John Christopher Jones (also known as J. Christopher Jones, John Jones, Chris Jones, and John Chris Jones) was born in Wales in 1927, the son of Christopher John and Jennie Humphreys Jones. After attending Cambridge University, where he studied engineering, Jones began working at Associated Electrical Industries in Manchester, England and teaching industrial design courses at Manchester's Regional College of Art.

Throughout the 1950s, Jones published a number of works on the design process, culminating on his article "A Systematic Design Method." Jones advocated a user-centrist philosophy to the engineering process, bringing ergonomics to the forefront of considerations in the design process. In the 1960s, he established the Design Research Laboratory at Manchester University and taught a master's course in design technology. In 1962 he was a co-founder of the first Conference on Design Methods, from which grew the Design Research Society.

In 1970, Jones published Design Methods: Seeds of Human Futures, an authoritative work on the subject. The following year, he became the first professor of design at Britain's Open University. Since leaving that position in 1975, Jones has worked as an independent consultant, author and lecturer. He was a visiting scholar at Virginia Tech's College of Architecture and Urban Studies from 1974 to 1975.