Kristin HughesAssociate Professor
Margaret Morrison 104C
kh@andrew.cmu.edu(412) 268-7098
Kristin Hughes is an associate professor in the School of Design at Carnegie Mellon University. Her work focuses on design as a catalyst for community and civic engagement. Hughes designs products and processes that allow participants to shape their learning space and sustain learning over time. Through game design, Hughes creates a powerful platform for uninhibited learning.
Currently Kristin is working on Fitwits, a transdisciplinary, collaborative research project of the Carnegie Mellon University School of Design and UPMC Saint Margaret Family Health Centers. The program addresses the problem of obesity prevention through a triple-pronged approach in school, family health centers, and community centers. The Fitwits program encourages hands-on learning, allows families to play with each other, ask questions, negotiate, and invent solutions. Fitwits empowers families to be active in their own health through a system of products and services.
Prior to developing Fitwits, Hughes worked collaboratively with University of Pittsburgh Out of School Learning Environments (UPCLOSE) on Click! Urban Adventure, and exlanatoids. Click! Urban Adventure, is an interactive role-playing game designed to immerse middle school girls in discipline-specific science, technology, engineering and mathematics activities. Explanatoids brought science, technology, engineering and mathematics topics to the general
public by placing signs and other artifacts in public spaces to encourage curiosity and understanding of science in everyday life.
Prior to her work at Carnegie Mellon, Hughes was a designer at Plus Design, Inc., a firm specializing in book design and corporate restaurant identities. She was an art director and project manager/supervisor at The History Factory, a corporate communications firm for Fortune 100 companies, and worked at Segura Design.
Hughes holds an MFA in Visual Communication from Virginia Commonwealth University and a BFA in Illustration from Syracuse University. She has also studied abroad at Gerrit Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, and at Yale University’s workshop in Brissago, Switzerland.
