Understanding people.
Making sense of complexity.
Designing meaningful ways forward.

I work across design research, facilitation, coaching and education — understanding how people experience complex environments and systems, and translating those insights into meaningful ways forward.

Discover → Make Sense → Translate → Frame → Co-create → Operationalise

I start by listening, observing and understanding what is really happening. I look for patterns, tensions and unmet needs, translate them into clear opportunities, and bring people together to shape practical ways forward. I care about ideas that work not only on paper, but in real human experience.

How I work

I work collaboratively, starting with curiosity rather than fixed solutions. I listen, observe and ask questions to understand what is really happening — including what may not yet be visible or clearly articulated. From there, I make sense of complexity, translate insights into clear possibilities, and bring people together to shape practical ways forward.

Understand → Make Sense → Translate → Co-create → Operationalise

Human-Centred Research

Collaborating with organizations to design reflective processes that support clarity, alignment, and adaptive ways of working..

Co-Design & Facilitation

Bringing people and perspectives together to explore, challenge and create possibilities collectively.

For Organizations and Government Agencies

Sensemaking & Strategic Framing

Finding patterns in complexity and turning them into clear problems, opportunities and directions.

Process & Experience Design

Turning broad intentions into thoughtful processes and experiences that people can actually understand and use.

Insight Translation & Concept Development

Translating human insights into design principles, concepts, strategies and actionable directions.

For Individuals

Life Coaching

Supporting individuals through life transitions by cultivating self-awareness, resilience, and clarity of direction.

Career Coaching

Working with individuals to reflect on career direction, strengths, and possibilities, shaping paths that feel both meaningful and sustainable.

Misaki Toda (杜多美咲)
A design researcher and consultant whose practice spans facilitation, coaching, and education. Based in Brisbane, Australia, Misaki works across research and practice to understand human experience and translate insights into meaningful action.

Misaki’s work begins with curiosity about people — how they experience, understand, and navigate the environments and systems around them. They are particularly interested in the gap between what is intended or designed and what people actually experience, and in uncovering needs, frictions, and possibilities that may not yet be clearly articulated.

Originally from Oita, Japan, Misaki’s path has moved across organizational development, co-creation, consulting, design research, coaching, and education. Across these different contexts, a consistent thread has emerged: listening deeply, making sense of complexity, connecting perspectives, and turning insights into clear directions and practical action.

Their practice has included cross-sector co-creation at SHIBUYA QWS, leading a barrier-free public–private co-creation project in Chigasaki City, and supporting human-centred policy design with the Japan Patent Office. Today, they collaborate with organizations, public institutions, and individuals through research, strategic thinking, facilitation, and co-design.

Misaki is currently undertaking a Master of Philosophy at Queensland University of Technology (QUT), where they also teach Community Planning as a Sessional Academic. Their research explores how people interpret information and navigate unfamiliar public environments, with a growing focus on public space, mobility, wayfinding, and visitor experience.

Moving between research and practice, Misaki continues to explore how deeper understanding of human experience can inform better environments, services, and systems and how those insights can be translated into meaningful change in the real world.

Understanding people.Making sense of complexity.Designing meaningful ways forward.