Alumni Stories - Sarah Heffernan
"The 12 months of the MA in Service Design were filled with some of the most demanding, thought-provoking, invigorating, eye-opening and regenerating moments of my life. I’m extremely grateful to everyone who made it possible."
Name: Sarah Heffernan
Current Career: Service Design
Graduation Year: 2021
Discipline: Service Design
Location: Galway, Ireland
What career path did you want to follow as a child?
As a child I wanted to be a mermaid, more specifically Disney’s The Little Mermaid. I admired Ariel’s curiosity and imagination, her openness and vulnerability, and her sense of adventure and desire to explore. I also thought it would be wonderful to live under the sea. As I got older I developed and nurtured many skills in a variety of industries but always sought to bring imagination, curiosity, creativity, adventure and openness to everything I did (much like Ariel).
Why did you decide to study at National College of Art & Design?
Many years ago, someone who knew me creatively recommended I apply for NCAD. Despite a serious case of imposter syndrome early on, that recommendation was a gift. Though challenging at times, I loved my undergraduate experience. When I felt the desire to return to creative studies a few years later as a postgraduate, I was naturally drawn to NCAD. However, it was a conversation with Dr Caoimhe McMahon, the course coordinator for the MA Service Design, that really sealed the deal. After that, I couldn’t wait to return to NCAD and was delighted when I was accepted onto the course. The 12 months of the MA were filled with some of the most demanding, thought-provoking, invigorating, eye-opening and regenerating moments of my life. I’m extremely grateful to everyone who made it possible.
How did you develop your career towards your current job or practice?
My career hasn’t followed a very linear path or taken the upwards trajectory that some do. It’s more reminiscent of Damien Newman’s design squiggle with lots of twists and turns that have kept it interesting. I initially worked as a traditional craft artist specialising in glass design. As much as I adored the material, I found long days alone in my studio quite tough and decided to transition into more engaging, people facing roles. These included marketing, community engagement and experience design in variety of industries such as retail, tech, consulting, hospitality and tourism. Before starting the MA Service Design I actually spent several years working as a bungy jump operator. Of all the roles I’ve had, it’s this one that taught me the most about the diversity of human behaviour and psychology, particularly in exciting, stressful and sometimes terrifying environments. Following this experience, I felt a strong desire to embed myself in a creative learning environment again so returned to NCAD to study the MA Service design. I began working as a designer, specialising in Service and Experience Design, not long after graduating and I currently work as a Service Designer with Deloitte Digital. I take everything I’ve learned and experienced across the variety of roles I’ve had into my work day-to-day and I believe I’m better designer for having this design squiggle of a career path.
What is the one experience during your time at NCAD that has informed you most in your career and work to date?
It has to be the experience of working with real clients on live projects. Every aspect of that was invaluable:
- Understanding the real-world challenges and pain points of the clients.
- Collaborating with them throughout the design process.
- Presenting key deliverables in a professional environment.
- Getting feedback on the implementation of our design solutions.
It’s a huge advantage getting to work with live clients in an academic or educational setting. I still use the learnings from those live project experiences in the work I do today.
One particular highlight was working with the Mater Hospital’s Innovation Team for 6 weeks on a variety of different challenges. Though difficult at times considering the nature of the hospital setting we were in, if I could have that experience again, I’d go back in a heartbeat.
If you were chatting with current NCAD students today what is the one piece of advice you would offer?
Go for every opportunity you can, whether it’s offered to you or you have to search it out. It’s rare to have the space and support to explore in the real world that you get in a learning setting. You only have a short time to make the most of this experience so attend every lecture, embrace the feedback from your tutors and fellow students, join in person and online events to expand your network and your knowledge, host your own events even, and enter design and innovation competitions. Regardless of the outcome, preparing for and completing competition briefs forces you to consider a variety of audiences and think about your work in different ways. I cannot recommend this enough - take every opportunity you can.
What new opportunities have developed for you as a result of changes in work practice during the Covid pandemic?
Flexible working arrangements and being able to choose a work environment that suits me and the way I create best is a huge benefit that’s come about from changes in the way we work as a result of the pandemic. Remote working has afforded me the opportunity to develop new skills in conducting research, prototyping, usability testing, creating client deliverables, presenting work and measuring outcomes across projects.
It also means I can collaborate with people from across the world and take advantage of online learning and networking opportunities. I’ve attended Australian and New Zealand Design conferences in the middle of the night from the comfort of my home here in Ireland. That would’ve been relatively unthinkable before the pandemic.
