Explore our knowledge

Torkil Clem­mensen

Professor

Subjects
Design User experience Geopolitics Hybrid work Methodology Culture Psychology

Primary research areas

Cul­tur­al us­ab­il­ity
I study us­ab­il­ity as the fit between new designs and loc­al cul­tur­al mod­els of prac­tice. My re­search re­quires geo­pol­it­ic­al aware­ness to un­der­stand how di­git­al tools, in­clud­ing AI and data­sets, can be anchored, owned, and ap­plied by loc­al so­ci­et­ies, com­munit­ies, and busi­nesses.
Re­la­tion arte­fact design
Re­la­tion arte­fact design is my take on hu­man-work-in­ter­ac­tion-design, link­ing hu­man work with nov­el di­git­al in­ter­ac­tion. It’s a way to do “psy­cho­logy-as-a-sci­ence-of-design,” de­vel­op­ing so­cio-tech­nic­al the­or­ies so de­sign­ers em­brace both tech­nic­al and so­cial per­spect­ives, see­ing out­comes like AI-sys­tems as arte­facts sup­port­ing hu­man re­la­tions.
Pro­fes­sion­al know­ledge
This is about design­ing com­puter sup­port for di­verse pro­fes­sion­al know­ledge - med­ic­al doc­tors, en­gin­eers, UX spe­cial­ists, train drivers, nav­ig­at­ors, psy­cho­lo­gists, and more. It also stud­ies aca­dem­ic re­search­ers’ know­ledge, draw­ing on ex­pert­ise re­search, crit­ic­al psy­cho­logy, and emer­ging metas­cience.

I use psy­cho­logy to guide know­ledge-based cre­ation of sus­tain­able so­cio-tech­nic­al fu­tures

I am a human factors psychologist turned into a business school professor with a durable and influential research profile in human-computer interaction and digitalization 
 

My research helps:  

- Drive an ethical and human-centered vision for interactive system development    

- Offer tools that foreground user meaning-making in technologically mediated environments   

- Address critical challenges in digitalization, cultural usability, and the design of smart workplaces, by bringing together social science, arts, and humanities scholars with engineers and computer scientists to foster cross-sectoral innovation   

- Emphasize the fusion of design thinking, psychology, and business strategy to produce graduates equipped to lead responsible digital transformation in both academic and professional contexts   

- Advance a vision in which psychology guides the creation of sustainable post-humane socio-technical futures  

- Develop scholarship on geopolitical tensions in HCI and culturally grounded design thinking that informs global debates on digital ethics, user autonomy, and the localization of interaction design  

Publications

See all publications

2026

Transparent Autonomy and Human Work Interaction Design

Elodie Bouzekri

Tor­kil Clem­men­sen, Professor

Antony William Joseph

Arminda Guerra Lopes

Adriana Moreno Rangel

José Abdelnour-Nocera
Go to publication

2026

Addressing Global HCI Challenges at the Time of Geopolitical Tensions Through Planetary Thinking and Indigenous Methodologies

Huatong Sun

José Abdelnour-Nocera

Tor­kil Clem­men­sen, Professor

Sheethal Liz Tom
Go to publication

2026

Academic Research and Professional Practice in Interaction Design

First International Conference, ARPPID 2025, London, UK, July 10–11, 2025, Proceedings

José Abdelnour-Nocera

Tor­kil Clem­men­sen, Professor

Marta Kristín Lárusdóttir

Teresa Macchia

Marta Rey Babbarro

Nurha Yingta
Go to publication

Recent research projects

Dan­ish DIR­EC pro­ject: Se­cure In­ter­net of things (SIOT) - Risk Ana­lys­is in Design and Op­er­a­tion, (2022-2025), Budget: DKK 25,10 mil­lion, CBS part: one PhD fel­low.

This pro­ject de­vel­ops meth­ods and tools for se­cure IoT sys­tems, us­ing at­tack-de­fense mod­els, risk ana­lys­is, and us­ab­il­ity stud­ies to bal­ance se­cur­ity, per­form­ance, and cost in crit­ic­al ap­plic­a­tions.
https://direc.dk/siot-secure-internet-of-things-risk-analysis-in-design-and-operation/

European Psy­cho­logy of HCI (2024 – on­go­ing)

This re­search pro­ject fo­cus on shed­ding light on European Psy­cho­logy of HCI , in­clud­ing what the European or loc­al ground­ing of HCI re­search may mean, and what the ‘psy­cho­logy of HCI’ may mean.
Article relevant to the project

AI-PRO­C­ARE (2026–2028)

Pro­cure­ment of AI Sys­tems for Sus­tain­able Health­care Work En­vir­on­ments

AI-PRO­C­ARE is a Nor­d­ic re­search pro­ject that in­vest­ig­ates how the pro­cure­ment of AI sys­tems can sup­port sus­tain­able work en­vir­on­ments in pub­lic health­care. The pro­ject re­frames pro­cure­ment as a so­ci­o­tech­nic­al in­ter­ven­tion with sig­ni­fic­ant im­plic­a­tions for em­ploy­ees, or­gan­isa­tion­al prac­tices, and pa­tient care.

Through em­pir­ic­al case stud­ies across the Nor­d­ic coun­tries, the pro­ject de­vel­ops and eval­u­ates na­tion­al and Nor­d­ic guidelines for re­spons­ible AI pro­cure­ment. It com­bines re­search in HCI, di­git­al health, pub­lic sec­tor in­nov­a­tion, and work en­vir­on­ment stud­ies, and pro­duces peer-re­viewed Open Ac­cess pub­lic­a­tions along­side prac­tice-ori­ented out­puts.

AI-PRO­C­ARE en­gages pro­cure­ment pro­fes­sion­als, health­care lead­ers, oc­cu­pa­tion­al health ex­perts, and policy act­ors through co-design pro­cesses, ref­er­ence groups, and Nor­d­ic col­lab­or­a­tion. The pro­ject cul­min­ates in pub­licly avail­able guidelines and a last­ing di­git­al re­source to sup­port fu­ture AI pro­cure­ment prac­tices in health­care.
AI-PROCARE

Outside activities