Skye Doherty

Skye Doherty is a senior lecturer in the School of Communication and Arts at UQ. She is an expert in using creative and design-led research methods to explore alternative futures and address wicked problems. Her work has responded to issues in the news media, law, disaster resilience, and energy and water security, among others, and has led to both conceptual and practical outcomes. Her design artefacts include the NewsCube, an award-winning storytelling tool, Vim, a tangible energy story, a suite of concepts for community-led bushfire management, and Wicked Thinking, an independent magazine. She has developed frameworks for journalism innovation and used codesign methods to improve the experiences of injured workers, a project that led to legislative change. Her current and recent projects include the GEF-funded Coral Reef Rescue project and the ARC Training Centre for Climate-Resilient Water. She is the current Treasurer of the International Association for Media and Communication Research (IAMCR) and is a member of UQ’s Human-Centred Computing research group in the School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. Previously, she led the Global Change Scholars Program in the UQ Graduate School – a year-long PhD experience focused on industry research collaboration and impact. She came to academic research after an international career as a journalist, and her experience spans leading international media companies as well as startups. Journalism design: Prototypes, processes, and theories that explore the forms and technological possibilities for journalism. Design for social change: New ways to think about and respond to social issues and wicked problems through creative communication, participation, and technology. Design research and methods: Developing and documenting custom research tools for specific people and situations.

[2026] Water: news from a drier future. Doherty, Skye and Brimblecombe-Fox, Kathryn (2026). Water: news from a drier future. Brisbane, QLD, Australia: Wicked Thinking. [2026] Historical materials as materials for design. Anderson, India, Doherty, Skye and Matthews, Ben (2026). Historical materials as materials for design. DRS2026: Edinburgh, Edinburgh, United Kingdom, 8-12 June 2026. London, United Kingdom: Design Research Society. doi: 10.21606/drs.2026.2161 [2025] "We are all historically constructed": Situating the past in designerly practice. Anderson, India, Doherty, Skye and Matthews, Ben (2025). "We are all historically constructed": Situating the past in designerly practice. IASDR 2025: Design Next, Taipei, Taiwan, 2-5 December 2025. London, United Kingdom: Design Research Society.