ken Chen
• Tongfei Zhang
• Julianah Adeniji
• Eshrag Aljehani
• Yunlu Liu