Resume

OBJECTIVE

Seeking freelance projects in User Experience Design and Research Consulting to bring value addition to business by creating applications and services rich on User Experience and are Human-centered.

EDUCATION

  • Master’s of Science in Human Computer Interaction Design,
    Indiana University, Bloomington, USA, GPA: 3.93/4.00
    May 2009.
  • Bachelor‘s of Design in Communication Design,
    Indian Institute of Technology, Guwahati, India, GPA: 8.65/10.00
    May 2005, Department Rank 1.


RESEARCH INTERESTS
Ethnographic User Research, User Experience , Design for Social Impact in developing nations, Digital Divide.

WORK EXPERIENCE

Deskala Research and Design Consulting (P) Limited, May 2009-Present.
Role: Co-Founder and Director (www.deskala.com)
Responsibilities:  Design Research, Ethnographic Study, Focus Group Discussions, Project Management and User Experience Consulting, Conducting Design Thinking Workshops

Freelance User Experience Consultant, May 2009-Present.
Helped numerous start-ups as User Experience Consultant, enabling them to create a brand value and thus improving the Usability of websites, and User Experience of their applications.

Motorola Corporation, Chicago, USA, June 2008- August 2008.
Role: User Interface Design Intern

  • Research and Design of Media Player, integrating carrier’s services for Windows Mobile 7.0 focusing on touch screen interactions for productivity phones.
  • Analysis of existing user flows and creating new interactions for home screen on Windows Mobile 6.1 based touch screen phone.
  • Research for touch screen Windows Mobile 7.0 based phone, focusing on Social Networking for age group 18-30 years.

Indiana University Bloomington, USA, August 2007-May 2009.
Role: Associate Instructor, Design Mentor

  • Course i310, Multimedia Arts and Technology, Fall 2007.
    Tasks: Teaching Flash in labs, Leading Discussion sections, Teaching basics of graphic design.
  • Course i495, Senior Capstone Projects, Spring 2008, Fall 2008, Spring 2009.
    Tasks: Teaching basics of design softwares like Photoshop, Illustrator, Flash.
  • Design Mentor to over 30 students and Project Management Lead for 10 projects.

Infosys Technologies Limited, India, August 2005-August 2007.
Role: User Interface Designer
Responsibilities: User Research, Performing Usability Tests, Creating Wireframes, Interaction Design Diagrams, Information Architecture, Visual Designs and Design Documentation.

Major Projects

  • Hitachi HiFIRE- a J2EE application to manage interoperability reports.
  • Web 2.0 Collaborative- An AJAX based portal for World Economic Forum.
  • Argos Hive Portal- An end-to-end solution for the Rewards and Customer Loyalty.
  • Motorola Test Central Application
  • Setlabs Gradient Application- a grid based Enterprise Information Integration tool.

HCI Labs, University of Saskatchewan, Canada, May 2004-July 2004.
Role: Research Intern
Responsibilities: Research work on interaction design for tangible interfaces using phidgets.

GRADUATE THESIS
In the context of design for social impact, analyzing social documentary photography as an ethnographic research tool and its inputs in informing the designs for the creation of social awareness solutions.
- A case study focusing on the social issue of child education in rural Bihar.www.pickme-clickme-educateme.org


UNDERGRADUATE THESIS
Visualization of Poetry, January 2005-April 2005.
Study of representing textual information (poetry) in different mediums of communication, namely illustrations, photography and film.

SKILLS SET

  • Design: User Centered Design Process, Design for Social Impact, Participatory Design, Information Visualization, Adobe Creative Suite, MS Office Suite, MS Visio, OmniGraffle.
  • User Research and Usability: User Interviews, Diary Study, Focus Group Discussions, Ethnography, Cultural Probes, Contextual Inquiry and Context Mapping, Thinking Aloud Protocol, Card Sorting, Heuristic Evaluation, Affinity Diagramming, Wallet Mapping, Fly on the wall observation, Experience Prototyping, Body Storming,  Personas Creation, Surveys Design, Camtasia Software.
  • Design Criticism: Phenomenology, Structuralism, Semiotic Theory
  • Programming: HTML, CSS
  • Photography: Freelance Photography for the last 9 years
  • Video: Media Criticism, Beta and DV cams, Handy Cams, Video Editing, Final Cut Pro, Adobe Premiere


ACADEMIC PROJECTS
Graduate Studies

  • Bike Messengers – Designing universally accessible museum exhibits using Experience Design principles.
  • Design theory model for Soccer Coaches – Application of Design Theory in a non design field.
  • iQuiz Application – Exploring touch screen interactions for educative applications on iPhone.
  • Infowall – an application for crowd and crisis management in emergency situations in an airport.
  • Virtual Garden Community – A mobile based motivation tool for volunteers in medical shelters for homeless.
  • Fiki- Exploring Collaborative applications for online digital workshops.
  • Reading between the lines: Visualizing poetry of Victorian Poet Charles Swinburne.

Undergraduate Studies

  • Cultural Toolbar- Concept application based on photoethnography study of street graphics.
  • Museum Navigator- An informative application for making museum experiences memorable.
  • Promotional materials for Assam State Museum- Informative Map for easy accessibility in museums.

PUBLICATIONS

  • “Quivering Web of Living Thought: Mapping the Conceptual Networks of Swinburne’s Songs of the Springtides” John A. Walsh, Pin Sym Pin Sym Foong, Kshitiz Anand and Vignesh Ramesh, Indiana University.
    Presented at the Digital Resources for the Humanities and Arts 2008, UK.
  • “Tangible Music: Increasing the pleasures of human-human interactions using Phidgets”.
    Anand, Kshitiz; Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati, S Subramaniam; University of Saskatchewan.
    Presented at the first IHCI conference held at Bangalore, December 2004.

ACCOLADES AND ACTIVITIES

  • Invited to conduct workshop on Design for Social Impact at India HCI conference, IIT Bombay, March 2010.
  • Visiting Faculty – Photography and Design at WLC India College, Bangalore, 2009-2010.
  • Contributing Author at Indian Auteur, India’s first online film criticism journal, 2008-Present.
  • Invited speaker at TEDx conference, held at BITS Pilani Goa Campus, February 2010.
  • Human Computer Interaction and Design for Social Impact workshop at IIT Guwahati, September 2009.
  • Presented talk on Research Strategies for Design for Social Impact at Ignite Bloomington, April 2009.
  • Invited to conduct workshops at NIT Trichy, NIT Surathkal, IIT Guwahati, BITS Pilani, MS University Baroda, NIT Surat.
  • Remote Volunteer for Empowerment International, Nicaragua, helping out as Graphic Designer.
  • Merit Scholarship for Graduate Studies at Indiana University for the academic years 2007-2009.
  • Awarded the President of India medal to best outgoing student in terms of merit for batch 2005 at IIT Guwahati.
  • Creative head of design team for Alcheringa 2004, the IIT Guwahati cultural festival.
  • Conducted a photo video workshop, “Lights, Camera, Action” at Techniche, IIT Guwahati, 2004.
  • Member of Students’ Gymkhana Council, IIT Guwahati, 2002-2004.
  • Awarded the IIT Guwahati Institute merit scholarship for excellence in performance in the year 2002-2003.

References are available on request.