Academic research projects succeed or fail at the boundary between theory and practice. Students bring rigour and fresh perspective; organisations bring complexity, politics, and real constraints. The mentor role sits in the middle, keeping both sides honest and making sure the work produces something genuinely useful, not just academically sound.
Sunrise case
Accessibility became a central focus in the evolution of Sunrise Design System, specially with the introduction of the EU Acessibility Act, that made it a mandatory feature.
Anticipating the policy, in 2023 I initiated and led an accessibility research project with the the University of Chur (FHGR), auditing products for compliance. Findings shaped new standards for color contrast, keyboard navigation, alt text, and semantic structures, which were embedded into the system.
United Nations Voluteers case
While allocated at the digital team of United Nations Voluteers, I introduced a research project with FHGR to better analise and propose improvements in the digital onboarding process of volunteers. A particularity of the UN volunteers (and the United Nations system in itself) is the high diversity of users. From senior population in conflict zones to young adults in the Global North, people from different walks of lives were taken into account in the project.
The project outcomes were used as baseline for sprint planning of the digital team, with a positive stakeholder engagement throughout the process.