Dr. Axel Roesler is a Professor and Chair of the Interaction Design Program in the Division of Design at the University of Washington. He joined the Division of Design in 2005. He is an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Human Centered Design and Engineering (HCDE), faculty in the Master of Human-Computer Interaction+Design Program (MHCI+d), and affiliate faculty in Comparative History of Ideas (CHID) at University of Washington in Seattle.
He is founding faculty of the Interaction Design Program (2006 M.F.A/M.Des Concentration in Interaction Design, 2012 B.Des in Interaction Design), founding member of the UW DUB design/use/build) group (2005), an interdisciplinary coalition of HCI and design oriented programs at University of Washington to pioneer cross-disciplinary education for future human-computer interaction design professionals, and part of the founding faculty of the Master of Human Computer Interaction and Design (MHCI+D) Program (2013) that he led as Interim Faculty Director for Cohort 7 during the academic year 2019/20.
Roesler received his PhD in Cognitive Systems Engineering with a specialization in Human Centered Design from The Ohio State University. His dissertation work focused on the coordination of perspectives for the control of views into remote and virtual environments. He holds an MFA in Industrial Design from The Ohio State University and a Diplom in Industrial Design (equivalent to MA) from Burg Giebichenstein, Hochschule für Kunst und Design (University of Art and Design) in Halle, Germany.
His research interests are interaction design for high stakes work settings; line of sight interaction in extended reality - augmented reality, virtual reality and mixed reality; industrial design; design and cognition, sensemaking and decision support; systems; distributed cognition, visual storytelling, envisioning, design methods, and design process.
Roesler has worked with major technology partners on interaction design projects for high stakes settings in aviation and medicine, interaction design for consumer products, mobile computing, wearable computing, holographic interaction, and the Internet of Things.
Recent research projects explore new interaction models for line of sight head mounted displays in augmented and virtual reality, interaction design concepts for the commercial flight deck, cognitive support for medication management in the operating room, real time documentation of medical emergencies, and new interaction models for mobile and wearable computing. Industry partners and research collaborators include Google Daydream, Microsoft, Honeywell Aerospace, Boeing, Intel, Seattle Children’s Hospital, Group Health, and the Institute for Simulation and Interprofessional Studies at the UW School of Medicine.