(aka Nandini Nair 🔈 )
Product Designer working at the intersection of Design Thinking x Systems Thinking x Computational Thinking
SELECTED PROJECTS
Designing for end-of-life preparedness
end-to-end strategy ux research
LifeKit makes end-of-life planning approachable, proactive, and streamlined. LifeKit was a team project done at Carnegie Mellon School of Design.
Designing for data-informed sustainability behavior change - CoGo
end-to-end strategy ux
CoGo - Connecting Good is an app ecosystem that uses data to help consumers and businesses adopt ethical and sustainable practices. The platform that enables consumers to signal their values (such as paying workers a living wage, minimizing plastic waste, creating a circular economy) to businesses.
[case study coming soon]
Designing for network visibility and collaboration in communities
feature design ux review
Weavr is a tool for impactful networks to know who is in the network, how people are connected, and what they're working on.
[case study coming soon]
Designing interactive narratives for learning and change
narrative design interactive documentary
Together We Make a Nation (TWMN) is an interactive documentary that follows the journeys of four refugee women of different ages and backgrounds spanning from WWII to the current Syrian refugee crisis.
Designing for conservation mapping
React JS mapping visualization
Rāhuitia is a prototype to raise awareness of the Māori practice of rāhui – an indigenous practice of conservation management.
Designing access to New Zealand music for all
design systems complex database information architecture
SOUNZ Centre for New Zealand Music champions the music of Aotearoa/New Zealand by cataloging and making available a vast collection of music composed by NZ artists.
Designing models for understanding cooperative systems
information design
Enspiral is a non-hierarchical collaborative network prototyping new ways of working.
Co-designing infographics for climate change action
information design
Working with a climate scientist and council members to visualize climate impacts and implications for Wellington city.
For case studies or more information about projects email nair.nanz@gmail.com
LATEST
Yearly Highlights
Moving at the pace of serendipity.
2022 — Currently, I am...
→ Finishing up my Masters of Design at Carnegie Mellon University as a Fulbright grantee
→ Working on my thesis 'Self/Org: Designing Systems for Mutuality & Solidarity'
→ Futuring with the Carnegie Mellon Futurist Club
2021 — More recently, I...
→ Celebrated a team win: Core77 Consumer Tech Design Award (Student Winner 2021)
→ Helped design an online community for parents of kids with disabilities at Awhi Ngā Mātua
→ Presented our project LifeKit at Index Awards #designtoimprovelife event
→ Help launch Season 2 of the podcast Design in Transition/Diseño en Transición
→ Learned about Design Thinking for Complex Systems and Decoloniality
2020 — Recently, I...
→ Designed a brand for Papa Reo - AI & ML speech tools for indigenous languages
→ Was a teaching assistant for Prof. Molly Steenson's Seminar One for M.Des students
→ Learned about Transition Design by investigating systemic racial inequities in Pittsburgh
→ Ran research-informed design process for end-of-life/crisis planning called LifeKit
→ Coordinated a speaker series called 'Questioning the Quo' as part of Intersect@CMU
→ Facilitated a multidisciplinary challenge Future-thon to imagine a post-COVID future
→ Facilitated and co-designed an end-of-semester showcase 'Plurality in Practice'
→ Was a volunteer at the Participatory Design Conference – 'Participation(s) otherwise'
2019 — Previously, I ...
→ Was awarded an NZ Fulbright Science & Innovation scholarship
→ Moved to the US to start my masters at Carnegie Mellon's School of Design
→ Was an instructor of Communication Design Fundamentals at Carnegie Mellon University
→ Was a product design lead at CoGo: Connecting Good
→ Selected as a fellow at IDEO CoLab
→ Learned programming at Enspiral DevAcademy
Communities of Practice
“If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.”
Design @ Carnegie Mellon University
collaboration interaction design
Studiomate since 2019. A graduate studio comprised of designers from around the world learning to critically think, make and practice design in the context of 21st-century challenges.
Design Justice Network
design justice social change
Signatory since 2020. DJN is a global network of people and organizations who are committed to rethinking design processes so that they center people who are too often marginalized by design.
Enspiral
collectivism non-hierarchy micro-solidarity
A non-hierarchical collective of skilled people who practice new ways of working through experiments on group decision-making, collaborative budgeting, and facilitation. Contributor since 2012. Enspiral.com • Enspiral Tales
Design in Transition / Diseño en Transición
systems change transition design
Design in Transition is a podcast about designing for systems-level change toward more sustainable and equitable futures. Contributor since 2021.
Art~Hack
solarpunk creative exploration
Social gathering of creative techies in Wellington exploring and experimenting with art, code, music, and crypto. Art hacker since 2016. arthack.nz
Currently, residing in Dionde:gâ, the Seneca language name for Pittsburgh, the ancestral lands of many indigenous peoples.