The cause that unites a nation.

Overview

While working at Ogilvy, I contributed to the development of the Watson Smart Mirror—an interactive installation created in partnership with IBM to raise awareness of melanoma and improve early detection. Designed to engage the public in a highly relevant environment, the experience combined technology, education, and data collection to support ongoing advancements in skin cancer detection.

The problem

Melanoma is Australia’s deadliest cancer, with one person dying every six hours. Despite being highly treatable when detected early—with survival rates exceeding 98%—awareness and early action remain a challenge. At the same time, IBM Watson was already assisting experts in detecting melanoma, but required more diverse, real-world data to improve its accuracy.

The Idea
We created the Watson Smart Mirror, an interactive, data-driven installation that both educated users and contributed to Watson’s learning. By placing the experience at Bondi Beach, we met Australians in a high-risk, high-relevance setting, encouraging participation through a simple, engaging interaction while collecting valuable data to support melanoma detection.

My Role
As part of the creative team, I helped shape the visual and experiential direction of the installation. This included designing an interface that was intuitive, engaging, and easy to understand in a public setting, while ensuring the technology felt human and approachable. I worked closely with cross-functional teams to align the experience with both the campaign message and IBM Watson’s capabilities.

The Solution
We designed an interactive mirror experience that guided users through a personalised skin health check. Using a combination of high-resolution RGB photography and ultraviolet imaging, the mirror analysed visible traits such as age and features, while also revealing sunscreen coverage, making invisible sun damage visible in real time.

Positioned at Bondi Beach, the installation captured a large volume of diverse data over two days, while also encouraging Australians to share their melanoma stories on social media, further contributing to Watson’s learning.

The result was a highly engaging, educational experience that transformed awareness into action. By merging technology with a human-centred design approach, the campaign not only deepened public understanding of skin health but also contributed valuable data to improve early melanoma detection.

“If I hadn’t met Watson at Bondi, they may have never found the suspicious mole and i’d probably still be carrying it around”

— Ian Kelsall, survivor

The campaign received the following industry accolades:

The cause that unites a nation.

“If I hadn’t met Watson at Bondi, they may have never found the suspicious mole and i’d probably still be carrying it around”

The campaign received the following industry accolades:

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carmen.scheffer@gmail.com