About me

Award-winning Creative Director, Serious Games Specialist, and Immersive Learning Designer with over 20 years of experience designing human-centred interactive experiences across defence, humanitarian, leadership, and public sector environments.

My work sits at the intersection of immersive learning, behavioural systems design, storytelling, simulation, illustration, and emerging creative technologies. I specialise in creating emotionally intelligent experiences that combine systems thinking, narrative design, handcrafted visual storytelling, and interactive learning to drive meaningful engagement and behavioural impact.

Throughout my career, I have led and contributed to global digital learning transformations, serious games, humanitarian learning programmes, and immersive simulation projects for organisations including Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, Humanitarian Leadership Academy, Oxfam / CaLP, Save the Children UK, CDS Defence & Security, Spec Ops Technology, and Babcock International.

I'm passionate about blending traditional artistic practice with modern digital workflows, including ethical and human-centred applications of AI-assisted creative technologies. My expertise spans instructional design, serious games, digital storytelling, illustration, UX-informed learning design, multimedia production, prototyping, and accessible experience development using tools such as Adobe Creative Suite, Storyline, Adapt, and emerging AI creative pipelines.

My work has received international recognition, including:

Gold — I/ITSEC Global Serious Games Awards 2025
Gold — LPI Learning Awards 2026
Silver — Learning Technologies Awards 2023
Save the Children Eglantyne Jebb Award 2023

Alongside project work, I regularly contribute to presentations, podcasts, webinars, workshops, and industry discussions exploring immersive learning, behavioural engagement, serious games, ethical AI workflows, and human-centred interaction design. I also occasionally run creative workshops for young people focused on animation principles, storytelling, and creative thinking.

At the heart of my work is a belief that people remember what they emotionally connect with, and that meaningful design should always place human experience, empathy, and accessibility at its centre.

Austen's work

D&D profiles

Stop and Search - Serious Game

ELearning - Crisis Management

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