Martin McGinn is a design lecturer, service designer and healthcare innovation leader with more than two decades of experience in higher education and industry.

At Ulster University’s Belfast School of Art he lectures in product design and design thinking, and he supervises undergraduate and postgraduate projects. He integrates design thinking, systems practice and co‑design to create scalable services and learning experiences.

In 2017 McGinn co‑founded Life & Time, a rural out‑of‑hours end‑of‑life care service that mobilises community volunteers and local nurses to provide on‑call support between 10 pm and 8 am; he serves as operations manager and designs clinical systems, e‑learning and technical frameworks.

Product and Service design for community health and palliative care, focusing on co‑design with patients, families and healthcare professionals. How AI/ML can be used across Digital Healthcare Systems and Telehealth touch points. Systems thinking and user experience for digital tools that improve patietn outcomes, consent and communication in healthcare. Design education and curriculum development that equips students to apply design thinking to real‑world social challenges. Exploring how design‑led research can support sustainable innovation. Research contributions include a qualitative enquiry into community‑based nursing and social work support for home‑based palliative care and co‑authoring a chapter on “Designing for Death” in The Design of Care.

• Product design and design thinking, emphasising user‑centred approaches and evidence‑based research.

• Healthcare innovation and service design for end‑of‑life care, drawing on his experience with Life & Time.

• Systems practice and co‑design methodologies that involve multi‑disciplinary collaboration.

• Mentoring students in entrepreneurship and community‑based projects; he led a design brief for balance bikes for children with cerebral palsy, which gained national recognition.

• Developing new courses and revalidating existing programmes at Ulster University, and delivering international workshops.

External Examiner Positions

• External Examiner (2024–2028) – Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts London (Product Design).

• External Examiner (2021–2024) – University of Chester (Product Design).

• Validation panel member for new and exisitng courses across UK and ROI. 

• These external examiner roles build on his long‑standing contribution to curriculum development and quality assurance.

• Co‑investigator, AHRC‑funded Green Transition Ecosystem: Future Island‑Island (2023–2025).  This £3.23 million project explores design‑led solutions for circular economies and citizen behaviour change, using co‑design, product waste ecosystems, digital transitions and education to shape sustainable futures .

• Co-Investigator, Knowledge Transfer Partnership programme between University of Ulster and Axial3D (2023–2025).  This KTP project connected academic expertise with industry to develop systems for Surgeons that would use Artificial Intellident software built on Machine learning datasets for the creation of Patient Specific Instruments that would result in better patient outcomes for such surgeries as Wrist replacement, knee replacement surgey as an example. This project completed in April 2025 and was awarded the classification of 'Outstanding'. 

• Principal Investigator, Knowledge Transfer Partnership programme between University of Ulster and Alexander Boyd Displays Limited (2018–2021).  This KTP project connected academic expertise with industry to drive innovation in display technologies and lasted from December 2018 to September 2021 .