Åsa Wikberg-Nilsson
Professor and Head of Subject, Head of subject, Distinguished University Teacher
Research subject: Design
Division: Humans and Technology
Department of Social Sciences, Technology and Arts
About me
Bio
Åsa Wikberg Nilsson is a Chaired Professor at Luleå University of Technology. With a blend of academic design research and practical design skills in her approach, her expertise spans across all design orders of visual communication, physical objects, service- and UX-design, and place- and systems design.
One of Åsa's notable contributions include the NOVA project, which emphasizes tools and methods for norm-creative innovation and earned her and her colleagues a nomination for the Swedish Design Award Design S in 2016. She also participated in the BeChange project (2019-20), co-creating a service for sustainable behavior changes for both individuals and companies. Her meticulous attention to form and function, aesthetics and ethics, details and the whole is evident in work such as Design: process and method (2018 & 2021). It can also be seen in the co-design initiative A place for life (2018-22) which promotes sustainable and inclusive living spaces and places. Some of the results, such as the methods and tools can be found in the open source handbook A place for life, and some of the results can for example be experienced in the block surrounding the Sara Kulturhus in Skellefteå. Åsa also facilitates the design research project NoBias in which Design and AI are critically explored based on a norm-critical perspective: how might an AI service support more inclusive texts and images? Beyond her academic pursuits, Åsa's experiences spans the Brokk demolition robot 330 in which she took part in the design back in mid 2000.
Åsa got promoted to associate professor based on pedagogical and academic merits already in 2016, and earned an Excellent teacher appointment in 2022. She is an active member of Design Society, SVID, Swedish Society of Crafts and Design, Nordes, Wonder, and the Swedish Design Society. Åsa has teached first- (bachelor), second- (master), and third (PhD) cycle design courses in various programs and at different universitites, emphasizing critical design, transformative design, design thinking and visual communication.
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