Faculty Members
Prof. CHOW, Kenny K. N.
Head and Associate Professor
 | Ph.D. in Digital Media, Georgia Institute of Technology M.F.A. in Media Design and Technology (Distinction), City University of Hong Kong M.Sc. in Electronic Commerce and Internet Computing, University of Hong Kong B.Sc. in Computer Science, University of Hong Kong |
 | (852) 3411-8343 |
 | knchow@hkbu.edu.hk |
 | CVA Room 804 |
Prof. Chow's research areas cover interaction design, user experience, persuasive technology, gamification, games, and animation. His first book, titled Animation, Embodiment, and Digital Media: Human Experience of Technological Liveliness (Palgrave Macmillan), earned endorsements from Mark Turner (Institute Professor and Professor of Cognitive Science at Case Western Reserve University) and Don Norman (Director of The Design Lab at University of California, San Diego). It was translated into Korean by Donghwan Kim (Chair of English Department, ROK Naval Academy) in 2020 and selected as the Outstanding Book by Korea Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism in 2021. His recent book, titled Expressive Iteration: Designing for Meaningful Routines, was published by Routledge in 2025.
Prof. Chow has academic papers published in Digital Creativity, International Journal of Human-Computer Interaction, Interaction Studies, International Journal of Design, The Design Journal, International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction, among others. Major publications in conference proceedings include International Conference of Interactive Digital Storytelling (ICIDS), Computer-Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW), and Persuasive Technology (PT). He also has book chapters in Mapping the Posthuman (Routledge), Language and the Creative Mind (The University of Chicago Press) and Japanese Animation: East Asian Perspectives (University Press of Mississippi and Hong Kong University Press).
He was Principal Investigator of projects funded by competitive grants including three from General Research Fund (GRF) of the Hong Kong Research Grant Council. He has successfully supervised (as Chief Supervisor) five PhD students to completion. Their topics span a wide array, including animated agents for online learning, chatbots for mental health, smart tourism experience, ambient media design, and Chinese design semantics.
Before joining academia, Prof. Chow has had extensive work experience in film, animation, broadcast, and multimedia productions.
Research Interests
Interaction Design, User Experience
Persuasive Technology, Gamification
Mixed Reality, Interactive Narrative, Games
Selected Book Publications
Kenny K. N. Chow (2025) Expressive Iteration: Designing for Meaningful Routines, Routledge, Taylor and Francis Group, Oxfordshire, UK.
Kenny K. N. Chow (2013) Animation, Embodiment, and Digital Media: Human Experience of Technological Liveliness, Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke, Hampshire, UK & New York, NY, USA.
https://link.springer.com/book/10.1057/9781137283085
Selected Book Chapters
Kenny K. N. Chow (2023) “Simulation in the Post-reality Feedback Loop,” in Mapping the Posthuman (ISBN: 9781032334615) (Eds.) Grant Hamilton and Carolyn Lau, Routledge, pp. 61-76.
https://www.routledge.com/Mapping-the-Posthuman/Hamilton-Lau/p/book/9781032334615
Selected Journal Publications
Kenny K.N. Chow (Accepted). “What AI Pretends to Be? Design Rhetoric and Trust in the Representations of AI Applications,” Pragmatics and Society.
Wei, Lai, Sark Pangrui Xing, Kenny K.N. Chow, and Stephen Jia Wang (2026). “Grounding Pedagogical Intents in Embodied AI Teachers: A Human-Centered Framework for Designing and Evaluating Instructional Gestures.” International Journal of Human–Computer Interaction. https://doi.org/10.1080/10447318.2026.2664083
Kenny K.N. Chow (2025). "Enduring Immersion: Persuasiveness of Multidimensional Immersive Experience." Immersive Media and User Experience 1, 1. https://jimmux.com/index.php/imue/article/view/5.
Kenny K.N. Chow (2025). “Designing Mixed-Reality Narratives for Life Routines: A Divergence-Convergence Approach,” Digital Creativity. https://doi.org/10.1080/14626268.2025.2528091
Grace H.Y. Chin, Kenny K.N. Chow (2023). “Technology-Enabled Interventions for Sustaining Behaviour Change in Adolescents: A Scoping Review for Research Gaps,” PACM (Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction), 7, CSCW2. https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3610211
SC.K. Bruce Wan, Cees J.P.M. de Bont, Paul Hekkert, Sebastian Filep, Kenny K.N. Chow (2023). “Journaling memorable and meaningful tourism experiences: A strengths-based approach to technology-mediated reminiscence,” Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Management, 57, 61-71. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhtm.2023.08.017
XiaoChao Xi, Kenny K. N. Chow, Nan Xia (2022). “The relationship between chinese characters and artefacts: A semantics mapping analysis,” The Design Journal. https://doi.org/10.1080/14606925.2022.2121071
Kenny K. N. Chow (2021). “The Influence of Repeated Interactions on the Persuasiveness of Simulation: A Case Study on Smoking Reduction,” Interaction Studies, 22(3), 373-395. hhttps://doi.org/10.1075/is.00009.cho
Kenny K. N. Chow (2020). “Crafting Animated Parables: An Embodied Approach to Representing Lifestyle Behaviors for Reflection,” Digital Creativity, 32(1), 1-21. https://doi.org/10.1080/14626268.2020.1863822
Kenny K. N. Chow, Benny D. Leong, Brian Y. H. Lee. (2018). “Imagining Consequences of Excessive Smartphone Use via a Character-Based Mobile Application,” International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction, 16, 1420–1434. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11469-018-9984-7
Kenny K. N. Chow. (2018). “Sketching Imaginative Experiences: From Operation to Reflection via Lively Interactive Artifacts,” International Journal of Design, 12(2). http://www.ijdesign.org/index.php/IJDesign/article/view/2710
Liang Tan and Kenny K. N. Chow. (2018). “An Embodied Approach to Designing Meaningful Experiences with Ambient Media,” Multimodal Technologies and Interaction, 2(2), 13. https://doi.org/10.3390/mti2020013