A design testament
“The thing with [UX] design is, you don’t really notice it when it’s good; you notice it when it’s bad.”
I don’t remember who exactly said that (it popped up in a conversation a long time ago with a friend), but there is truth to it.
I believe in human-centred design—a continuous cycle of creating, testing, and refining. From apps to brand identities, I believe in deeply understanding user needs through constant prototyping, iteration, and testing. It’s very close to my heart—it's not just a method; it's a philosophy of design that puts people at the heart of every creative solution while using data to back it.
These are selected snippets from design sprints, research testings, workshops, and building toolkits I’ve organised over the last year that are dearest to me for impact reasons.
One particular workshop that is dear to my heart took place in Kathmandu, Nepal, as part of the Kathmandu Mini Makerfaire. It was a three-part Design Thinking and HCD workshop done together with kids and teachers to help understand and integrate “learning by play” methods into school curricula. Together with SparkleLAB PH, alien “stories” were created—postcards sent by young aliens to Earth, asking for help to rebuild after their home was devastated by an asteroid, as the terrain of their newfound planet is similar to ours. Questions ranged from building roads to public lighting, irrigation systems, agriculture and more.
The best part is seeing and understanding how kids solved the exact same problem as their teachers, and how including “play” in learning methods is not only possible, but also beneficial for challenging kids and increasing their participation, retention, and interest in hard topics.
At the Open Data Labs/World Wide Web Foundation, I led design thinking workshops that brought together diverse stakeholders to tackle complex challenges. One standout event was the "Regional Open Data Agenda-Setting Workshop" with representatives from 11 Asian countries, collaboratively shaping the data landscape. Another was the "Open Data Innovation Week," which aimed to create a practical toolkit for more efficient open data usage.
These workshops proved that innovative solutions emerge when we bring together varied perspectives and expertise.
Example data and HCD tools created from the above workshop:
>> Credits to Andreas Pawelke, Michael Cañares, Ivy Ong, Marco Zaplan, Eddie Shin, Oliver Chen, Prita Raditiarini. You can view more tools from the workshop here. <<
Brand identity and governance // Experience design // Visual and product design // UI/UX // Design thinking, HCD // Communications strategy // Events
