ACADEMY 2021
DIGITAL
EXPLORERS

Academy is SIDE's ‘no experience required’ training scheme, designed to help diverse young talent get started in Tech For Good.
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Academy is a win-win-win:

Charities get smart young no-coders working on their problems.
Academy trainees get the chance to work on worthwhile projects at the start of their career.
We get to work with fantastic young talent.

We believe that first breaks like Academy are unevenly distributed. Often your first break is a result of a chance encounter. Not everyone gets the same access to chance encounters.

THE EXPEDITION

Discovery

Journey Mapping
User Interviews
Market Analysis
Synthesis

Design

Solution Sketching
UX & UI Design
Visual Design
Prototyping

Development

Website Build
Content Creation
Quality Assurance
Continuous Improvement

THE EXPLORERS

Shivy

Coming from an industrial design background I'm shifting into the digital design space to better learn and understand how digital products are influencing our lives and how that power can impact social causes.

Elizabeth

Coming from a graphic design background and a drive to help people and the planet I’m trying to merge the two in a way which can make real impact.

OUR PRINCIPLES

Learn by Doing

We're all making it up as we go along, maybe we follow some rules from our practice too but our minds learn best when we are actively learning- doing the doing.

Be Inquisitive

Ask those silly questions , pull things apart and stretch them to their limits and don't be afraid to speak up when you have an opinion.

Show Your Work

Work doesn't need to be a wireframe or a sketch, it can even be an opinion or what you're thinking. These are all things you made and they're what make things moving forward.

Own Your Journey

We're different and that's a good thing but we need to remember that this means we all do things differently.

Keep It Simple

Everything must follow a purpose so keep it simple and remove the unnecessary things.

Be Nice

Be nice, it's as simple as that. Be nice to everyone including yourself. We aren't robots so we're going to have days where we feel a bit useless but that's okay.

ACADEMY 2021DIGITALEXPLORERS