EXPERTISE
Brief Profile
- I am a passionate Industrial Designer, UX Strategist & Digital Experience leader with over 20yrs of Industry experience working on defining Customer Experience for Technology Products, Enterprise Applications & E-commerce / Consumer Websites.
- I have played multiple roles from VP UX to Design consultant & Entrepreneur, primarily reporting to CxOs.
Worked at Top Companies.
- Worked on Design Management, UX Strategy, Interaction Design, User Research & Usability Testing, predominantly with highly admired multinational companies – Intel USA, LG R&D (Korea), Oracle, Siemens, Info Edge, TechMahindra, etc.
- Currently working VP of Product Management & UX Design at Spire Technologies, Bangalore.
- Last worked as as Director – Experience Design at Intuit, Bangalore, Design & Innovation lead for Intel, Bangalore and Intel US. Worked on wearables, touch screen tables, mobile devices, enterprise apps, design strategy, build usability lab, etc.
- Previously worked as Chief Researcher and UX Designer for LG R&D Labs, Seoul, Korea. Worked on Future Mobile themes and ideations. Conducted user research in London & S.Korea.
- Worked as Vice President –User Experience with Info Edge (naukri.com) in setting up UX team, defining Design directions & Product strategy, reporting to CEO. Headed user experience team for all Info Edge business – naukri.com (jobs), jeevansathi.com (matrimony), 99acres.com(real estate), brijj.com (social), shiksha.com (education), etc. Setup Usability testing and user research department.
- In the past, worked as Manager UX at Oracle reporting to VP User Experience. Involved in drafting UI standards and patterns. Built Oracle’s first Usability Lab in India.
Leadership
- I evangelize DESIGN THINKING and encourage companies to embed it into their DNA.
- I apply User Centered Design process along with Customer Insights & Market Research to design better products that have competitive advantage. I use Design Thinking to make products more meaningful, exciting & playful.
- I have setup Customer Experience teams, UCD Processes and UX Strategy at multiple local & international companies. I have helped them to Implement company wide UX adoption through UX training and workshops. I have defined UI Design Standards & Guidelines and UX Governance.
- I have Setup Usability labs and User research teams to get end user feedback & understand customer pain points. I have worked with Marketing, Sales & Product Management to define product roadmaps, brand strategy & monetisation.
- I have managed cross cultural and multi-geo user experience teams. I have travelled to multiple countries conducting UX research & Ethnographic studies to understand customer touch points & end user journey. Gained customer insights while working locally at Seoul, Korea and Folsom, California. I have collaborated with external design firms, vendors and academia to connect them with industry and leverage their skills.
- I have been speaker at many UX conference in India and abroad. Recently showcased projects at IXDA15 conference in San Francisco. I have couple of UX patents and published many articles.
E- Commerce
- Expert in E-commerce and Consumer website strategy and design. Designed & Delivered ecommerce sites from conception to profitability.
- Well familiar with Google analytics, Monetisation, Conversion and call for action, merchandising and recommendation systems, search ranking algorithms, cross selling and up-selling on checkouts.
- Worked with Marketing(banners/mailers/brand message) and SEO teams to increase user engagement and funnel user purchase journey to conversion.
- Designed complex Enterprise Applications for SAP and Oracle. Wrote UI standards, conducted Usability tests and defined Graphic Art directions.
Hi-Tech Technology (Mobiles, Tablets, Wearables )
- Recently working on Wearable (Smart Watch & Glass), Gesture & Touch screen interactions for Windows 8/10 modern Apps
- Driving innovation at OS level and app level for Android and iOS. Experimenting on multimodal interactions, speech recognition/Voice Interface Design, Sensor based UX solutions, future mobile UI themes & ecosystems.
Areas of Specialisation
- Usability of Software and Products interfaces. Expert in Interaction design, Usability testing, HCI, Cognitive Psychology, Ethnography, Heuristic review, Rapid Prototyping, Human factors & Ergonomics.
- Hands on experience on Market Research and Consumer Insights, finding user unmet needs, user journey and touch points, new concept ideations, etc.
- User Interaction(UI) Design for Enterprise Applications. Mobile touch screens , Gestures based designs, Speech interface design, Multimodal Interactions, Augmented Reality, Context Aware Interactions.
- Expert in Accessibility ( US 508 Accessibility standards)
- Well familiar with UI Standards and Patterns for Mobile, Web Applications, using Responsive Web design (RWD), & Agile methodologies,
- Conduct UCD & Design Thinking Training and workshops
- Expert in Design Management, UX Strategy, Institutionalising UCD Process, Product management, Requirement gathering, User study and research, and Project management.
Recent activities
- Showcased wearable and sensor based products at IXDA15 conference at San Francisco – Feb 2015
- Attended Computer Human Interaction (CHI) conference at France – Jan 2013
- UIE Conference – UX Immersion at Portland, USA – May 2012
- IXDA Conference at Dublin, Ireland – Feb 2012
- Attended Mobile User Experience conference, London. Nov-2009
- Attended International design research conference, IASDR -SEOUL, Oct 2009
Affiliations
- Founding member & President of UPA Hyderabad
- member of ACM & SIGCHI
- member of UPA US
- Member HCI India and partner
US & International Patents
- Granted US Patent on UI Design on “Simplifying Interaction With Multiple Applications“ . Filed date: 2007
- Pending International patent on Smart TV filed at http://www.wipo.int/ . Filed date; 7/6/2010
Published Paper & Articles
- Task description for usability testing” published paper for HCII2007, China
- Opportunity for Industrial Engineers in Human Computer Interaction” (Word ) article in the globaleducator magazine – Sept 2006
- Culture & Usability in Enterprise Applications” paper presentation at IIT Guwahati, – May 2006
- What is HCI” (PDF -448kb) an article published in Indian magazine, “DeveloperIQ” – April 2006
- Standards Based Approach for Software User Interface Design” CHI paper presentation at Easy6 conference, Bangalore. – Jan 2006,
- Virtual or Remote Collaboration” , a presentation at UPA, Minneapolis conference.- Aug 2003
- Product Design- a Presentation at Design conference, pune India – Feb 2004
- Need for Usability / ROI for Usability “ a presentation at CHI chapter, Pune India – Mar 2003
- Design process- a workshop at KBP College of Engg, Satara, India. – Sept 1999
- Cognitive analysis and chaos theory for Fire rescue. Product design of such system. IIT bombay M.Des final thesis – June1999
- Characters in Bond movies. An M.des special subject presentation on Art and motion pictures- Nov 1998
- Form design in clay. An M.des special subject presentation. – Mar 1998
- Design of spray pond system for max heat transfer. PVPIT final thesis- April 1995
Education
- Master’s in Industrial Design from Industrial Design Center, Indian Institute of Technology, Powai, Mumbai India.
- Bachelor’s Degree in Mechanical Engineering from PVP Institute of Technology, Sangli India.
External Training and Workshops conducted/attended
- Mobile Form design workshop by luke wroblewski – Portland 2012
- IASRD2009 , Design Researcher conference , Seoul
- Designing for mobile, workshop at Mobile conference , London 2009
- Workshops on HCI & UCD conducted by IIT and Humanfactors
- VIT Conference on HCI, Pune. Invited Speaker – 2008
- UMO Conference at Hyderabad. Invited speaker – 2007
- UPA2006 conference in Denver & UPA chapter meet at Minnesota, USA
- IHCI 2004, Rashmi Sinha’s “Design for strangers”,
- Easy2005, Easy 2006 conferences(Won design contest )