Ciara has been an avid gamer since childhood. This childhood love led to her passion for the gaming community and for designing playful experiences.

Ciara graduated from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and received a BFA with an emphasis in Designed Objects. She studied experimental and empathic research and design, focusing on user interaction and social behavior in online gaming.

Her passion for research, design and writing led to her role as a contributing writer for Core77 in which she covered conferences such as Interaction12 and the Design Research conference, reporting on common themes and how they relate to larger trends in the design research and interaction design communities.

More recently, Ciara was able to put some of her gameplay design experience to the test at Power2Switch as a Digital Marketing Strategist. Her hybrid role consisted of user research, social media, content strategy and writing. This role gave her the opportunity to research and develop new ways to create community engagement through elements of play.

With one foot in the design world and the other in gaming, Ciara strives to stay involved with both communities. She was a student volunteer at Siggraph in 2010 and 2011, and is currently supporting the IxDA community with her volunteer efforts as Communications Lead on the planning committee for Interaction13.

Ciara recently relocated to Boston from Chicago to apply her skills in gaming and design as a Sr. Experience Designer at Mad*Pow, specializing in designing engaging, playful and memorable digital experiences.