Community Volunteering

Mind Over Matter

As an advocate for mindfulness it was really rewarding to be part of Mind Over Matter 2018! Founded by Kim MacKenzie-Doyle, current president of the Institute of Designers in Ireland, this initiative aims to focus on mental health awareness in the creative community.

I participated by attending the launch event and promoting the cause on social media to encourage businesses to sign up for design consultations. I then donated my time on the day to talk to these businesses about user experience and design thinking. The proceeds raised went to Aware - an Irish organisation that supports people going through depression.

During one consultation, I was able to offer advice to the CEO and developer of a new fin-tech product and suggests ways they could improve their visual and UX design before their upcoming product launch. I took a sneak-peak at their app before we met and was able to prepare a take-away file with my thoughts and recommendations. It was a great opportunity to learn from new people and be able to use my experience to give back.

IBM Radio at OFFSET

For the past few years IBM Design have had a presence at the OFFSET design conference in Dublin. In 2018 we were fortunate to have IBM Radio be a part of our booth!

I had the pleasure of interviewing some of the main speakers and delving into details about their incredible work. We talked about their individual stories, what motivates them, and discussed their thoughts on the intersection between design & technology. I also got the chance to speak with some of the creatives attending the event to hear about their own journeys, what they thought of the conference, and which speakers they were most inspired by.

When I wasn’t interviewing or attending talks, I was helping out at the IBM Studios booth to greet attendees, explain the iPad demo’s for IBM Watson conversation and IBM Security, recruiting new designers, and promoting the interactive wall where people could write or draw a response to the Q 'Who are the people you design for?'.

(photos courtesy of IBM Design colleagues)

Sandra Murphy, Psychology & User Experience

Coder Dojo ‘Coolest Project Awards’

Coolest Projects is a world leading showcase that encourages children aged from 5 to 15 years to get involved with technology, innovation, and digital creation. They entered the competition with projects including Scratch games, Websites, HTML5 games, Arduino projects and more - representative of what they learned at weekly sessions with mentors.

I signed up to volunteer at the awards event in DCU (Dublin City University) back in 2014, joining a group of IBMers who were helping out. I directed visitors to the correct buildings for various events and generally acted as a ‘go-to’ person if any of the children taking part needed help finding their designated spaces to set-up their project presentations.

It was inspiring to see such young kids tackling new skills!

UX Camp Dublin

It was a lot of fun being part of the team at UX Camp Dublin 2017. UX Camps are hosted in cities all around the world and are attended by industry professionals from different companies and backgrounds. It creates an opportunity to meet up, share stories, give presentations about their experience, attend workshops, and to network.

I was the MC on the second stage, welcoming attendees and introducing each speaker before they began. I kept track of time and made sure everything ran smoothly. I also helped out the team who were organising the event with bits & pieces and helped to post the updated schedule on the walls for attendees to refer to.