Li Ping Thong
Associate Professor. Associate Dean. Digital Design.
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Hello, my name is Li Ping Thong.
I am an Associate Professor and Associate Dean of Digital Design at RMIT University’s School of Design, where I lead the School’s largest discipline area across Games, Animation, Digital Media and the Master of Animation, Games and Interactivity.
My work sits at the intersection of digital design, emerging technologies, education, sustainability and community impact. Across research, teaching and public engagement, I explore how digital systems shape learning, culture, behaviour and everyday life — and how design can respond more thoughtfully to social, environmental and technological change.
I have spent more than two decades working in higher education across Malaysia, Vietnam and Australia. My teaching, research and leadership span UX, UI, interaction design, serious games, immersive media, digital storytelling, curriculum innovation and practice-led digital education.
Alongside my academic work, I steward a 32-acre rural property in regional Victoria. This land-based practice increasingly informs how I think about digital design, leadership and research. The duality of city and land, code and soil, digital systems and living systems shapes my current work on Farm Lab, environmental interaction and more-than-human approaches to design.
Research and Projects
Selected projects from my research and collaborative work exploring digital design in practice.
Angels of War
AR and VR exhibition at Federation Square commemorating Australian Army nurses through immersive digital storytelling.
Road to Safer Walking
3D digital training platform exploring pedestrian safety for older adults.
Community Banashi
A digital storytelling project exploring community narratives and Indigenous knowledge through collaborative media practice.
Speaking and Media
I am available for keynotes, invited talks, panels, guest lectures, media interviews and podcast appearances on digital design, UX/UI, games, emerging technologies, higher education, creative practice and the social impact of applied design research.
My speaking and media work translates complex ideas in design, technology, education and public-facing systems into accessible conversations for academic, industry, public and community audiences.
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Featured Writings
Driven by Wind
The long weekend gave me a short gap between busy university work to continue working on The Wind Writes project, which explores wind as an interaction agent within a more-than-human interaction design system.
Regeneration Under Constraint – A Field of Gorse
A reflection on ecological succession, constraint and long-term stewardship drawn from field work on my farm.
Anti-UX in a Hammock
A critique of frictionless user experience (ux) culture and the assumptions embedded in digital design.
The Design that Never Wrote Home
A poster I designed on a late night in Vietnam quietly escaped into the world – revealing uncomfortable truths about authorship, remix culture and creative labour in the age of AI.
Latest Writings
Essays, reflections and field notes on digital design, systems thinking and regenerative futures.
- When Environment Becomes MethodI’ve been working on a conference paper this week – the writing pushed me to articulate more clearly something that’s been building across my research practice. The farm is not just where … Read more
- ARC Linkage Success!ARC Linkage grant success – last week moved so quickly that some amazing things did not quite have time to land. Between Digital Design work, national media interviews for our End Food … Read more
- National Media Cycle – Quick Service Restaurants CRC ProjectYesterday started at 5am. Up very early getting ready to front media – and not to sound like a cranky toad on breakfast radios. 🐸 This was for our End Food Waste … Read more