ADAM MCGUIRE / MASTERS DESIGN STUDENT

ADAM MCGUIRE is a MASTER RESEARCH STUDENT at I.T. Carlow’s designCORE, researching the effects of GAMIFICATION and its effects on student motivation.

@ADAM_MACGUIDHIR @MCGUIREADAM

I have always been creative and when I was younger, I saw myself pursuing animation. However, I learned that I do not have the patience for animation so I am glad I did not pursue that in the end. School was always tough for me from an academic standpoint. I always got on well with the teachers but I never found any meaning in what I was learning.

I wanted to pursue something in the arts or design field but the subjects did not accommodate for it and honestly, I felt that there was some form of pressure to pursue a career that offered zero risk and predictable income. After school there was a lot of trial and error with college courses, I really struggled to find something that had meaning for me.

I have my mother to thank for putting me onto the track of design. She has always been supportive of my creativity and discovered the Visual Communications and Design course at IT Carlow. That course really did increase my love for design and through the support of the lecturers in that course, I have been able to go on to a postgraduate position at IT Carlow.

It is hard to recall when exactly I fell in love with design. As I mentioned, finding the right course really did help but there has always been a passion for good design from a young age.

I used to keep the boxes to all the toys my parents bought me, they thought I was a hoarder but in reality, the packaging was as much of a part of the experience as the toy itself. Not much has changed, I still keep the boxes of my toys, only now my toys are electronics. The packaging helps convey the experience of using the content inside. I guess I always had a fascination with that level of visual communication.

The Masters is in the area of Gamification and its effects on student motivation. Gamification is the use of game elements (points, badges, leaderboards) in non-game contexts. The research revolves around studies to determine the viability of using game elements to increase student engagement with tasks considered boring. The research involves a lot of writing which is not overly exciting but it does include the occasional UX/UI design.

Outside of the Masters, I have had many opportunities to design and develop mobile apps, games and websites for gameCORE projects. These projects involve developing mockups, designing interfaces, utilising HTML, CSS and JavaScript. I also teach graphic and web design part-time for IT Carlow’s Lifelong Learning modules.

I think my favourite project was one I did in my undergraduate. The project involved designing a book cover. The book I chose was ‘Lord of the Flies’ by

William Golding. I’m really proud of that project due to the inherent challenge designed into the project brief; the content needed to be produced by the designer. That meant no use of stock photos. But I wanted to use an image of a shattered conch shell and using colours from old paintings depicting the fall of ancient Rome as my visual. I had no means of acquiring a conch shell and I didn’t want to use similar looking beach shells so I painted a conch from reference images.

The reason that project is a highlight for me is that I managed to achieve exactly what I was wanting to convey but without that limitation, I really think my product would have suffered. Lesson learned here is that limitation sparks creative solutions that are often greater than if we had every resource available at our disposal.

Im passionate about new technology (phones, tablets etc.). These devices not only enable new tools for us to use in our creative processes but they have shaped how we approach web and app design.

I think if you are designing for those platforms, you really do need to submerge yourself in the latest news and keep up to date with the latest tech. Luckily for me, it’s of interest for me to keep up to date.

As a pastime, I play video games (perhaps too many). Apart from being pure entertainment, video games do an incredible job of trying to communicate a lot of information at once on screen. The Heads Up Display (technical term for displaying important information to a gamer) is fascinating. It involves careful use of typography and iconography to communicate information all without being in the way. I think I learned a lot from my time playing games from a UI/ UX perspective.

Like other human-beings, I listen to music. But unlike other human-beings, if it’s on the radio, you will not find it in my music library. This isn’t some hipster protest, it’s just the music I enjoy is never present on radio stations.

I listen to movie soundtracks and multiple heavy metal sub-genres such as metalcore, trash metal, new wave british, nu-metal and death metal.

One of the first courses I ever took in college was Architectural Technology. I always regretted taking that course and I applied completely for the wrong reasons. During that course, one of the lecturers said (to the whole class mind you, but it stuck with me and I’m paraphrasing here) if you don’t love buildings, love looking at them, then why are you in this course?

At that time in my life, I went to college because I felt I had too, and not once did I consider doing something I should love. I never met anyone who loved what they did so I thought I was supposed to pick something I could earn as much money as I could regardless of if I liked it (like I said, completely the wrong reasons). After hearing that, I left the course and started my journey on finding something I would love to do.

I don’t think I have ever followed any advice I thought was bad so I can’t recall any bad advice.

It’s always difficult for me to pin down my aesthetic. I would like to think that it is clean and purposeful. It may not be, but it is my intent and every design I work on is my exploration towards achieving that.

Dieter Rams is a product designer who I greatly admire. His design rules were my computer screen wallpaper for a long time. What I love about his designs is that they are iconic. If you were to create a silhouette of his products, you would know exactly what they are. Dieter does not apply any embellishes for the sake of it. Everything has a purpose. He has gone on to inspire Sir Jonathan Ive (Apple’s previous lead product designer) who openly states Dieter as an inspiration.

Another influence on me is the minimalist artist, Donald Judd. His sculptures explore the relationship of space and the objects that occupy it. I often use his pieces as an influence when applying design principles and laying out content in my work.

I use a Mac with Adobe Creative Cloud. The Creative Cloud has so many pieces of software to allow me to create video, graphics, animations, wireframes etc. For web based projects, I use Adobe XD for mockups and Brackets for HTML and CSS.

I tried to work in a paperless environment so all of my sketches and note taking is done on an iPad Pro. As for software on the iPad, that changes as there are so many apps so I like to swap between them. At the moment I’m using Microsoft’s OneNote as a digital sketchbook.

We all have different methods that may work and what works for me, possibly won’t suit everyone. Maximise your time when at work and you will have more leisure time. I am not a morning person, I find it very difficult to get into a work mode. So I always dedicate the morning to less intensive tasks such as answering any emails, making a list of what I need to do that day etc.

I don’t particularly enjoy working in an office, but that is where my primary machine is so I like to surround myself with things that inspire me. This is primarily why I use Mac over PC, I genuinely enjoy using the machine and it’s design inspires me. Others might think that they don’t look good, that’s fine, use what you enjoy using, it will make your workflow so much more productive. I do like to get out of the office and work at a coffee shop, you’d be surprised what kind of ideas come to mind when you go to a new place. Often though these are moments for me to sketch so I take my iPad with me on those occasions. offers very helpful tips on frontend development and graphic design.

So mornings are usual admin times for me. This involves answering emails and scheduling tasks for the day/week. I alternate my days between design and writing. I find it difficult to do both in the one day so I’m either in a design mode or a writing mode. Splitting them 50/50 during the week tends to work for me.

I recommend checking out The Futur on Youtube. I don’t watch them that often but they do have helpful tips on growing a business, negotiating prices and general design tips. Another resource I found helpful is DesignCourse on Youtube which

Take your time to find what you would love to do, and don’t rush.

Surround yourself with things you love. Often times we designers are at a desk so it helps to have things around our desk that we find inspiring. This could be art, books, figurines, anything. As I stated earlier, I use a Mac for this reason. I find it to be a beautiful machine that inspires me. Often times you will see animators surround their desk with action figures from their favourite cartoons. These are a reminder of why they are doing this, because they want to create something as magical or inspiring. Do the same for yourself, what inspires you? Surround yourself with it. Take your time to find what you would love to do and don’t rush.