Hi there, I’m Declan. Feel free to look at my CV, it’s a PDF…

You could then hire me 🌝?

Or read on for some more Declan Information™.

The Basics

I’m a graduate from the University of Manchester, where I got a 1st Class Honours BSc in Human Computer Interaction, and was proud to receive the professor’s prize for outstanding achievement in 3rd year. I’m now a research assistant for the uni - but working remotely from beautiful Edinburgh - developing new flexible versions of software engineering, agile, and UX teaching modules. It’s great to have the opportunity to really deeply engage with and understand these topics through the work, and to find new ways of presenting it to students in a new, flexible way. Not only that, but by developing the systems to deliver these materials, I get to implement the kind of things they teach

History

I started as a strong communicator, collaborator, and creative thinker from a background in the arts, but went to uni as a mature student to get some harder skills in computer science and software engineering. Switching from a pure CS to Human Computer Interaction degree was a hard choice, but the bigger picture understanding gained from studying psychology, biology, and anthropology helped me discover a love of UX, and to appreciate its vital importance to just about everything we make and use every day!

Future?

I’m also completely fascinated by everything ‘games’. To me they are the purest demonstration of all I’m interested in; insight into how people tick, how artistic combinations of software and hardware affects people and their perceptions, and how the most incredible technology is at its best when abstracted away to pure emotional experience. The aim, basically, is to find a way in to the games industry that’s always been such a pull to me - but also elusive because of my broad interests in so many facets of it. Any way in is good - but a way in that let’s me interact with as many parts of the game-making endeavour as possible is better!