A little bit of myself.
I am a second-year Graduate student in the Human-Computer Interaction program at Rochester Institute of Technology, Rochester, New York. I have been working as a graduate research assistant at RIT under Dr. Sharon Mason, a professor at the RIT School of Information. I work on a project called “Engage” that aims to increase the number of low-income students graduating and entering the workforce with a Bachelor of Science degree in computing. My role in the project is to gather qualitative data from students through biweekly interviews and analyze that data to get a deeper understanding of students’ progress throughout the semester and ways to stay motivated.
I have two and half years of past experience as a Quality Assurance Engineer working for Larsen and Toubro InfoTech, India, a leading IT company in the world. I have worked on many projects, namely for Johnson Control and Viacom. I was part of an Agile team for the project “Ease of DoingBusiness”—a web-based application that provided me with insight into how the Agile methodology of delivery is carried out under Johnson Control. My role included performing story grooming sessions, representing the QA team in scrum calls, and making sure a quality product is delivered. For Viacom, I worked on the Non-Ad sales project, where my role was gathering user scenarios from clients and determine all possible test cases to check the new or already existing functionality of the product for a successful release.
In the first wave of covid when all the schools were shut, I took the opportunity to work with a colleague of mine in Karnataka, India, helping establish a better education system for the rural areas. I got the chance to teach kindergarten and interact with students online. Having small kids to interact with was challenging and also a very different experience. I used my creativity and design skills to make online learning more interactive and fun. I conducted various fun zoom sessions and different activities which made the online learning exciting. I used Autodesk Sketchbook occasionally to design catchy presentations.
I am passionate about designing products that are aesthetically pleasing and easy to use by a large audience. I aspire to become a successful UX designer who can make easy-to-use products and at the same time have the best aesthetics possible. My goal is to build beautiful art using easy and affordable materials. I love helping people and collaborating, and in my free time paint and play with colors.
If you are not enjoying your work - stop. I believe if you put your time into something, keep giving your best till you achieve your goal. We only have so much time to live, then why waste it on something that does not make you happy?
I have never hesitated to show my creative thinking, creative approach towards designing and to portray it out to people. Many a time I felt my design was not up to the mark, but that did not stop me from iterating my own designs and improvising them.
I am in a continuous mode of learning. Taking feedback and working accordingly has always helped me in my learning process. I have kept challenging and improving myself constantly by exploring other designers' work, listening to podcasts, and taking feedback from seniors and design professors.
