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William Nickley is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Design at The Ohio State University. He holds an MFA in Design and a BSD in Industrial Design from The Ohio State University. He researches social design practice and teaches courses in the industrial design major. 

With eight years of industry experience prior to his current appointment—ranging from consultancy to in-house, freelance, and non-profit leadership roles—Nickley specializes in merging industrial design expertise with social-impact initiatives. As a member of the Ohio State DESIS Lab, he works at the crossroads of practice, pedagogy, and research; he has introduced two complementary frameworks—design-based making (DBM) and person-centered design (PCD)—to guide how students and community participants navigate the creative process to envision and enact more just and equitable futures through design. 

He currently employs co-design in a number of grant-funded projects to include LGBTQIA+ youth in interdisciplinary research efforts to develop culturally competent healthcare practices. He also explores youth design-based making in out-of-school settings, drawing on conceptual frameworks from Positive Youth Development to understand how design and technology can empower youth to enact positive and lasting change; this includes a grant-funded project with Columbus City Schools, as well as engagement with the Boys & Girls Clubs of Central Ohio.

William is co-founding board member of Local Tech Heroes, a nonprofit engaging underserved communities in the central Ohio region through design. He serves on the departmental Diversity & Belonging, Studios for Art & Design Research, and Industrial Design Area committees, as well as the Arts & Sciences faculty senate. He serves as faculty advisor to the Industrial Designers Society of America (IDSA) Ohio State student chapter. He was elected to serve on IDSA's Education Council as the Central District's Representative for 2024, and won the IDSA Young Educator Award in 2024.

Active Community and University Service and Leadership

• Founding Board Member, Local Tech Heroes (501c3), Columbus, OH
• Central District Representative, Education Council, Industrial Designers Society of America (IDSA)
• Faculty Advisor, Student Chapter, Industrial Designers Society of America (IDSA)

Currently Teaching

Spring 2025

• Design 4650 / 5650 | Collaborative Design Studio "Designing for Folks to Gather"
• Design 4151 | Intermediate Industrial Design II (aka "Professional Design Studio")

Autumn 2024

• Design 5101 / 5201 | Advanced Industrial Design I / Design Research III (aka Industrial Design Capstone)

Selected Publications

• Nickley, W. A., Proulx, S., Sanders, E. B.-N., McInroy, L., & Melsop, S. (2025). Making for one another: Design-based making and positive youth development. International Journal of Design, 19(1), 21-44. https://doi.org/10.57698/v19i1.02
• Proulx, S., Gauthier, P., Münch, F., Cooper, R., Imbesi, L., Teixeira, C., & Nickley, W. (2024). Doctoral education in design: The administrative challenges. Sciences du Design, 20(2), 32-48. https://shs.cairn.info/revue-sciences-du-design-2024-2-page-32?lang=en
• Zhu, K. & Nickley, W. (2024). AI + object making & creative content. In F. Lorig, J. Tucker, A. D. Lindström, F. Dignum, P. Murukannaiah, A. Theodorou, & P. Yolum (Eds.), Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Hybrid Human-Artificial Intelligence (HHAI 2024), Volume 386: HHAI 2024: Hybrid Human AI Systems for the Social Good (pp. 488–489). 10–14 June, Malmö, Sweden. https://doi.org/10.3233/FAIA240233
• Proulx, S., & Nickley, W. (2023) Sparking creative prowess through a peculiar design challenge: a mocktail design charrette. In De Sainz Molestina, D., Galluzzo, L., Rizzo, F., & Spallazzo, D. (Eds.), IASDR 2023: Life-Changing Design, 9-13 October, Politecnico di Milano. https://doi.org/10.21606/iasdr.2023.781
• Proulx, S. & Nickley, W. A. (2023). Sparking creative prowess through a peculiar design challenge: A mocktail design charrette [Poster]. IASDR 2023. Politecnico di Milano. https://www.iasdr2023.polimi.it/
• Proulx, S., Gauthier, P., & Nickley, W. A. (2023). Differential moral framing. Changing perspectives to uncover opportunities [interactive workshop]. IASDR 2023. Politecnico di Milano. https://www.iasdr2023.polimi.it/
• Proulx, S., Gauthier, P., & Nickley, W. (2023, October 4–5). Differential moral framing; Facilitating ideation and coordination of diverse perspectives on what is worth doing [Workshop]. 2023 Engagement Scholarship Consortium Conference, East Lansing, MI. https://engagementscholarship.org/meetings/esc-2023/
• Nickley, W., Snyder, C., McInroy, L. B., Sanders, E. B.-N., Scheadler, T. (2022, June 25–July 3). Affirmation excursion: Moving beyond surveys to make space for your stakeholders’ identities [Conference workshop]. DRS 2022, Universidad del País Vasco. Bilbao.
• Nickley, W., McInroy, L. B., Sanders, E. B.-N., Snyder, C., Scheadler, T. (2022, June 20–22). Toward affirmative co-design: Accounting for intersectionality in LGBTQ+ youth identity & lived experience [Paper presentation]. 8th International Forum of Design as a Process: Disrupting Geographies in the Design World. Bologña.
• Nickley, W. (2022, May 9). Tokens: An experimental making project to foster dialogue for racial justice [invited workshop]. Department of Design Faculty Retreat, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, United States.
• Gumus Ciftci, H., Beecher, M.A., Proulx, S., & Nickley, W. (2022). If it’s broken, don’t just fix it: Exploring repair as design through a two-week design charrette. Cumulus Conference 2022. Design for Adaptation Proceedings. Detroit.
• Nickley, W. (2021). Practices of making: Exploring design-based making within Positive Youth Development. In M. Botta, & S. Junginger (Eds.), Design as common good: Framing design through pluralism and social values (pp.1086–1106). SUPSI, HSLU, swissdesignnetwork.

Selected Works

• Nickley, W., Muñoz-Arias, C., Rincon, H. R., Sanderson, Z., Ackerman, M., & O’Hara, S. (2024). ISPARK Cart [mobile maker space]. Innovation Studio, College of Nursing, The Ohio State University. https://nursing.osu.edu/transformations-nursing-and-health/spring-2024/sparking-innovation
• Maa, T., Chelvakumar, G., Nickley, W., McInroy, L., Scheadler, T., Snyder, C., Patterson, J., & LittleSeed (2023). CoDe Rainbow: 60-minute training [online training]. https://coderainbow.training/
• Nickley, W. (Ed.) (2023). 3D media for creatives: An Open-access living library [online textbook]. Ohio State Pressbooks. https://ohiostate.pressbooks.pub/design3d/

Selected Exhibitions

• Nickley, W. (2023). Sixth annual design winter market [Exhibition]. Urban Arts Space Hybrid Arts Lab, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, United States. https://uas.osu.edu/sixth-annual-design-winter-market
• Nickley, W. (2022). Fifth annual design winter market [Exhibition]. Urban Arts Space Hybrid Arts Lab, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, United States. https://uas.osu.edu/fifth-annual-design-winter-market
• Nickley, W. (2021). Fourth annual industrial design winter market [Hybrid exhibition]. Urban Arts Space Hybrid Arts Lab, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, United States. https://uas.osu.edu/fourth-annual-industrial-design-winter-market
• Murteza, N., Nickley, W., & Sabatelli, M. (2021). Blackout poetry [Online exhibition]. Urban Arts Space Hybrid Arts Lab, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, United States. https://uas.osu.edu/events/blackout-poetry
• Nickley, W. (2020). Third annual industrial design winter market [Online exhibition]. Urban Arts Space Hybrid Arts Lab, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, United States. https://uas.osu.edu/third-annual-industrial-design-winter-market
• Nickley, W. (2020). The performance of making: Material explorations along the product development path [Online exhibition]. Urban Arts Space Hybrid Arts Lab, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, United States. https://uas.osu.edu/performance-making-industrial-design-winter-market
• Nickley, W. (2020). Youth use design and emerging technology to solve community problems! [Exhibition]. The MakerX Expo, Ohio Expo Center, Columbus, OH, United States. https://makerx.org/ & https://osln.org/event/makerx-the-columbus-maker-expo-2/