ABOUT

Violet is a multidisciplinary designer with a distinctive, mixed-media approach, blending illustration, textiles, and collage with digital design and image manipulation. She has completed a wide range of commissions, including developing brand identities for conferences, creating educational booklets and workbooks, and producing high-quality materials to support research, such as visual reports and interactive workshop resources. Her design work is closely linked to her research, often exploring playful, participatory, and technology-mediated experiences.

Violet is a Senior Research Associate within the UKRI-funded Design Research Works fellowship, where she leads projects exploring Generative AI in education and interactive, participatory research. She is currently developing a scalable GenAI education tool for primary schools, investigating the possibilities of a GenAI curriculum underpinned by constructionist pedagogy and using Research through Design (RtD) to create innovative, hands-on learning experiences for young learners.

As part of the Design Research Works fellowship, Violet also contributes to Shadowplay, a GenAI-powered interactive system where participants’ shadows are captured and transformed into live, AI-generated video performances. Showcased in immersive festival environments, Shadowplay blends technology, play, and creativity, highlighting participatory research as an experiential practice.

Alongside this, Violet continues her research on the repairability of Internet of Things (IoT) devices, focusing on engaging the public in conversations about repair rights. Using RtD, Participatory Design, and Speculative Design approaches, she develops Serious Games and interactive experiences to raise awareness about barriers and opportunities for repair, fostering understanding of a more sustainable, repairable future.

Violet conducts research in Creative Evaluation, drawing on her doctoral work and collaborations at Lancaster University. She develops participatory, design-based approaches to help organisations — particularly in the third sector — measure impact in ways that capture nuanced and often intangible outcomes. She is a founding member of the Lancaster Evaluation Group (LEG), an interdisciplinary team dedicated to advancing evaluative practice.

Between 2019 and 2023, Violet worked as a Peer Evaluator with St Giles Trust, supporting individuals with complex needs, including those affected by poverty, exploitation, mental health challenges, or criminal justice involvement. She has also consulted with numerous third-sector organisations to strengthen evaluation practices and build organisational capacity to assess and demonstrate impact meaningfully.

Violet has over a decade of experience in education, beginning as a Learning Support Assistant in secondary schools working with students with Special Educational Needs. She qualified as a secondary teacher in 2014 and worked as a Design and Technology teacher, later taking on leadership and community management roles. She has also served as an Associate Lecturer at Lancaster University and a part-time Lecturer in Art and Design at Burnley Sixth Form College, as well as guest lecturing in various Higher Education Institutions. 

Violet is currently pursuing a PhD at Lancaster University, researching Creative Evaluation. She holds a BA(Hons) in Graphics Information Design from Westminster University, a QTS in Secondary Education from Reading University, and a Master’s in Education from Manchester Metropolitan University.