Meet the 2019 Student Design Charette Finalists

SDC is a big part of Interaction 19. This year’s challenge, focused on empathy, attracted record number of applications.

The Student Design Charette is just a month away. We wanted to introduce you to the finalists who will be joining us in Seattle. We’re excited to see what they can do with the brief.

Akshita Mehta | National Institute of Design, India

My current role as an Interaction Design consultant at a medical devices company, Boston Scientific, is very challenging and exciting as it intersects the usability and digital design domains. Here, I have learned to balance the needs between regulatory demands and user experience. I am able to draw significant insights to steer the project through my research based design methodology. Being an extrovert and having worked with a variety of people during my career as a professional architect, I carefully become an insider within the focus group and work with an inside-out approach. I am very hands on and use quick prototyping tools to assess and validate a given or derived hypothesis.

I am also keenly interested in exploring and experimenting with new technologies and have received a grant to work on a mixed-reality heritage experience sponsored by Prince Claus Fund and British Council. This experience explores a new medium of interaction with virtual content while one is visiting a heritage site using ARCore.

Problem-solving, need-finding, meaning-making and slicing through complex human dynamics is my passion and I strive to bring a new perspective to the table every time. Organized, hardworking and a team player my love for people and how they interact with the world continues to amaze and inspire me everyday.

Kasper Burghout | Hyper Island, United Kingdom

I am currently finishing my Master degree in Digital Management at Hyper Island Manchester. Last week I handed in my master thesis on LGBTQ+ inclusive design, and this was the final element needed to complete my degree. For my thesis, I spoke with 10 designers about their experiences, challenges, and motivations for (LGBTQ+) inclusive design. It has been an incredible journey that further strengthened my belief in how I want to approach my future design work. As I decided to fully focus on my master degree I am currently unemployed.

Hyper Island is a digital creative business-school with a consultancy side focusing on ‘real life’ projects and challenges. During my master, I have been involved in 10 of those projects, from which one will be highlighted in my portfolio. Digital technology is nowhere if it does not do anything for the individual. It needs to be user-centric and therefore empathy played a vital role at Hyper Island. I like to consider the digital age as the age of empathy.

My previous work experience has been in branding and marketing positions. The experiences I collected there improved my communication, analytical and storytelling skills, which I consider now as one of my greatest strengths.

As a passion project I am involved in a queer art collective from Berlin. I founded their webshop which supports small independent designers and artist who challenge the norm in fashion and art. Being involved in this collective has been a massive creative outlet for me.

Raphaelle Gorenbough | L’école de design Nantes Atlantique, France

I am French. I live in Nantes and I am actually a 3rd year student in interaction design at L’école de design Nantes Atlantique in France. Throughout my student works and my first internship in a digital design agency, I developed my passion for creating emotions in any interactive experience. I recently created “Elle(s)”, a serious game denouncing the prejudices undergone by the victims of sexual assaults. Just listen to the news: nowadays, there is no doubt that our world dramatically lacks of empathy. If immersive experiences allow us to create some empathy in the world, we shouldn’t miss the chance to change the world! This will be my motto if I have the chance to come to Seattle for SDC 2019.

Isabel Newsome | Georgia Institute of Technology, United States

I am a first year Master’s student in the Human-Computer Interaction program at the Georgia Institute of Technology. Previously I have studied Industrial and Product design in Atlanta, Georgia, and Lund, Sweden. I have worked on sponsored design projects with companies located in both the United States and Sweden, and I have participated in design challenges in the United States, Sweden, and China. In the past year, I worked closely with a professor at Georgia Tech on projects related to accessible design. I also collaborated with CATEA, a center for accessible technology located in Atlanta, Georgia. For my Bachelor’s project in Sweden, I worked with a professor at Lund University on a project aimed at involving women and minority students in science and technology fields. I have also worked as a designer at an advertising agency and as a UX design intern at a fortune 500 company. Along with my interests in design, I am a passionate learner of languages and cultures, earning a degree certificate in the International plan during my undergraduate years. I also love to collect things, mostly rocks.

Catherine Woodiwiss | Austin Center for Design, United States

I am an interaction design student at the Austin Center for Design in Austin, TX.

For the previous 5 years, I’ve been working as a journalist in Washington, D.C., writing and editing on justice, culture, tech, and religion. My favorite posture was ethnographer, tracing the evolutions of ideas and rituals through time and place. When I first stumbled on interaction design, the lightbulb went on on the full possibilities of my anthropology degree and my journalism career: Act like a storyteller, think like an engineer! I’ve been hooked ever since.

In the last few years, I’ve spent my off-hours getting my feet wet in the world of design. In 2014, I co-launched Trestles, a service design agency aimed at collaboration and creative problem-solving across D.C.’s siloed sectors. I also co-launched Homestage DC, a house show network for local musicians and local living rooms in D.C. In 2014, I spoke on collaborative solutions and “Do It Together” models at SXSW.

Now, I am hungry for design training, and to more fully explore the mechanisms, theory, and possibilities of interaction design. I’m excited to be part of AC4D’s year-long intensive with a special focus on social impact. And I’m delighted to apply for the student design charette at IxDA, to learn and build things alongside other students, our users, and some of the leading voices in the global interaction design community.

Ambika Vohra | University of Michigan Ann Arbor, United States

Hello! I’m a HCI master’s student at the University of Michigan. I discovered the wonderful field of UX one night when I Google searched — “What creative jobs are related to Computer Science?” Coming from a Computer Science undergraduate background allowed me to understand the technicalities of developing a product, but I became even more interested in the prequel to that story. I joined the University of Michigan in 2017 as Professional Practice Fellow. As a part of this fellowship, I received a full-tuition merit scholarship and am given the opportunity to work as a UX Designer at JSTOR. I work 25 hours/week on the design team, while being a full time student. I have had experiences conducting user research and establishing an accessibility guide, which have both taught me about the importance of empathy in design. JSTOR’s primary target audience are students, and although I’m a student, I learned that I am not the user. Through both my coursework and my work at JSTOR, I’ve learned about the danger of assumption in design and how to mitigate it. For example, I’ve used a framework called “assumption persona,” where you first design a persona based on your stereotypes about your user, in order to acknowledge your biases. Then, after research you correct the persona. I used this when I worked on a platform to enable people with physical disabilities to experience traveling. I have a curiosity about people and storytelling, and believe inclusive design enables greater empathy.

Dinesh Ram | Indiana University, United States

I am a graduate student of Human-Computer Interaction Design at Indiana University, Bloomington. Having completed my Bachelor’s degree in Animation film design, I side-stepped into a product designer position in Bangalore, where I stayed for two years. I have worked on films, apps, websites and systems, all of which involve empathy in some form or another.

Gloriana Omodeo | Strategic Design Institute, Costa Rica

I am an Industrial Design Engineer graduated from TEC Costa Rica. I have two years of experience working as a designer in different areas like online advertising, visual design, branding, and mostly UI and UX design. Right now I’m studying for a certification as a UX Full stack Designer in SDI.

Kathleen Hwang | Santa Monica College, United States

My name is Kathleen. I have a bachelors in Psychology from UCLA with a minor in Disability Studies. Currently I am Interaction Design student at Santa Monica College. I specialize in user research and analyzing data to understand the goals, needs, feelings and motivations of users.

Before studying design, I worked as a behavior therapist and independent living coach. My experience as an individual with disabilities and my experiences working with similar individuals has opened my eyes to the numerous points in interaction where technology fails to meet our needs.

For example, in one of my design projects, my team and I researched the accessibility of different platforms in viewing video content for individuals with disabilities. One pain point we discovered was that a lot of the accessibility hardware and software that these individuals used were not compatible with one another. So users came up with different life hacks to get around this problem. If today’s technology were designed to be inclusive of all abilities, these individuals would not have to go through obstacles just to watch an episode of their favorite show online.

This example demonstrates the lack of accessibility for a large demographic. I believe that we can can improve user experience and accessibility through inclusive design. I am passionate about making technology accessible for all, especially for individuals with disabilities.

We had a record number of applications this year so we’d like to extend thanks to the judging team: Brenda Sanderson, Jane Vita, and Daniel Harvey from The IxDA and Margaret Price, Tiffany Chen, and John Porter from Microsoft Design.

We hope you’ll stay tuned to progress during the SDC itself Feb 5–8.