What led you into design?
Ever since I was a kid, I loved art, I was drawn to color and everything crafty. Being south asian, The stereotype did apply to my upbringing, I was always surrounded by family who are in medicine and finance, and peers at school who were competing for admission to the next Ivy League. I knew I could never sit in Chemistry 101 or have a job where I was in google docs all day. I always felt like the black sheep so I spent hours with my art teacher, Ms. Dhara, drawing in the art room and it was always where I felt the safest. From there, I got the opportunity to study design at Parsons School of Design and New York made me fall in love with design even more.
What does a typical day look like?
My typical day starts with a high protein breakfast and going to the gym - recently I’ve been enjoying Sanne Vloet’s recipes and Natacha Oceane’s workouts. I then get ready for work, some days I work in-person, and some days I work from home. As a designer in big tech, my day consists of meetings, and if I’m lucky a lot of figma design time:) The industry is very fast paced and everything is constantly changing which keeps you on your toes.
After my work day, I like to gain energy from Ali Shwartz dance class with friends or checking off NYC Secret’s fall bucket list items.
What's your workstation setup?
Where do you go to get inspired?
I get inspired from the world around me. I find that there is UX in everything. From my dance classes, where in bachata, the leader gives the follower affordance to turn left or right without any words used to stand up comedy where comedians use techniques such as punchlines and anamnesis to increase trust with their audience. I also love to see zines and book covers at McNally’s for visual inspiration.
What product have you recently seen that made you think this is great design?
I would like to mention metaflop:https://www.metaflop.com/modulator! It's a typeface creator where you can modulate different mathematical variants to create a typeface you like.
What pieces of work are you most proud of?
I am really proud of a typeface I designed with the owner of Everything Studio, Tom Griffiths, called Dhadak. It’s created in Hindi and English and uses mathematical calculations to break from south asian cultural norms.
I am also really proud of contributing to designing The New York Times’ first version of their editorial design system.
What design challenges do you face at your company?
The world of big tech can be overwhelming. I think the uncertainty and pace at which big tech designs are the main challenges. You are designing extremely fast, going through a million reviews to ship the smallest of pixels, you work with 5 different design systems, your designs influence multiple products in multiple different device types at the same time and your decisions can affect 3 billion plus users who speak all different languages. On top of that, there are legal requirements, and eng constraints, and a roadmap that changes daily. It helps to over communicate, work closely with XFN team members and be surrounded by a good group of designers.
What music do you listen to while designing?
Any advice for ambitious designers?
- Carving out time to check in with people in your life who help you in your design career. It's nice to have someone who knows you from the start. Some of the senior designers at my internships and college professors are still people I go back to all the time.
- Not forgetting what parts of design you love once you start mixing passion with money.
- Taking your learnings in your own hands. In a world where knowledge is so easily available, we can teach ourselves a lot of things.
- Ask questions, be curious.
- Advocate for the people you are designing for.
- Putting in effort to maintain a healthy work life harmony and interests outside of work - you’re just at the start of your career and there’s a long road ahead!
Anything you want to promote or plug?
I have been loving a typeface called - Aurora. Definitely want to plug it for everyone to use: https://www.dafont.com/aurora-pro.font
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