Projects per year
Personal profile
SUMMARY of research interests (100 words)
Paul is the Chair of Speculative and Game Design within Imagination and the School of Design. His practice uses research through design to create experiential futures which deliberately mix a present experience with a speculative future that are concretised by combining immersive scenarios with artefacts produced as design fictions or speculative designs. His work has helped establish a particular form of Speculative Design; Design Fiction, as a research method exploring futures for areas such as the Internet of Things and Artificial intelligence. His current research focusses on more-than-human design to expand design approaches so that they play greater consideration to human and non-human actants within the complex assemblages in which new product and services exist particularly in relation to sustainability and climate change.
Web Links
Keywords
- Design
- speculative design
- critical design
- design fiction
- research through design
- design futures
- game design
- world building
- more than human
User-defined keywords
- Speculative Design
- Design Futures
- Design Fiction
- Critical Design
- Game Design
- more than human design
- Game
- Games
Collaborations and top research areas from the last five years
Projects
- 20 Finished
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Re-imagining Alternative Futures of Sustainability Through Design Fiction
Coskun, A. (Principal Investigator) & Coulton, P. (Co-Investigator)
1/11/23 → 1/04/24
Project: Research
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E3: InterNET ZERO: Towards Resource Responsible Trustworthy Autonomous Systems
Stead, M. (Principal Investigator) & Coulton, P. (Co-Investigator)
Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council
1/04/23 → 30/06/24
Project: Research
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E3: Fixing the Future: The Right to Repair and Equal-IoT
Stead, M. (Principal Investigator), Coulton, P. (Co-Investigator), Owen, V. (Research Associate) & Lindley, J. (Co-Investigator)
Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council
1/08/22 → 31/03/25
Project: Research
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E3: Edge of Reality (ER)
Stead, M. (Principal Investigator), Gradinar, A. (Co-Investigator), Coulton, P. (Co-Investigator) & Ian, F. (Team Member)
Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council
1/04/22 → 28/02/23
Project: Research
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Trust Me? (I’m an Autonomous Machine)
Coulton, P. (Co-Investigator) & Lindley, J. (Principal Investigator)
Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council
12/04/21 → 31/03/22
Project: Research
Research output
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Cómo diseñar futuros más que humanos
Coulton, P., 26/01/2026, Expandiendo los márgenes: Investigación en diseño. San Cornelio, G., Massaguer, L., Foglia, E. & Bartomeu, E. (eds.). Spain: Editorial UOC, Vol. 756. 8 p.Translated title of the contribution :Designing More Than Human Futures Research output: Contribution in Book/Report/Proceedings - With ISBN/ISSN › Chapter (peer-reviewed) › peer-review
Open AccessFile8 Downloads (Pure) -
Experiencing the Future Mundane: Configuring Design Fiction as Breaching Experiment
Crabtree, A., Lodge, T., Sailaja, N., Chamberlain, A., Coulton, P., Pilling, M. & Forrester, I., 4/07/2026, In: Human-Computer Interaction. 41, 4, p. 233-262 30 p.Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
Open AccessFile53 Downloads (Pure) -
From City‐Builder to Geogame: A Geodesign Process for Participatory Urban Planning
Cureton, P., Coulton, P., He, L. & Zhao, Y., 14/01/2026, In: Urban Planning. 11, 10560.Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
Open Access -
Game Changers: How Fan Activism Across Gaming Cultures Could Help Us Design More Sustainable Technologies
Owen, V., Stead, M. & Coulton, P., 1/10/2026, Bridging Design and Fandom: Fan Studies and Design Research in Conversation. Jacobs, N. (ed.). Emerald Group Publishing Ltd., p. 233-248 15 p.Research output: Contribution in Book/Report/Proceedings - With ISBN/ISSN › Chapter (peer-reviewed) › peer-review
Open AccessFile6 Downloads (Pure) -
Gameful IoT Repair
Owen, V., Stead, M. & Coulton, P., 1/07/2025, Digital Games Research Association (DiGRA) / Institute of Digital Games. Digital Games Research Association - DiGRAResearch output: Contribution in Book/Report/Proceedings - With ISBN/ISSN › Conference contribution/Paper › peer-review
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Elsevier (Publisher)
Coulton, P. (Peer reviewer)
7/08/2026Activity: Publication peer-review and editorial work types › Publication peer-review
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Opinion on Future UX for Emerging Technologies
Coulton, P. (Consultant)
28/07/2026Activity: Expert Knowledge and Consultancy types › Influence on Policy, Practice, Patients & the Public
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Design Research :where next
Coulton, P. (Speaker)
12/06/2026Activity: Talk or presentation types › Invited talk
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External Examiner MA Design Informatics
Coulton, P. (Examiner)
11/06/2026Activity: Examination types › Examination
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Peer Review
Coulton, P. (Consultant)
31/05/2026Activity: Expert Knowledge and Consultancy types › Expert Opinion
Prizes
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ACM Best Provocation/Work in Progress Paper Award
Owen, V. (Recipient), Stead, M. (Recipient) & Coulton, P. (Recipient), 3/07/2024
Prize: Prize (including medals and awards)
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Bronze Award in ACE 2011 Game Competition
Coulton, P. (Recipient), 11/11/2011
Prize: Prize (including medals and awards)
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Innovation Prize in FlashLite Developer Challenge
Coulton, P. (Recipient), 2009
Prize: Prize (including medals and awards)
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Press/Media
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UKRI TAS HUB - Living With AI Podcast: Challenges of Living with Artificial Intelligence - InterNET ZERO: Towards Resource Responsible Trustworthy Autonomous Systems
Stead, M., Coulton, P., Michalec, O. & Sailaja, N.
21/08/24
1 item of Media coverage
Press/Media: Other
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The Repair Shop 2049: part of Lancaster University at the ESRC Festival of Social Science 2022
24/10/22
1 item of Media coverage
Press/Media: Other
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The Repair Shop 2049 at ESRC Festival of Social Science 2022
16/10/22
1 item of Media coverage
Press/Media: Newspaper Article
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Near Future Laboratory: Design Fiction and the Generalist
1/08/22
1 Media contribution
Press/Media: Research
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