Ciarán Duffy

WORK HISTORY

EDUCATION

ABOUT CIARÁN DUFFY

I\'m a versatile designer from Ireland with a passion for social innovation and purpose-driven business. With over a decade of experience partnering with global health and humanitarian organisations, I bring together expertise in user research, business empathy, and digital prototyping to create products and services that address both people\'s everyday needs and strategic organisational goals. I\'ve guided organisations including UNOPS, UNHCR, TalkToLoop.org, OpenMRS.org, OpenFn, Gates Foundation, and Siemens Healthineers in creating digital products that are both intuitive and inclusive. I champion accessibility in design – ensuring people of all abilities can equally perceive and understand the digital experiences we create. As a practitioner of Object-Oriented User Experience design, I work to unite Human-Centred Design\'s empathic approach with technical excellence. With deep expertise in design systems, I help organisations achieve more in less time and scale operations more effectively. Throughout my career, I\'ve led teams working with various technologies in low and middle-income countries, including SMS and conversational interfaces, while designing primarily for web and Android. I work closely alongside development teams to ensure designs are not only implemented successfully but truly fit for purpose. Previously, I served as a start-up coach with Gaza Sky Geeks in partnership with Mercy Corps, supporting teams in launching new businesses across Palestine and the Middle East. I\'ve also mentored students at the Copenhagen Institute of Interaction Design, helping build the next generation of design practitioners. Since 2023, I\'ve served on Sonder Collective\'s Board of Directors, safeguarding the organisation\'s interests while collaboratively shaping its future. Before joining Sonder Collective, I worked at Germany\'s largest independent design consultancy in Berlin. In 2016, I co-founded the award-winning service Refugee Text, a chatbot for refugees, featured in The Guardian and The London Design Museum. Outside of work, I\'m a jazz piano player, spicy food enthusiast, and lover of vinyl. I enjoy travelling, hiking, biking, and books about all of the above!