#SheMakesChange - Victoria Against Violence

Recently I was invited by Girl Geek Academy to attend an exciting but mysterious event called #SheMakesChange. Yesterday I had the pleasure of attending and finding out what it was all about! It was a one day power session with a range of diverse women from a variety of backgrounds, from developers and game designers (like me!) to artists, marketers and subject matter experts. We discussed the challenging issue of one of the causes of violence against women - gender inequality, and disrespect towards women. You can read more about the event here.

Being someone from a Game Design background, I was feeling a little intimidated, as I haven't had a large amount of experience with mobile applications outside of making mobile games. However, as always with Girl Geek Academy events, I felt more comfortable and much more relaxed very quickly.

Our goal was to make an MVP (Minimum Viable Product) for a currently unannounced Application. I spent the day contributing by lending my design skills on how to make the App easy to use, harassment proof (hopefully!). I also talked to Kristel Villegas, lead designer from Playside Studios here in Melbourne, about how retention techniques used in mobile games could be employed in the App.

Overall, it was an incredibly positive day, and it felt really good giving up my Saturday and contributing to such an important and worthy cause. I look forward to using my skills to contribute to events like this in the future.