"Doing modules like positive psychology and consumer psychology alongside everything else helped me see things from different perspectives."
Year graduated: 2012
Current role: Director of Service and Organisational Design at Frog
After I left Bangor, I worked freelance but also as an executive assistant until I got my first full-time Service Design job at an agency. Over the years, I've bounced between working for agencies and freelancing, depending on what felt best at the time. Moving directly into design with a psychology degree wasn't easy, most people who have studied design have a portfolio of work to back them up. I work with lots of different types of designers, such as digital, physical space and branding designers. They each have their own approach and craft depending on what they're trying to create, whereas I always focus on the people. This helps me work across a range of different disciplines and helps the designers to better understand their clients. So much of my work is about building rapport, helping people empathise and understand each other, and managing conflict, especially in redesigning how an organization works. This can be stressful for clients and can feel a lot like therapy at times!
In Design, we try to create a better world for people and planet, and psychology has been a key part in helping understand people and creating better solutions. We usually start by conducting research into peoples' underlying needs and motivations. My background in psychology really helps explore this and move beyond just a basic insight. There can be so many factors to consider when designing new solutions or experiences. For example, when designing for behaviour change, or considering the mental models people have for how an organisation works, or how we can design better services or experiences for neurodivergent people. Design is really all about how we can create a better world for the people living in it, and psychology can really help you understand people better and what they need, not just what they want.
Studying at Bangor helped me see how Psychology could be applied in new ways. When I started at university, I was planning to take the Clinical Psychology route, but the course opened my eyes to a lot of different opportunities that I realized suited me better. Doing modules like positive psychology and consumer psychology alongside everything else helped me see things from different perspectives. As someone with dyslexia and ADHD, coursework was always something I struggled with, and the department were really patient and supportive in helping me.
A lot of psychology and therapy is about helping people who are struggling with a complicated and stressful world to get back to a normal level of coping. With the knowledge gained by studying psychology, we can all find ways to make things a little better. By bringing together psychology and design I can create a better, more people-centric, world that actively promotes human flourishing.