CAREER OBJECTIVE
I like working as a Design Evangelist through my works as a teacher, mentor, and as a promoter of the value of design amongst colleges and organizations across India. My approach is firmly grounded in applying the principles of Design Thinking to problem solving, team management, design consulting, entrepreneurship and innovation.
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
Design Pedagogy, User Experience, Design for Social Impact, Business Innovation
WORK EXPERIENCE
LÉcole de design Nantes Atlantique (India Studio) – January 2012 – present
Role : Dean, Director & Head of Operations
Responsibilities : Administration, Budgeting and Accounts , Operations Management, Mentoring students on projects, Creating course curriculum for Design Pedagogy, Recruitment of faculty and working together on course execution, Student welfare
Institute of Product Leadership – India’s first B-school for technology managers – April 2013 – present
Role : Visiting Faculty
Responsibilities : Teach Design, Usability, User Experience and Design Thinking to enrolled candidates, who are (or are on the path to becoming) Product Managers.
Happy Horizons Consulting (P) Ltd – August 2012- present
Role : Founder, Managing Director & Principal Consultant
Responsibilities : Managing functions of the company across Operations, Marketing and Finance,
Conducting Design Workshops across colleges and organizations and Design Evangelism through talks.
Helped numerous start-ups and organizations as User Experience and Design Consultant, enabling them to create brand value by improving the Usability of websites, User Experience of their applications and doing their logos.
Some clients I worked with as a consultant:
Eka Software, IIM Kozhikode, Cinedarbaar, Dewworks, Toehold, NetBramha Studios, Health Scribes, The Color Caravan, AKM Communications, Grey Water, Knowledge Varsity, RevAuc, Bonton, Snackoz,
Happy Horizons Trust – Nonprofit organization working in Primary education sector, March 2013- present
Role : Managing Trustee and Head of Strategy & Fundraising
Responsibilities : Chief ideator and Project Planner for project operations in Bihar, Karnataka.
Fundraising activities, partners and collaborations, recruitment of staff and other team members, project expansion
Kuliza Technologies (P) Ltd, June 2011-January 2012.
Role: Design Strategist, involved in the establishing and the running of design team within company. Responsibilities: Principal Interaction Designer, Managing Design Team, Part of Quality Committee, Client Interfacing for Design, Contributing author to Quarterly magazine, Handling recruitements
Working in the domains of Social Interaction Design, Cloud Computing and Mobile Applications
Deskala Research & Design Consulting (P) Ltd, May 2009-March 2011.
Role: Co-Founder & Director, involved in the establishing and the running of Deskala.
Responsibilities: Principal Designer and Researcher, Conducting Ethnographic Study, Focus Group Discussions, Project Management, User Experience Consulting, Recruitment, Conducting Design Workshops (UX, Design for Social Impact, Design Thinking), Marketing, Social Media Marketing and Networking
Clients worked with:
Plan Strategy (UK) , McAfee, L&T Infotech, Arvind Brands, Compark Group, Exponent Education, Career- Kafe Consulting, Lok Capital.
Motorola Corporation, Chicago, USA, June 2008- August 2008.
Role: User Interface Design Intern
1) Research and Design of Media Player, integrating carrier’s services for Windows Mobile 7.0 focusing on touch screen interactions for productivity phones.
2) Analysis of existing user flows and creating new interactions for home screen on Windows Mobile 6.1 based touch screen phone.
Indiana University Bloomington, USA, August 2007-May 2009.
Role: Associate Instructor, Project Manager, Design Mentor
1) Course i310, Multimedia Arts and Technology, Fall 2007.
Tasks: Teaching Flash in labs, Leading Discussion sections, Teaching basics of graphic design.
2) Course i495, Senior Capstone, Spring 2008, Fall 2008, Spring 2009.
Tasks: Teaching basics of design softwares like Photoshop, Illustrator, Flash.
Design Mentorship to over 30 students and Project Management for 15 projects in Information Systems.
Infosys Technologies Limited, India, August 2005-August 2007.
Role: User Interface Designer
Responsibilities: Conducting User Research, performing Usability Tests, Requirement Gathering, Information Architecture, Creating Wireframes, Generating Interaction Diagrams, Visual Designs and Design Documentation.
SKILLS & EXPERTISE
Operations Management & Accounts
Design Management: Design research framework, UX Design Management in Agile setup
Design: User Centered Design Process, Design for Social Impact, Adobe Creative Suite, MS Office Suite
User Research and Usability: Focus Group Discussions, Ethnography, Contextual Inquiry, Thinking Aloud Protocol,Card Sorting, Heuristic Evaluation, Affinity Diagramming, Wallet Mapping, Fly on the wall observation, Experience Prototyping, Body Storming, Personas, Camtasia
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. - “A framework to teaching Design for Social Impact”, Anand, Kshitiz; Haag Jean Baptiste, Lecole de design Presented at the DDEI Conference, Pune (India), March 2013
ACCOLADES AND ACTIVITIES
- Workshop on Design for Social Impact, with students of Lécole de design (India Studio) Talk at Design Day #7, “The Story of Design” , Bangalore, April 2013
- Talk at The Goa Project, “Does your Design tell a story?”, Goa, March 2013
- Invited speaker at Anime Convention, New Delhi 2010, 2011, 2012
- Invited speaker at TEDxMANIT Bhopal, February 2011.
- Invited for a talk on Design for Social Impact, Social Entrepreneurship, and emerging trends in UI, at Mindtree Ltd, Bangalore, November 2010.
- I was invited at the Anime Cine Experience, Siri Fort Auditorium, Delhi, conducted by Cine Darbaar and Japanese Embassy, in August 2010 to conduct a workshop on Basic Animation as a part of their film festival celebrating Anime culture in India.
- Invited for a talk on Design for Social Impact at Infosys Technologies Limited, Bangalore, May, 2010
- 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, an 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.