Institute of Art Design + Technology Dún Laoghaire
Ireland’s campus for the Creative Industries

Cathal Coughlan 

BA [Hons] Interaction + User Experience Design

Hey! My name is Cathal Coughlan and I am passionate about creating enjoyable experiences. Designing for both people and the planet is important to me and I like to explore and create ways that help to benefit both as major stakeholders in my projects, but in a way that doesn’t detract from either. This project was all about trying to change people’s behaviours by introducing fun and gamification into a rather boring and tedious task, managing your food waste.

Perish - Project Description

In Ireland 30% of all food waste comes from households. This is the largest percentage of waste producers and potentially the easiest to make a difference in as I believe changing people’s attitudes and behaviours will have a more immediate effect then trying to change institutions that have been in place for decades and that would require a long political and legal struggle to make any difference.
I aim to change the behaviours of consumers to help lower the average percentage of household waste to lower the environmental impact we are having on the planet.
Using gamification and emotional design I want to get people invested in their own food waste and give them the tools to lower or eradicate their food waste.


The impact of hostile architecture on the public sphere in urban spaces.

In my thesis I discuss the history and origins of the public sphere and how it came to fruition during the 18th and 19th century through its beginnings around the time of the French revolution, and its downfall in the 20th century with the introduction of mass media and advertising that fuelled peoples newfound desire for mass consumerism. Parallel to the development of the public sphere new methods of control and surveillance were being developed through innovations in areas such as the prison i.e. The Panopticon model. This was a major milestone in the design of hostile architecture, and it would go on to influence future designs of urban public spaces and buildings, having implicit and explicit hostility built into the spaces. Which would contribute to the further downfall of the idealist “public sphere”.