I’m a problem finder-solver designer-researcher-maker 🦄

I’m a design researcher, UX designer and educator. I love the way people create meaning through interactions with interfaces 🌟 

I identify problems and solve them through Design

TA-DA!

It all started here

Since 2006, I’ve worked as a web and graphic designer, developing layouts for digital media and creating better solutions for people and brands. At that time, there was no term for “UX design”. We were called “web designers” – or sometimes “just” designers. I’ve worked for several companies in Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) during my career journey, including the 2 largest newspapers at that time: Jornal do Brasil and O GLOBO. During that time, I’ve created infographics and UIs that were accessed and used by thousands of people. I’ve also worked for the e-learning portal Escola24Horas, where I’ve designed and created the art for a few (“edutainment”) games, and the tech company ADD Technologies, as a UI designer. 

In 2017, I finished my PhD, researching the role of the design of advergames (games designed around a brand message) in cross-cultural consumer behaviour. I’ve created a framework to help designers create (and test) advergames that can be used across cultures. You can follow my academic publications if you want to know more about my research.

Currently, I am a researcher and educator, teaching and researching many aspects of games, HCI, cultural studies, virtual reality (VR) / augmented reality (AR) / extended reality (XR), and sustainability participatory design (yes, it’s broad, I know).

I am interested in creative computing systems and value-sensitive design. I also work as a consultant in UX and UI design, particularly in the area of games and XR for businesses in different sectors, such as health, education and retail.

A lot of my interests have changed over the years, but I think it all sits in the remit of designing experiences with/around a purpose and with people, and a lot of these things involve embodied experiences.

When I get a chance, I also create games with/around my children using tiny tools. While I do that, I create games that allow me to reflect on my role as a mother and my positionality as a researcher, coordinator, facilitator, and matrescence, and how things have changed for me, and how I deal with my own internal conflicts, through game-making. 

Some academic stuff

  • PGCAP (2020)
  • Fellow of the High Education Academy (HEA) (2019)
  • PhD in Design from the University of Southampton, UK (2017)
  • MBA in Marketing from UFF, Brazil (2008)
  • BA in Design from PUC-Rio, Brazil (2006)

Memberships

Research and extra links

“The only important thing about design is how it relates to people.”

Victor Papanek

For reflection:

“The critical transition period which has been missed is MATRESCENCE, the time of mother-becoming,’ writes Raphael. ‘During this process, this rite of passage, changes occur in a woman’s physical state, in her status within the group, in her emotional life, in her focus of daily activity, in”
― Lucy Jones, Matrescence: On the Metamorphosis of Pregnancy, Childbirth and Motherhood