Biography (EN)

Professor Yu-Min Fang specializes in researching "interactive communication frameworks between humans and objects," focusing on interactive interface design while integrating his expertise in Information and Communications Technology (ICT) to explore design for older adults, emotional design, Virtual Reality (VR), and the application of Generative AI. Since joining academia, he has published 12 international journal papers, including three in Behaviour & Information Technology, four in Applied Sciences (with his two latest VR studies in 2023 and 2024 ranked in JCR Q1), one in SAGE Open, one in Advances in Mechanical Engineering, and two in the Bulletin of Japanese Society for the Science of Design (デザイン学研究). Furthermore, he was honored with the Outstanding Research Award from the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) in 2017 (106th Academic Year) and the Excellent Research Awards from the National Science and Technology Council (NSTC) in 2021, 2022, and 2023 (110th, 111th, and 112th Academic Years), alongside receiving the Outstanding Research Award (2021, 2024) and the Teaching Excellence Award (2016, 2024) from National United University.

Prior to his academic career, Professor Yu-Min Fang served as a Senior Manager of the Industrial Design Department at First International Computer Group (FIC) and Delta Electronics, specializing in industrial design and ICT with 18 years of practical industry experience. During his years in design practice, he witnessed the evolution of product interfaces from traditional hardware controls to Graphical User Interfaces (GUIs). Through this transition, he realized that human cognition is exceptionally complex and that communication between humans and objects is difficult to control—far beyond initial expectations and impossible to improve overnight. While pursuing his Master of Science in Design at Arizona State University in the United States, he specialized in interface design research and engaged with various interdisciplinary fields. Upon returning to Taiwan to work in the industry, he encountered numerous practical challenges stemming from interface design. Later, while serving as an adjunct lecturer teaching interactive interface design at National Taiwan University of Science and Technology, he began systematically organizing his previous papers and cross-disciplinary literature. Ultimately, combining his firsthand practical experience and research findings in interface design with teaching cases, he authored Taiwan's first Chinese-language textbook on interactive interface design in 2003, Dialogue Between Humans and Objects: Theory and Practice of Interactive Interfaces, which has been widely cited by scholars and served as a foundational reference for early UI/UX practitioners.

Professor Yu-Min Fang joined the faculty at National United University in 2012; over the past 14 years, he has conducted deeper, more rigorous, and systematic explorations into interactive interface issues. With continuous support from NSTC (formerly MOST), he has served as Principal Investigator for 12 research projects (spanning 16 project years, from 2012 to 2027), and led the Ministry of Education's Artificial Intelligence Technology and Application Curriculum Project from 2024 to 2026 ("AI-Driven Design Revolution: Integrating Generative AI in Creative Education"). Regarding his research and design achievements, his early forward-looking concept projects explored in-depth interactions for older adults, resulting in a design shortlisted for the Germany iF Water Special Award (Hansgrohe Prize); another project integrated cultural crafts with ICT to explore the transmission of experience, earning a Top 100 selection in the iF Concept Design Award. In recent years, he has consistently published the outcomes of his NSTC projects in high-impact international journals and conferences:

• His 2016 study on wearable devices for older adults, "Users' Psychological Perception…", published in Behaviour & Information Technology, has received 132 citations on Google Scholar and 76 citations on Scopus.

• His 2021 study on VR exercise promotion for older adults, published in Behaviour & Information Technology, appeared in a JCR Q2 high-impact journal (SCI, SSCI; 2021 Impact Factor: 3.320; ranked 11/24 in Computer Science, Cybernetics; 8/16 in Ergonomics).

• His two consecutive VR studies on modeling and freeform creativity, published in Applied Sciences in 2023 and 2024, saw the journal advance to JCR Q1 in the Engineering, Multidisciplinary category (Impact Factor: 2.5, ranked 44/179).

• Between 2024 and 2026, he further expanded his research focus to the integration of Generative AI and UI/UX. In addition to executing the 2025 NSTC project "Generative AI-Assisted Industrial Design: A Study on Implementing Stable and Visual Parametric Workflows" and the 2026–2027 NSTC project "Generative AI-Assisted Design Process Differences and Industrial Implementation Strategies Based on Product Characteristics: A Comparative Study of ICT and Small Appliances," he won the Best Paper Award at the IEEE ICKII international conference for two consecutive years in 2024 and 2025.

Over the past decade, Professor Yu-Min Fang has led the "3D Fabrication & VR Interaction Laboratory," mentoring dozens of graduate and undergraduate project students across pioneering research topics including design for older adults, virtual reality, wearable interfaces, information and eco-visualization, cognition and emotion, and Generative AI-collaborative industrial design.