Projects

• Earlier as a User Interface Designer at Infosys Technologies Limited (NASDAQ : INFY)

Role definition- Designing User Interfaces for different channels such as Graphical User Interface (GUI), Web, & Handheld devices and work closely with pre-sales, business and engineering teams in project planning & execution activities. The focus areas are requirements gathering, user profiling, doing high-fidelity prototyping (depicting information architecture of the application), visual design and usability reviews.

-  Amazon (Webstore tool) – Graphic Designing, HTML/CSS, Java scripting, branding and Search Engine Optimization to develop business websites for the merchants of Amazon using the Webstore tool. Merchants using websites as point of sales from the diverse backgrounds of apparel, electronics, antiques, food & nutrition, and spiritual healing were catered to.

-  Health Interoperability Platform – The clinical transformation solution set to address the key issues in today’s healthcare industry like lack of integration and interoperability and low operational efficiency. Application user interfaces were conceptualized and high fidelity visual designs were made. A pre-sales flash demo demonstrating through user scenarios the select features of the solution was designed.

-  Safeway – Designed a revolutionary one page Checkout procedure in place of the existing 5 step procedure to decrease the number of customers abandoning the complicated checkout process mid way.

-  Schlumberger and AT&T - Intranet Visual Design was undertaken catering to stipulated user requirements.

-  Payless Shoesource – A ‘Store of the Future’ retail experience was formulated and the solution translated into a saleable presentation.

-  Indian Cranes and Wetlands Working Group (ICWWG) – Voluntary work for developing the ICWWG Website.

-  Usability review of client applications and Heuristic evaluations for applications made by peers.

• At undergraduate level
  

-  Game Design and Conceptualization As a member of the core design team of Hashlab - the game development and research lab at DAIICT; conceptualized and implemented multi-dimensional environment for a 3D game based on Wild Tangent Engine. The game won the 3rd prize at GameTantra, the Game Development event at Techfest ’05, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT Bombay).

-  Human Body and Nudity
Concepts relating to the perception of nudity and how our understanding of it changes with occasions and geographical placement. Daily rituals and practices in the tribal villages of Tejgarh, Gujarat were researched. Presented a paper on the same in a seminar working under Prof. Shiv Visvanathan.

-  Conventionality, mediocrity and surrealism
A take on how chains of orthodoxy and ordinariness can be overcome by deriving inspiration from the surrealistic art movement. Presented a paper in the seminar on Language and communication, under Prof. Radha Parikh.

-  Minimalism
Concepts relating to Minimalism and its application in advertising, literature and art were studied. Presented a paper on the same working under Prof. Shiv Visvanathan.

-  Stanley Kubrick: Mind Brush
Presented a paper on elite movie director Stanley Kubrick under Prof. Shiv Visvanathan. It included the analysis of the films titled The Shining and The Full Metal Jacket.

-  Snooker 3D
The game of snooker, rendered in 3D was implemented using OpenGl. Designed user interface and textures for the game employing lighting and multiple camera angles. Gamers were surveyed in the college to ensure that the game had features to cater to a wide variety of players.

-  Trebuchet design
First prize in the workshop event at Techfest’06, IIT Bombay; this involved making a trebuchet with limited material, tools and time at hand to hurl a squash ball the maximum distance.

-  Advertising campaign for Career Forum MBA entrance coaching institute.
Designed several ads to be put across the city to promote career forum as a brand. Before the projects inception, interviewed aspirants from varied backgrounds and conducted competitor survey.

-  Traffic Management Solution
Network Cameras were used to capture real time traffic videos and then analyzed for congestion. The results were made available to CDMA handsets. This year long project was undertaken as a part of the course Design Project and was funded by Reliance Infocomm.

-  Oven interface design  
A proposed usable design of a Windows™ application to allow users to control, program and monitor the existing obscure interface of a Whirlpool OVEN in a home kitchen.

-  Processor design for next generation automobiles
Processor design and specifications for high-end automobiles exploring approaches to use microprocessors under the course titled Advanced Computer Architecture.

Internships

1. B.Tech Project

Organization:    National Institute of Design (NID).

The semester long project involved development of interfaces that enabled multiple user interaction and could support collaborative activity amongst children. This digital inclusion in education in rural India drew inspiration from the bioscope – a traditional means of story telling and involved development of a system that retained fun; was engaging in nature and provided educational content. Data across schools was collated and a marked decline in the abysmal dropout ratio was noticed.

2. Research Internship

Organization:    Tata Interactive Systems, Mumbai.

The 8-week internship was aimed at a two part program to perform 3-dimensional visualization of business data related to competitive intelligence and developing techniques to assist computer users with learning disabilities.

3. Industrial Internship

Organization:     Reliance Infocomm, Dhirubhai Ambani Knowledge City, Navi Mumbai

Information Broadcasting and video editing for News over phones was studied. Briefly interned as a journalist for popular News networks Aaj Tak and Star News in Mumbai, to identify ways in which live feed could be sent to cell phones.

4.    Rural Internship

Organization:    Bhasha Research & Publication Centre, Vadodara, Gujarat

Lived in tribal villages to explore avenues and employ technology in a way that didn’t seem obtrusive in the primitive cultural setting of the inhabitants. Worked in a team to design an Integrated Village Water Distribution System and the Tribal art (Pithora) digitalization Program.

Personal Achievements

• Design head for Synapse (techno-cultural festival at DAIICT) 2004, member of design team for Synapse 2005 and 2006. Executed designing of posters, brochure, website and advertising material for events.
• Won Ist prize at Synapse 2006 for a theme based animation movie.
• Won Ist prize at Synapse 2005 for sketching.
• Won Ist prize for Photography in the event Kodak Synapshot at Synapse 2005.
• Consistently won prizes for Crossword and Creative Writing competitions at secondary school.
• Represented DA-IICT at DOORS OF PERCEPTION Conference (The International conference of Innovation and Design.) Delhi. March-05.
• Captain of the Lucknow District Level under-15 Football Team. Team Captain for the Batch Football team and Team Member of the College Cricket Team.
• Ranked 236 out of 20000 students in the DAIICT National Entrance Test, 2002 (Top 2%). 

By-line

I love solving crosswords, creative writing, sketching, watching movies and print ads and discussing them later, indulging in humorous conversation and noticing people’s idiosyncrasies.

Design Tool Proficiency

Adobe Photoshop CS2, The Gimp, Macromedia Flash, Dream Weaver, Fireworks, Corel Bryce, Corel Draw