Helena Sustar
Participatory Designer/ Research Associate, UCHD
You can get in touch with Helena Sustar by contacting us.
Helena has a background in industrial design; she completed her BA and MA at the Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Ljubljana (Slovenia). In addition to her postgraduate studies, she worked in an architectural office as an interior designer, and has also been a journalist, editor and a critique in the area of design and contemporary architecture.
Helena believes in designing with people for people and her research interests have always related to different age groups; children, older people and people with disabilities. She was awarded a PhD at the Centre for HCI Design, City University London. Her PhD research demonstrated the importance of older users’ involvement in the creative design process in order to design better products for an ageing population. The main focus was on adopting the most appropriate methods for designers and older people, and measuring their creative performance and final output.
Helena has recently been part of two award winning teams, receiving judges’ first prize at the 24 Hours Inclusive Design challenge at the Include 2011 conference organised by the Helen Hamlyn Research Centre (Royal College of Art), and first prize at the Design Council’s national design challenge, Keeping Connected. Helena acted as a design ambassador with Stoke Newington School and Sixth Form during this six month project.
