About the Director
When Dr. Walsh was in the fourth grade, his family went to EPCOT Center at Walt Disney World, and he knew from that moment what he wanted to do: create interactive experiences for families that made learning fun and included voices from different cultures around the world. Many years later, Dr. Walsh now researches ways that people can work together to design new technologies used for education and entertainment.
For many years, Dr. Walsh led UBalt's intergenerational design team, KidsteamUB, through which children and adults work as partners to design new technologies for children. KidsteamUB developed a number of new techniques for designing with children, including using Minecraft-like games and developing tools and documentation for non-designers to include cooperative design in their work.
While recruiting for KidsteamUB, Dr. Walsh realized that it was difficult for parents and children in the city to get to the campus. New design technologies needed to be developed to enable communication, elaboration, and evaluation between kids and designers in the city. The need for research into this topic was recognized by Google, who awarded Dr. Walsh a Google Faculty Research Award to continue this work in collaborative design.
Additionally, Dr. Walsh pursued studies in fashion design as a means to explore human-centered design principles, free from the constraints and complexities of technology. Immersed in the world of fashion, he delved into the intricacies of crafting experiences that catered to the needs and desires of individuals. Through this alternative lens, Dr. Walsh gained valuable insights into the importance of aesthetics, user preferences, and the power of design to evoke emotions and facilitate meaningful interactions. His foray into fashion design provided a unique perspective that now influences his approach to creating technology-driven solutions that prioritize the user experience and seamlessly integrate with people's lives.
Dr. Walsh is excited to be at the University of Baltimore and to continue his work on human-centered design, applying it to the Simulation and Game Design and Interaction Design and Information Architecture programs.
The professorship is funded by Bob Parsons, B.S. '75, D.H.L. '08, founder of website hosting and domain registry giant Go Daddy and founder and CEO of Yam Worldwide, Inc.