Wyatt Roy

My design practice spans a wide range — from VR storytelling and haptic wearables to curriculum design and institutional strategy — but most of it is in service of a consistent question: how do we design systems that inspire us, free us, and connect us?

Before Harvard, I worked in commercial filmmaking, interactive VR storytelling, product marketing, and community organizing. Those experiences convinced me that the most interesting design problems are at the edges between disciplines — where the tools of one field can open up something that felt stuck in another.

I'm particularly drawn to projects whose "users" are vast boundary-less networks of stakeholders who all want different things. Helping human and nonhuman users find alignment and resonance in complex systems — whatever the medium — makes me zing.

My current research uses institutions as my medium: how can we understand and meet them where they are, and how can we help the people inside them change and grow so the whole system stays alive?