Studying the emotional lives we live online

Pamela Pavliscak is a design researcher and author whose work reveals the hidden emotional patterns of our digital lives. By studying how people feel with and through technology, she uncovers practical strategies for living well in a connected world—how to find balance, strengthen relationships, and bring more empathy and meaning into everyday digital life.

Pamela’s ideas have been featured in The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, Quartz, Slate, Fast Company, and NPR, where she is known for making the science of emotion and technology accessible and deeply human. She has spoken on the global stage at TEDx, SXSW, Web Summit, TNW, and NEXT, sharing insights about emotional well-being, AI, and the digital future. Her talks invite audiences to imagine not just what technology can do, but how it can make us feel—and what that feeling reveals about being human.

Through her creative studio Subjective, Pamela has collaborated with organizations including Google, IBM, NBCUniversal, Dentsu, IKEA, Zeiss, PepsiCo, Accenture, Facebook, Vinted, Nielsen, Virgin, and the New York Public Library. Her research helps companies and cultural institutions translate emotional insight into meaningful design—bridging the gap between data and empathy, innovation and intimacy.

Pamela teaches at Pratt Institute, where she helps the next generation of designers create technologies that feel as good as they function. She’s also the author of Emotionally Intelligent Design (O’Reilly, 2018), a practical guide to designing with emotional awareness.