10 Things You Should Know About Me

Saara Kamppari-Miller

Published in

Designer Geeking

5 min readNov 18, 2021

November 2021 Edition

Updated from 2018 edition with some new key information.

1. Former Designer

I am a newly former Designer.

My background is Interaction Design.

My previous role was User Experience Design.

After 14 years as a Designer, I am now an Inclusive DesignOps (Design Operations) Program Manager.

2. Accidental Inclusive Design Advocate

I am an accidental Inclusive Design advocate. I did not set out to become an advocate, only to learn. I do not consider myself an expert (so please don’t call me that). Instead I call myself a cheerleader or a coach, encouraging and helping others on this journey of getting better at practicing Inclusive Design, and doing it together.

3. Creative, Curious, Driven

In 3 Words: Creative, Curious, Driven. With a cropped image of lots of circles with adjectives on them connected with lines. The main three circles are Creative, Curious, and Driven. Other adjective circles include words like Accomplished, Innovative, Open Minded, and Passionate, Inquisitive, and a long one that says “Critical (in a critiquing kind of way)”

I am creative, curious, and driven. I ran an experiment in 2018 to find out what words people would use to describe me when I’m not in the room. I analyzed the results and “Creative” “Curious” and “Driven” were my top three as chosen by my co-workers.

4. I ask a lot of questions

I ask a lot of questions. Constantly. It’s the baseline for how I work. It’s how I gather knowledge to synthesize, it’s how I collaborate with others, and it’s how I get everyone on the same page about what questions we should be asking.

On the flip side, answering with “I don’t know” is a superpower, because it means you can then say “let’s figure it out together.”

5. If I were a machine, I’d be a carbon 3D printer

If I were a machine, I’d be a carbon 3D printer with image of 3D printer where a red sphere is being pulled up out of a pool of red resin.

If I were a machine, I’d be a carbon 3D printer, because of the way it pulls something meaningful out of the ambiguous goo. Thanks to Shashi Jain for this machine analogy insight!

6. This is my äiti

This is my äiti, 2018. With image of a smiling woman with glasses jumping with joy in a hooded brown jacket during a rainy day at the Portland Rose Garden.

This is my mom. I like to say she embodies a happy garden spirit in this photo taken at the Portland Rose Garden, and it bring a smile to my face when I am gardening. She passed away from pancreatic cancer in 2011, three years after I captured this moment of pure joy. Her death has had a profound effect on my life, especially when it comes to the value of time.

7. Time is the most important thing we each have

Time is the most important thing each have.

We only have so much time on this Earth, I want to spend mine meaningfully.

As a Designer, it was my responsibility to respect people’s time with the products and services we create.

As a DesignOps leader, I am grateful that I will spend my time enabling others to adopt and scale Inclusive Design practices.

8 & 9. Two Truths and a Lie

Two Truths and a Lie: A) I built virtual reality experiments for a psychology lab. B) I moved to Portland to get a hedgehog. C) I dislocated my shoulder snowboarding on a bunny hill.

Now for something fun after all that serious stuff. Two of these statements are true, and one is false. Guess which one is the lie:

A) I built virtual reality experiments for a psychology lab.
B) I moved to Portland to get a hedgehog.
C) I dislocated my shoulder snowboarding on a bunny hill.

No cheating! Scroll down for the answers in…

3…

2…

1…

Truth: Coding VR Experiments

The World’s First* 3DOF VR Controller! 2006, UCSB. With images of two adults sitting in chairs wearing VR headsets and holding what look like long black sticks.

Before I got my Masters in Human Computer Interaction, I studied Computer Science in undergrad. One of my undergrad jobs was to code virtual reality experiments for a psychology lab on campus.

One of the fun challenges was building the world’s first 3DOF VR Controller! (3DOF is VR tech jargon that means three degrees of freedom.) Okay, maybe it was not the world’s first, but I did have to build something from scratch using infrared LED’s on a stick attached to a remote presentation mouse. This allowed two people in the same VR environment to point at dominos to select them for a game made specifically for a psychology experiment back in 2006. That’s my mom and dad by the way, trying it out before my graduation ceremony.

Truth: Choosing Portland for a Hedgehog

Niko the hedgehog peeking out from a log tunnel. Niko has mostly white and brown striped quills and white fur.

The second truth: the final deciding factor for my move to Portland was that I could get a pet hedgehog. Hedgehogs are considered exotic pets, and hence illegal in California, so I chose the job offer at HP near Portland, Oregon instead! Niko the hedgehog has passed away, but I’ll always remember my early days in Portland playing board games with friends while holding and petting Niko on my apartment balcony.

Note: When doing Two Truths and and a Lie as an icebreaker in person, it’s much easier to own a lie if it has some truth to it. It was my friend who dislocated his shoulder on the bunny hill that we were on together!

10. Analogies are my (work) love language

Analogies are my (work) love language. Cake slice emoji.

Cakes and cupcakes, mountains, flashlights, alligators, rocks, pebbles, and sand… if something ambiguous can be explained using a concrete analogy, you bet I’m going to be using it. For one successful pilot project our project manager found us mini-cupcake charms we attached proudly to our work badges, inspired by one of my analogies that helped us align on scope.

(My non-work love language is probably food. Specifically a fika treat you share with a friend over coffee.)