Vanissa Wanick

Vanissa Wanick is a Senior Lecturer in Interaction Design at the Winchester School of Art, University of Southampton. She holds a PhD in Design from the University of Southampton, an MBA in Marketing from the University Federal Fluminense (UFF), and a BA in Design from PUC-Rio, Brazil. Her research focuses on games for social change, gamification, human-computer interaction (HCI), participatory design, and data-driven design. She actively supervises PhD students in Design and has over 10 years of professional experience in digital design and UX design.

• Education: PhD (University of Southampton), MBA (UFF), BA (PUC-Rio)
• External Roles: Chair of the Serious Games Society (2021–2023), Chair of ACM SIGCHI (2022–present), Women in Games Ambassador
• Research Projects: Includes collaborations with Stewart Signs Limited and initiatives like CivicMAGIC, exploring citizen agency and immersive technologies.

Her work emphasizes interdisciplinary approaches, blending technology and creativity to address societal challenges. She has authored over 20 papers on gamification, UX design, XR technologies, and cross-cultural design, and contributes to leading conferences such as CHIPlay and GALA Conf.