Through her work in local communities in local governments in Australia, Sarah discovered User Experience Design (UX) and Service Design (SD). With a passion to learn more and expand her skills, Sarah eventually decided to do the Service Design course at Academy Xi. It was here that she realised there was a name for what she had been doing all along — interview research.

On a particular project, Sarah had to work on building an art classroom and the local government she worked for had a very linear approach to it. It wasn’t until Sarah spoke to the teachers and delved deeper, that she understood the importance of the art classroom. The students came up with a really cool idea: a blackboard in the yard so they could express their personal art, in conjunction with their classroom art.

Sarah uses this as an example of human-centred design and viewing problems through a human-lens. This way of thinking is further emphasised in fields like Service Design, where the users and in this case the children, are placed at the heart of design.