At the moment I´m the Head of Research & Usability at RYANAIR.
I started my career in the field of physical education. At the time that was my choice because I have always loved sports and actually practiced professional andebol in the team of Academica de Coimbra for 13 years. So I took my bachelors in Basic Education Teachers - Branch of Physical Education with the aim of teaching groups of children and inspire them to love sports as I do.
Along the way, I missed the technology in my day-to-day work. I attended some minor courses in digital photography and in Online Marketing, but that wasn’t enough. So I decided to go back to College and redirect my carrer to a field where I could work in the field but still work closely with groups of people and understand the user’s needs. Luckily, in early 2012 I ran across the Professional Master in Human Computer Interaction that was going to kick off in my city and I didn’t hesitate in applying.
Being a Professional Master, I had the opportunity of work closely with a few companies and actually build prototypes based in user testing and user centered design for them. This was great, in each project I would be even more certain that User Experience is what I want to do for a living. Understanding the user’s needs, designing for them and solving usability problems is something that I really love doing.
My goal in UX is to help people truly enjoy the world around them.
Education:
Master in Human-Computer Interaction (HCI)
Bachelor in Basic Education Teachers - Branch of Physical Education
Experience:
Head of UX Research & Usability @ RYANAIR (Present)
Senior UX Researcher @ RYANAIR (8 months)
UX Researcher @ RYANAIR (1 year and 5 months)
I was a teacher from 2008 to 2014
"The user is not like me" - HCI mantra