Stéphane Vial

Biography

Stéphane Vial is a Full Professor at the École de design of UQAM, where he teaches design theory and interaction design, namely for the bachelor’s program in Graphic Design and Visual Experience, for which he coordinated a ten-year evaluation and major reorganization. He holds the Diament Chair, UQAM’s strategic research chair in design for e-mental health, and specializes in responsible digital innovation in mental health through codesign and interaction design. With his team, he created Mentallys, a mobile application that facilitates access to mental health care, and Visuallys, the first mental health image bank. He is also a full-time researcher at the Centre de recherche de l’Institut universitaire en santé mentale de Montréal of the CIUSSS de l’Est-de-l’Île-de-Montréal, and co-director of the Axel Center.

He holds a bachelor’s and master’s degree in philosophy (Université Jean Moulin Lyon 3, 1996 and 1997), a bachelor’s and master’s degree in clinical psychology (Université Paris 7 Denis Diderot, 2003 and 2005), a doctorate in philosophy (Université Paris Descartes, 2012) and an accreditation to direct research in design (Université de Nîmes, 2015).

Following his doctoral thesis on the technical structures of perception and the phenomenological analysis of the digital revolution, Stéphane Vial has devoted himself to the development of design philosophy and the establishment of design as a French-language discipline. He is the editorial director of the international French-language journal Sciences du Design, which he co-founded with Alain Findeli at Presses universitaires de France, and the author of Vocabulaire du design, the first and largest specialized dictionary of design in the French language, which he co-edits with Éric Kavanagh at Presses universitaires de France. He has directed several doctoral theses in design in France, including those of Rose Dumesny (2019), Zoé Bonnardot (2021) and Nawelle Zaïdi (2024). He is also the founder and manager of the Recherche-Design.org mailing list (1400+ members).

Stéphane Vial is the author of several acclaimed books published by Presses universitaires de France, including Being and the Screen: How the Digital Changes Perception, and A Short Treatise on Design, both published in a single volume by MIT Press, as well as Le design (“Que sais-je?” collection), republished four times; and Kierkegaard, écrire ou mourir (“Perspectives critiques” collection). He has co-edited two collective works: Advancements in the Philosophy of Design (Springer) with Pieter Vermaas, and Design et innovation dans la chaîne du livre : écrire, éditer, lire à l’ère numérique (Puf) with Marie-Julie Catoir-Brisson, as well as several journal issues (Sciences du Design, MEI : Médiation Et Information). He has also published numerous articles in prestigious research journals such as Journal of Medical Internet Research ; JMIR Mental Health ; JMIR Research Protocols ; Design Studies ; The Design Journal ; She Ji: The Journal of Design, Economics, and Innovation ; Sciences du Design ; Hermès ; MEI Médiation et information ; Interfaces numériques ; Communication & Organisation ; Revue française des sciences de l’information et de la communication.

Previously, Stéphane Vial was an Associate Professor at the University of Nîmes (2013-2018), where he co-founded the PROJEKT design and social innovation research laboratory with Alain Findeli, France’s first accredited design research center (Équipe d’Accueil 7447). Prior to this, he was a Professor of Philosophy at École Boulle (2005-2013), a Paris-based art and design school where he supervised and co-supervised several hundred research theses and design projects. Based in Paris as a freelance web designer with his own studio (2007-2015), he has designed or directed some thirty web and graphic projects in the cultural, public and associative sectors, for major scientific, artistic and academic institutions in France, including the Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle, Center National de la Recherche Scientifique, Musée des Abattoirs, École Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées, Association Française des Cinémas d’Art et d’Essai, École Française de Rome, Syndicat Français des Artistes-interprètes, Centre Musical Fleury Goutte d’Or Barbara de la Ville de Paris, and the Fondation Paris Dauphine.

Stéphane Vial has also worked as a clinical psychologist (2004-2007), first as a volunteer psychologist in a public mental health service (Asm13, Paris), then as a psychologist in charge of ethical reflection in a hospital intensive care and kidney transplant service (Hôpital Tenon, Paris), before giving up his career as a clinician.