Jie Meng
Website: www.jieemeng.com
Email: Jie.meng1@unsw.edu.au
Supervisors: Reside Oya Demirbilek, Demet Dincer
Jie Meng is a PhD Candidate in the School of Built Environment at the UNSW, funded by the Australian Government Research Training Program (RTP). Her doctoral research examines the design of smart homecare ecosystems for older adults in Australia and China, exploring how older people perceive and interact with emerging technologies and how these influence their autonomy, wellbeing, and sense of value. Jie’s work combines qualitative and quantitative methods and is grounded in user-centred and participatory design approaches.
She is also a Sessional Academic at UNSW and the University of Sydney, teaching across industrial design, integrated design, and interaction design. At UNSW, she contributes as a Project Advisor at the Work Integrated Learning (WIL) Centre, Research Officer in Industrial Design at BE, and Event Curator for Sydney Spectrum: Embracing Diversity in the Built Environment.
Before her PhD, Jie worked as an Experience Designer, Service Designer, and Industrial Designer with organisations including Thoughtworks, ByteDance AI Lab, and the China Shipbuilding Industry Co., Ltd. (712 Research Institute). She also conducted co-design research with educators and therapists at Wuhan University to support children with special needs.
Jie holds a Master of Arts in Service Design from the University of the Arts London (UAL) and a Bachelor of Arts in Product Design from the Wuhan Institute of Technology (WIT). Her research and teaching are driven by a commitment to human-centred design, social inclusion, and design for positive social impact.
- Research area
- Research outputs
Jie’s research lies at the intersection of design, technology, and social inclusion, exploring how human-centred design can foster wellbeing and equity across diverse user groups. Her work encompasses two main research streams:
- Design for Ageing and Smart Home Technologies – Investigating how smart home ecosystems can enhance autonomy, wellbeing, and quality of life for older adults. This involves integrates qualitative and quantitative methods to examine older people’s experiences, values, and interactions with technology in the home environment.
- Design for Children with Special Needs – Exploring co-design and participatory approaches that engage children, educators, and other stakeholders in developing art-based and inclusive design interventions. This focuses on supporting social participation, self-expression, and emotional development among children with autism and those in under-resourced communities.
Together, Jie’s broader commitment to design for social good, using inclusive and participatory design to address complex societal challenges and create meaningful, human-centred solutions that improve people’s everyday lives.
- Meng, J; Zhang, Y; Lin, Z. (Forthcoming). A Co-design Approach: Mitigating Systemic Bias and Hidden Violence in AI Voice Assistants for Visually Impaired Users. International Association of Societies of Design Research (IASDR) 2025: DESIGN NEXT. 2-5 December 2025, Taipei, Taiwan.
- Lin, Z; Wang, B; Meng, J. (Forthcoming). Artifacts as Mediators: Translating Co-Creation into Organizational Well-being in Chinese SOEs. IASDR 2025: DESIGN NEXT. 2-5 December 2025, Taipei, Taiwan.
- Zhang, Y & Meng, J. (In Press). Design Justice and Hidden Violence in AI Voice Interfaces: A Critical Disability Perspective. In Ethical Leadership: A New Frontier for Design Cumulus Conference Proceedings Nantes 2025 (Vol. 14). Cumulus Association.
- (Edited book) Dincer, D; Demirbilek, RO; Meng, J. (eds.), 2025, SYDNEY SPECTRUM CATALOGUE: EMBRACING DIVERSITY IN BUILT ENVIRONMENT, UNSW School of Built Environment, Sydney. http://hdl.handle.net/1959.4/104617
- Meng, J. (2024). Enhancing Older Adults’ Motivation for Social Interaction: Exploring Design Principles of Social Media Mobile Applications Through a Self-Determination Theory (SDT) Approach. In: Gao, Q., Zhou, J. (eds) Human Aspects of IT for the Aged Population. HCII 2024. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 14725. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-61543-6_27
- Meng, J. (2024). Facilitating Social Engagement for Middle-Aged and Older Individuals: Examining the Role of Idle Goods and Product-Service Design. In: Jay Kalra (eds) Human Factors in Aging and Special Needs. AHFE (2024) International Conference. AHFE Open Access, vol 133. AHFE International, USA. http://doi.org/10.54941/ahfe1004892
- Meng J, 2024, (Conference Presentation) ‘Idle Goods as Catalysts for Social Interaction: A Case Study on Product-Service Design for China's Middle-Aged and Elderly Communities’, AHFE 2024, Université Côte d'Azur, Nice, France, July 24-27, 2024
- Meng J, 2024, (Conference Presentation), Investigating Social Media App Design for Enhancing Older Adults' Social Engagement: A Self-Determination Theory (SDT) Perspective, Proceedings of the HCI (Human-Computer Interaction) International Conference 2024, Washington DC, USA, 29 June - 4 July 2024
- Meng J, 2024, (ACT Presentation), ‘Smart Homes, Older People’s Values: Australia vs. China’, Canberra Health Annual Research Meeting (CHARM) 2024, Canberra, Australia, 17-21 June, 2024
- Meng J, 2022, 'Resilient Aging in the UK, Lambeth', London Design Festival, Aging Societies 2022 - A Global Response, Online symposium report of research outcomes. Published: 22 November 2022, https://acrobat.adobe.com/link/review?uri=urn%3Aaaid%3Ascds%3AUS%3Af134c8b5-9f51-3b21-a8cc-767eca79ac16
- Meng J, 2021, ‘Engage Left-behind Children into Positive Behaviour and Mindset through Art Therapy Inventions in Rural China’, London College of Communication, UAL, Online report of research outcomes, Published: February 21