Li Ping Thong

Associate Professor Li Ping Thong is the Associate Dean of Digital Design at RMIT University School of Design, where she leads the largest discipline within the School of Design, covering undergraduate and postgraduate programs in Games, Animation, Digital Media, and the Master of Animation, Games and Interactivity (MAGI). With over 20 years of international teaching experience across Malaysia, Vietnam, and Australia, she is a highly experienced digital design expert, educator and researcher, recognised for her depth of knowledge in digital media, curriculum development, and academic leadership.

Li Ping’s work spans a broad and evolving range of digital design practice: immersive technologies, Virtual Reality (VR), Augmented Reality (AR), Serious Games, User Experience (UX) Design, User Interface (UI) Design, Interaction Design, Digital Storytelling, Web and App Development, and creative content production. Her focus is on building thoughtful and future-facing digital media experiences that have real-world impact - especially in education, sustainability, community engagement, and cultural heritage.

As a CALD (Culturally and Linguistically Diverse) leader in a largely non-diverse design and technology field, Li Ping brings a perspective shaped by lived experience, long-term regional engagement and deep industry and community connections. She’s known for her clarity, strategic thinking and the ability to create collaborative environments where new ideas and practices in digital design can take shape and gain momentum.

Since 2017, she has secured over $1 million in external research funding (Category 1-4), leading projects that bring together emerging digital technologies with pressing societal issues. Her cross-disciplinary research includes partnerships with the Australian Automobile Association, Foodbank Australia, Porter Davis, Federation Square, Melbourne Girls Grammar School, and the Golden Plains Shire Council.

Outside of her academic role, Li Ping runs a 32-acre regenerative farm - a hands-on, analogue practice that informs how she thinks about digital design education and leadership. This duality - city and farm, code and soil - shapes how she approaches the field: not just as a space for technical innovation, but as one that must also grapple with culture, place, and systems thinking. She’s interested in how digital media design can shift from extractive models to regenerative frameworks - ones that build resilience, reciprocity, and long-term repair across both land and interface.

Li Ping contributes to public conversations on digital design through media interviews and speaking engagements, including national television (ABC News), radio and podcast. She has delivered keynotes and public talks on the future of design, digital inclusion, place-based practice and learning and teaching.

She is always open to connecting with industry collaborators, educators, digital media professionals, designers and others working at the intersection of design, technology and regenerative systems. If you’re working in VR, AR, UX, serious games, digital storytelling, or anywhere within the realm of digital design and immersive media - get in touch.

Areas of Expertise

Immersive & Emerging Technologies
Virtual Reality (VR), Augmented Reality (AR), Extended Reality (XR), Mixed Reality (MR), Immersive Technologies, Spatial Computing

Game & Interactive Systems
Serious Games, Game-Based Learning, Game Design, Simulation Design, Interactive Media, Interactive Storytelling

Design & Creative Production
2D/3D Animation, Motion Design, Digital Storytelling, Creative Content Production, Digital Illustration, Content Development

UX, UI & Human-Centred Design
User Experience (UX) Design, User Interface (UI) Design, Human-Centred Design, Digital Environments, Web Design and App Development

Education, Culture & Digital Pedagogy
Technology-Enhanced Learning, Digital Learning Environments, Design Pedagogy, Education Technology (EdTech), Digital Media, Digital Design, Culture and Heritage