Dr. Hilary Kenna is an entrepreneur, designer and Head of Department of Technology and Psychology at IADT. IADT is Ireland’s leading third level institute for the creative, cultural and technological sectors.
With 20+ years’ experience in strategic design, Hilary specialises in UX design and data visualization, with international successes in commercialisation research projects. Hilary is an international speaker on her published research work.
In 2011, Hilary was Principle Investigator of a data visualization and business intelligence research project, Vizi, which won the Irish Software Association (ISA) award for Best Industry and Academic Research Collaboration.
Another of Hilary’s ventures, SeeSearch – a search and discovery product was granted two US design patents in 2015.
Hilary has raised over €1.2m in research funding.
Hilary completed her PhD in Design Principles for Screen Typography at the University of the Arts (UAL) in 2012. In 2011, she designed the multiple award-winning poetry iPad App, The Waste Land by T.S. Eliot for publishers Faber & Faber and Touch Press UK, which was the subject of her TedX talk, Screen Typography – Words made Usable. The Waste Land was App of the Week in the US and UK Apple stores and gained over 100 positive reviews in the international press including an editorial in the New York Times and was featured on BBC’s Arts by Alen Yentob.
In 2014-15 Hilary was consultant Head of Design and UX at Independent News & Media, Ireland where she re-designed www.independent.ie, Ireland’s largest online newspaper. Within two months of its launch in June 2014, traffic to the independent.ie increased from 7 to 9.5 million page impressions per month and sustained continued growth since.
