Ran Zhou - 周然 - is a designer and researcher focused on tangible interfaces, expressive haptics, design research, and human-robot interaction. She is currently a 6th-year PhD student in the Interaction Design Team at KTH Royal Institute of Technology, supervised by Prof. Madeline Balaam, Daniel Leithinger, and Anna Ståhl. Before transferring to KTH, she was a PhD student advised by Prof. Daniel Leithinger in THING Lab at ATLAS Institute, University of Colorado, Boulder. Previously, she was a visiting PhD student at University of Chicago, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, and University of Calgary. She graduated with an MFA in Design and Technology from Parsons School of Design, advised by Prof. Harpreet Sareen. She also holds a bachelor's degree in Architecture and Urban Planning from Huazhong University of Science and Technology.
As a design researcher, Ran sees touch as a rich and evocative design material. She envisions a future in which robotic touch is expressive and evocative, seamlessly woven into daily life, and capable of engaging the human body in meaningful and respectful ways. Her research advances this vision by investigating designers’ practices in approaching and prototyping expressive haptics through new methodologies, creating open-source haptic toolkits that empower designers and support design experiments, and understanding how designers make meaning of touch through designing it. In her design practice, she is passionate about enhancing digital interactions through tangible interfaces and recreating the traditional human-object ritual with emerging technologies, which she calls "High-tech Nostalgia."
Ran’s work has been published at top HCI venues such as ACM CHI, DIS, TEI, VRST, and SIGGRAPH Asia, receiving two CHI Best Paper Honorable Mentions, a DIS Best Pictorial Honorable Mention, and multiple demo awards at CHI and VRST. Her work has also been recognized by the design community with awards from Fast Company and IxDA, and exhibited internationally at venues including Stockholm Design Week, the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago, and the NYC Media Lab Demo Expo.
education
KTH Royal Institute of Technology Stockholm, Sweden
Nov. 2024 - May. 2027 (expected)
Ph.D in Media Technology and Interaction Design
Advisors: Madeline Balaam, Daniel Leithinger, Anna Ståhl
(Jan. 2021 - Jun. 2024: PhD student at University of Colorado Boulder, Advisor: Daniel Leithinger)
Parsons School of Design NYC, NY, USA
Aug. 2018 - May. 2020
MFA Design and Technology
Advisor: Harpreet Sareen
Huazhong University of Science and Technology Wuhan, Hubei, China
Sep. 2013 - Jun. 2018
B.Eng in Urban and Rural Planning
School of Architecture and Urban Planning
RESEARCH EXPERIENCE
KTH Royal Institute of Technology Stockholm, Sweden
Doctoral Researcher, Interaction Design Team
Jul. 2024 - present
Advisors: Madeline Balaam, Daniel Leithinger, Anna Ståhl
ATLAS Institute, University of Colorado, Boulder Boulder, CO, USA
Research Assistant & Research Affiliate, THING Lab
Jan. 2021 - Jun. 2024
Advisor: Daniel Leithinger
University of Chicago Chicago, IL, USA
Visiting Doctoral Researcher, AxLab
Jan. 2024 - Jun. 2024
Host Professor: Ken Nakagaki
KTH Royal Institute of Technology Stockholm, Sweden
Visiting Doctoral Researcher, Interaction Design Team
Sep. 2023 - Dec. 2023
Host Professor: Madeline Balaam
University of Calgary Calgary, AB, Canada
Visiting Doctoral Researcher, Programmable Reality Lab
Feb. 2023 - Mar. 2023
Host Professor: Ryo Suzuki
Parsons School of Design New York, NY, USA
Research Assistant
Jan. 2020 - Dec. 2020
Advisor: Harpreet Sareen
Awards
Research Awards
Best Paper Award Honorable Mention - CHI 2026 (Aesthetics of Felt Asymmetry)
Best Paper Award Honorable Mention - CHI 2025 (Shape-Kit)
Jury's Choice Best Demo Award Honorable Mention - CHI 2025 (Shape-Kit)
Jury's Choice Best Demo Award Runner Up - CHI 2023 (TactorBots)
Best Pictorial Award Honorable Mention - DIS 2022 (EmotiTactor)
Best Demo Award - VRST 2020 (HexTouch)
Design Awards
Finalist - IxDA’s 2023 Interaction Awards (TactorBots)
Honorable Mention - Fast Company’s 2022 Innovation by Design Award (TactorBots)
SELECTED PRESS
Critical Playground - (Shape-Kit) Designing Without Screens: The New Wave of Haptic-First Interfaces. Aug. 2025
Arduino - TactorBots is a complete toolkit for robotic touch. May. 2023
Geeky Gadgets - TactorBots robotic touch haptic design toolkit. May. 2023
IxDA Awards - TactorBots: A Haptic Design Toolkit for Exploration of Emotional Robotic Touch. Mar. 2023
Fast Company - TactorBots: A Haptic Design Toolkit for Exploration of Emotional Robotic Touch. Sept. 2022
NYC Media Lab - "Pat Me" Robot, Emotional Robot Comes To Heal Loneliness. Sept. 2019
Contact
ranzhou@kth.se