Heather Martin

Co-founder, CIID
Nationality: British

Heather Martin’s design career has spanned consulting, teaching and research in the field of interaction design. Her focus is on creating new forms of tangible interfaces for products, services and environments. She has an MA in Interaction Design from the Royal College of Art in London (1998) and a BA in Industrial Design from the University of Northumbria (1993).

Prior to moving to Copenhagen Heather was the Academic Director of the Interaction Design Institute Ivrea in Italy (IDII) from 2005-06, where she had previously been full-time Associate Professor advising MA students on tangible interfaces for objects and spaces. Simultaneously she worked on creating new interfaces for various clients including Sony (2004) and for the Italian lighting manufacturer Artemide (2005). Before joining IDII she worked at IDEO in London as a senior interaction designer and project manager. Here, Heather was a project manager and creative lead on the Prada New York Epicentre done in collaboration with Rem Koolhaas and OMA/AMO, where she helped to design and develop the RFID enabled interactive dressing rooms. She also led a worldwide team on the creation of a wireless LAN in-flight entertainment device for use on-board private VIP airplanes by Lufthansa Technik. From 1998 to 2000 Heather Martin was a full-time research fellow in Computer Related Design Research Studio at the Royal College of Art in London working with Bill Gaver on creating new applications for proprietary technology for Hewlett Packard Labs. In 2001 she was also a visiting tutor at the RCA. She has been a visiting lecturer on the BA and MA product design courses at Central St. Martins University in London and an external lecturer in interaction design at the IT-University (ITU) in Copenhagen. Previous to studying interaction design at the RCA she worked for 3 years as a product designer at Tangerine in London. Heather is currently working at ReD Associates in Copenhagen.