Tara Savage
Interaction Design
National College of Art and Design Dublin
Specialisms: Interaction Design / Digital Design / Design Research
Location: Dublin, Ireland
Tara Savage
First Name: Tara
Last Name: Savage
Specialisms: Interaction Design / Digital Design / Design Research
Sectors:
My Location: Dublin, Ireland
University / College: National College of Art and Design Dublin
Course / Program Title: Interaction Design
About
I'm Tara, an Interaction Design graduate from NCAD Dublin with a strong focus on accessibility and research-led design. I care about designing within real systems and constraints, not around them, and I like grounding my work in genuine user needs rather than assumptions. The Reading Lab reflects that approach: research-driven, inclusive, and shaped by testing with real readers.
The Reading Lab is a teacher-led reading intervention for students aged 8–12 with Dyslexia. It supports learning support teachers in delivering structured phonics sessions without requiring specialist expertise. The focus is phonological awareness, the foundational skill underpinning reading. The project is grounded in Specific Learning Difficulty (SpLD) teaching methods for dyslexic learners, using a multisensory, step-by-step approach shown by structured literacy research to be effective. This is a personal project: I have dyslexia. To access specialised dyslexic support, I spent two years full-time in an SpLD reading class, leaving my mainstream school and friends and travelling daily by taxi, before returning to mainstream education for sixth class. Places in these schools are extremely difficult to secure. The aim of the project is to equip teachers in mainstream schools with techniques proven to support dyslexic students. To ensure relevance, I visited a local primary school and worked closely with staff and students.