Dr Jerry Zidong Lin

Jerry’s interdisciplinary practice-based research sits at the intersection of design and human–computer interaction, with a particular focus on IoT and experience design. Using a research-through-design approach, his work explores how connected objects can be designed to be interacted with and experienced in pleasurable and meaningful ways. Through design practice, he constructs and interrogates socio-technical narratives to examine how applying existing design theories in practice can unexpectedly shape experience, meaning and relationships, thereby generating new design knowledge. He is currently extending his doctoral research into two main areas: Regenerative design for IoT products: Investigating regenerative design approaches in which IoT objects are situated within broader socio-ecological networks. These networks encompass connected artefacts, humans, and more-than-human beings, exploring how physical and digital components can be reused or upcycled and how such networks can support more harmonious modes of coexistence with natural ecologies.

Designing for well-being in interactive systems: Exploring how interactive systems, including IoT products and immersive environments, can support not only momentary pleasure but also long-term well-being, contributing to conditions for human flourishing. His work has been published and presented at leading international peer-reviewed design research conferences, including DRS, IASDR, and ICED.

SNAP VIS LAB Research Fund, Royal College of Art (2025)

PhD Student Summer Placement Scheme, Royal College of Art (2022)

Exploring Pleasure-driven Design through Transforming Analogue Products into IoT Products

This PhD research investigates how pleasurable experiences can be designed through the transformation of analogue objects into IoT products. Challenging efficiency- and profit-driven approaches to IoT design, the research foregrounds pleasurability, psychological needs, and experimentation. Using a research-through-design approach combined with mixed methods, the study includes questionnaire surveys, exploratory workshops, the development of the IoTT for PLEX Framework to support pleasure-driven experience design through IoT transformations, and a co-speculation experiment using CloudPlanter as a technology probe. This experiment tests the framework and informs future relationships between humans and networked objects.

Publications

Lin, Z. (2025) Exploring pleasure-driven design through Internet of Things (IoT) transformations. Thesis. Royal College of Art. https://researchonline.rca.ac.uk/6568/

Sommer, B., Lin, Z., Berry, Z., Agarwala, R., Saxena, A., Stephens, R., Hodson, E., Amaral, C., Anderson, P., & Hall, A. (2025). The XR Stream—Grand Challenges for Ocean and Cities from a London Perspective. Electronic Imaging, 37, 1–9. https://doi.org/10.2352/EI.2025.37.13.ERVR-160

Lin, Z., Ahmed-Kristensen, S., Hall, A., and Sommer, B. (2023). Using Pleasurability to Compare Wristwatches and IoT Smartwatches: Providing Novel Insights into UX Design. Proceedings of the Design Society., 3, pp. 3761–3770. https://doi.org/10.1017/pds.2023.377

Lin, Z., Bohra, S., Kayganaci, E., Sayuti, A., Zheng, C.Y., Hall, A., Anderson, P., and Sommer, B. (2023). Towards an immersive virtual studio for design engineering. Electronic Imaging, pp. 226-1 - 226-7. https://doi.org/10.2352/EI.2023.35.2.SDA-226

Sayuti, N.A., Lin, Z., and Sommer, B. (2023). From Bio-inspired Design to Microbiology-inspired Design: a Conceptual Model-based Case Study on biological Materials informed by Emotions. In: De Sainz Molestina, D., Galluzzo, L., Rizzo, F., Spallazzo, D. (eds.), IASDR 2023: Life-Changing Design, 9-13 October, Milan, Italy. https://doi.org/10.21606/iasdr.2023.315

Lin, Z., Hall, A., and Sommer, B. (2022). Designing experiences for IoT products: A case study testing existing UX frameworks. In: Lockton, D., Lenzi, S., Hekkert, P., Oak, A., Sádaba, J., Lloyd, P. (eds.), DRS2022: Bilbao, 25 June - 3 July, Bilbao, Spain. https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2022.593

Sommer, B., Sayuti, A., Lin, Z., Bohra, S., Kayganaci, E., Hu, J., Zheng, C.Y., Lee, C.H., O'Donoghue, S., Hall, A., and Anderson, P. (2022). Spatialized video communication platforms: Applications in design education and conferencing. In: Lockton, D., Lenzi, S., Hekkert, P., Oak, A., Sádaba, J., Lloyd, P. (eds.), DRS2022: Bilbao, 25 June - 3 July, Bilbao, Spain. https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2022.735

Sommer, B., Sayuti, A., Lee, C.H., Lin, Z., Hu, J., Hall, A. (2022). Immersive Exploration of Cell Localization Scenarios Using VR, Spatialized Video Communication, and Integrative Bioinformatics. In: Chen, M., Hofestädt, R. (eds) Integrative Bioinformatics. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-6795-4_14

Lin Z., Sommer B. and Ahmed-Kristensen S. (2021). IoT Product Pleasurability - Investigating the Pleasurable User Experiences Between Conventional Products and IoT Products Through Watches. In: Brooks A., Brooks E.I. and Jonathan D, ed., Interactivity and Game Creation. ArtsIT 2020. Lecture Notes of the Institute for Computer Sciences, Social Informatics and Telecommunications Engineering, vol 367. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-73426-8_24

Exhibitions

(2019) Data Play: Festival 2019. Design Informatics Pavilion. Edinburgh, UK.

(2019) MFA Design Informatics Degree Show. University of Edinburgh. Edinburgh, UK.

(2017) New Designers. Business Design Centre. London, UK.

(2017) BA Product Design Graduate Show. University of Lincoln. Lincoln, UK.

Peer reviewer

(2026) DIS2026, Singapore

(2025) Frontiers in Computer Science, section Human-Media Interaction

(2024) CHI2025, Yokohama

(2022) Journal of Integrative Bioinformatics

(2021) IADRS2021, Hong Kong