Deana C. McDonagh

Deana McDonagh is Director of the (dis)Ability Design Studio at the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology. She is also a Professor (Industrial Design) and Chair of Graphic Design/Design for Responsible Innovation in the School of Art + Design at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and a Health Innovation Professor for the Carle Illinois College of Medicine. 

An empathic design researcher and industrial designer, her work advances inclusive and participatory approaches to design that enrich quality of life across diverse contexts. McDonagh is committed to methodologies that position people as active contributors in the design process, championing the principle of designed by rather than designed for. Through interdisciplinary research and practice, she explores empathy as both a skill and a mindset, shaping design outcomes that foreground lived experience, disability, and human-centered innovation.

Her research concentrates on emotional user-product relationships and how empathy can bring the designer closer to users’ authentic needs, ensuring both functional and emotional needs are met in the material landscape.