Alumni Profile: Heather McGaw

— by Kayla Preston-Lord, first-year student, Faculty of Art

Heather McGaw approaches her design practice with heart. An accomplished graduate (BDes, 2007) of OCAD’s Industrial Design program and the University of Toronto, she finds that a zealous spark for living yields success in her discipline. “I think that it’s the designer’s role to approach life as an explorer and maintain a curiosity and true love for people and life.”

This childlike eagerness to explore, combined with a mature work ethic, has taken McGaw all over the country. Now based in her hometown of Edmonton, she works for nForm, a User Experience Consultation firm. nForm advises clients, mainly from the industries of media, healthcare, education and government, on the development and design of user-driven systems that are both web-based and tactile. Also, the firm organizes CanUX, an annual Canadian User Experience conference.



nForm employees refining "business origami," a systems design method.The job of “User Experience Consultant” seems tailor-made for McGaw. User Experience Designers look at refining interactions between a person and specific products or services, with the goal of improving overall experience. Success in the field requires a highly multi-disciplinary approach, which is a key part of the comprehensive set of problem-solving skills that McGaw developed during her thesis year at OCAD.



Heather McGaw: Do What You Will Do, 2007 (quilt); Heather McGaw and Caroline Arsenault: Cozy Light, 2007 (ceramic lamp). Photo by Paul Kawai.While at OCAD preparing for her fourth-year thesis, McGaw began exploring design research methodology. This prompted a change in the way she approached her projects and pursued design solutions. OCAD’s Industrial Design program aims to graduate innovative problem-solvers, and McGaw realized the importance of an holistic understanding in creating effective, responsive designs.

McGaw’s focus on inclusive design principles resonated with several of her peers, and soon after graduation she founded the multi-disciplinary design collective Joe & Josephine with six fellow OCAD graduates: Caroline Arsenault, Andrea Cormier, Jessica Johnston, Kristen Johnston, Kristen Lim-Tung, Katherine Morley and Andree Wejsmann.

Joe & Josephine’s exhibition from December 2007, at MADE design gallery on Toronto’s Dundas Street West, was widely lauded by local design publications and the community. Small household objects took centre stage, meticulously designed and crafted by artists from a wide range of disciplines including ceramics, jewellery, fibre, and printmaking. McGaw’s pieces in the exhibition included Do What You Will Do, a quilt of earth tones that evokes an image of a cozy, rural Canadian fireplace. Her woolen, stick-shaped necklaces were quite striking, taking on the appearance of wall décor rather than wearable art.

Whether her work is collaborative or independent, McGaw maintains a strong humanitarian sensibility. Her search continues to be about positively impacting humankind’s interface with the world. Taking emerging technologies and an expanding globe into account, McGaw’s true interest lies in “creating artifacts and experiences that positively influence, alter and support human behaviour, especially in relation to public health and high-risk populations.”



Heather McGaw and colleagues William Hyndman and Jeremy Debicki at Silliman's Fossil Mountain near Frobisher Bay.This selfless attitude will no doubt serve McGaw well as she gears up for an upcoming project in Nunavut. The Parka project is the result of collaboration with a small start-up company based in Iqaluit, which seeks to connect traditional craftspeople and urban Canadians through online technology. McGaw is inspired by the passion shown by her collaborators. “A cross-disciplinary group of people have come together — something that’s unlikely to happen in a big city, because you become so immersed in your own professional community,” she explains. “You’re able to engage in interesting dialogue, that wouldn’t otherwise happen.” Still in its early stages, the project is a true reflection of McGaw’s commitment to use her professional skills to shape the world in which we live.