HELLO
If are looking for my blog, Playpen, it’s over here.
My name is Andy Polaine, an interaction and service designer, writer, researcher and lecturer. I focus on playful interactions and service design strategy.
Since 1994 I have worked on projects ranging from promoting Levi’s jeans to helping people with terminal cancer express how they feel, from re-thinking green transport solutions to re-designing the higher education experience.
WHAT I DO
I am an independent consultant, which means I have fewer overheads than larger agencies and clients have direct contact with me.
The majority of my work is interactive concept development and service design research and innovation strategy. I know how to code and I know how to design and try to still get my hands dirty on smaller projects.
I am quick to take-in complex situations and find the connections, patterns and relationships underlying a project. I combine my background in interaction design and research to make the user experience pleasurable, engaging and playful.
WRITING & ACADEMIA
Throughout my career I have found teaching to be the best way to learn and writing a powerful path to creative thinking. I’m co-writing a book on service design to be published this year by Rosenfeld Media.
Officially I’m Dr. Polaine, since I received my PhD in 2010 for my thesis about interactivity and play, but I don’t really use the title outside of academia. I am currently a Researcher and Lecturer in Service Design in the Design & Art school of the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts in Switzerland. For more information on my academic life, writing and publications, take a look at the About Me section.
WHO I WORK WITH
I work directly with clients who need help innovating their user and service experience. Depending on the scale of the project I can take on the entire work myself or work with other people whose expertise lies outside my own.
I also work with agencies who need my specific experience and approach that they cannot supply in-house. I am able to hit the ground running and fit into an existing project’s team. For longer projects I am happy to put together and lead a team myself.
Over the years I have worked for many clients and brands, either directly or with other agencies. Here are a few: BBC Worldwide, the ABC (Australia), The Science Museum, NatWest, Razorfish, the University of New South Wales, The Omnium Research Group, magneticNorth, Massive Interactive, Animal Logic, Poke, Alex Proyas, AstraZeneca, Norton Healthcare, Live|Work, RiverSimple and Levi Strauss & Co. (for which we won a D&AD Silver Pencil). For more, visit the portfolio selection.
