iXDA winner 3 times in a row, WDO recognised design leader, Indigo Awards honorary mention, .
Prolific Design Thinker, published Service Designer and Systems thinker with over 25 years of experience in design with IBM, NDTV, Times & start-ups currently operating in the ecosystem.
A thought leader who uses all the tools of the trade, practices learnt from deep experience in the field to inspire and advocate design to practitioners, students and organisations.
A research advocate who believes in the role of data in building our future. Evangelises the role of data gathering as an integral part of designing anything.
A contemporary design educator who applies the dynamics of facilitation, use of modern tools like AI and Analytics to inspire and make multi disciplinary designers.
My Teaching Credentials:
Sustainability By Design – 2 weeks
Fashion, Industrial, Product & Interior Design – Chandigarh University
Introduction to Interaction Design – 6 months
Interaction Design – Anant National University
User Research – 3 Weeks
UX Design – AND Academy – Indian Institute of Art & Design
Design Thinking – 4 days
IIT-ISM – Workshop for Mining Industry professionals & professors of IIT ISM
Trained more than 1000 IBMers in Design Thinking
Mentoring over 20 students in Design
sustainable Product Designer
Fast Infra Platform
Led the design of the Fast Infra Platform. Launched by the CEO of HSBC at COP26 in November 21. The platform won the Visionary CleanTech Financial & Investment Institution award in 2023.
An end to end workflow system for the assessment creation and use of a sustainability label; with a concentrated flow of documentation and data throughout the various project phases of sustainable infrastructure financing.
Through this labelling system, infrastructure developers can signal their sustainability credentials, independent bodies can validate, rank and audit the credentials and investors can trust that their money is going to projects that meet environmental, social, resiliency, and governance needs and contribute to the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
Helped digitised the offline label assessment into an online system that was designed to measure sustainability parameters for all industries across the lifetime of a project using a question, answer approach.
We also designed the platform on which multiple stakeholders could collaborate to perform the evaluation on a secure system, store and use data for further underwriting and evaluation for the project duration, thus maintaining the label and securing the funding year after year.
Uma, Every Pregnant Woman’s Companion As a Service
There is a high incidence of maternal and feotal health problems and fatalities in rural India. With thorough research, this was traced back to healthcare and adherence to supplementation regimens during pregnancy, e.g. Iron and Folate etc.
The root cause being the lack of communication and understanding of health information provided by the medical system. The rural pregnant woman faces unknown misunderstood side effects, contrary advice and lack of support from the family and thereby suffers far reaching health issues both during and after pregnancy.
Uma is a service designed to overcome the ignorance, shame and poverty barrier to facilitate better healthcare delivery during pregnancy especially for rural, uneducated women. It is currently designed for India but it can be scaled to anywhere in the world in the context of pregnancy and fertility.
This project was facilitated using service design and research, systems thinking, sustainability evaluation and futures explorations to prioritise the solution. The awards won are:
iQuippo Finance
Meet, Anand. His dad is a farmer and his land has been acquired by the government for building a highway. Now he has ample money but has lost his family livelihood. The best option for him to benefit from the building of this highway is to buy some heavy equipment and offer it on rent. He can even look at building infrastructure as a livelihood for him and participating in tenders from the government once he learns enough to do so. But what stops him is the large cost of equipment and his risk averseness for not wanting to sink all his money into one piece of equipment. His financing know-how is limited and he has no credit history. iQuippo finance offers him an easy way to find the best funding option for him. He can search for equipment loans online, compare them and see if one fits his situation. This platform helped SREI lay down the foundation for a transparent finance ecosystem with far reaching impact to the grassroots of the Indian Infrastructure sector.
Other live apps on the app store
Shift Kara do
The customer app for a logistics company that has created a brand in customer led logistics booking.
iQuippo Partners
The agent app for iQuippo agents allowing them co-follow the customer journey wherever they are.
the Design Leader
Design Delivery
I’ve worked in Design as a service for IBM. Designing the client’s journey to the cloud using principles of design thinking and agile delivery. Ensuring the latest tools & methods like Design Systems, XD & Invision prototyping, Mural Insighting etc. are used to gain speed to market, even in the virtual setting.
Problem solver at large
I helped clients solve problems and understand things in a better way through design tools like card sorting, EDT, rapid prototyping, active listening etc. to empathetically solve project issues. Ensuring a great client and end customer experience.
Consulting
A certified consultant advising clients on the way forward into the future through a design led strategy.
Evangelism
Leading the way from the front, I adopt new methodologies, processes & tools to use them in project delivery and evangelize them internally & externally.
design educator
Anant National University was the start of my transformation from an evangelist to a teacher. I had lectured on User experience and what it means to the online news industry at Manav Rachna & Amity University in the early days but the transition to a teacher began with the first course I curated for ANANT UNIVERSITY, India’s first full fledged design university.
Mentoring students at AND Academy
Ekta ma’am’s personality and way of communication was extremely approachable and enjoyable. Although some concepts were difficult, she kept her patience and understood that everyone in class is different and helped us work with it, with guidance and encouragement
Student, UX Module 3, AND Academy
Currently mentoring a batch of students in Design Research
With Ekta it was a great experience!
Student, UX Module 2, AND Academy
Climate Fresking – Chandigarh Univervsity
A game about Climate Change to enable players to understand the systemic effects of human activities
L&K Experience
Early on in 2020, I was given the charge of managing L&K for the iX practice.
Be it launching learning programs, negotiating premium learning, mentoring new designers, or evangelism of new skills on all fronts, internal and external. This experience made me truly appreciate the skill economy in all its aspects and colors.
What I’ve realised is there are skills and there are mindsets, courses can enhance skills but a mindset can only be delivered through culture. In my classes I try to build and inculcate the culture of curiosity.
Design Thinking
I have trained more than 1000+ IBMers in using Design Thinking to innovate in their daily work and life. As a design thinker, I’ve established Thought Leadership through design both internally and externally. My work at IBM involved helping large companies innovate using the framework and adopt it as an innovation skill set. I’ve trained more than 200+ company stakeholders including senior leadership.
- University Connect program: I taught design thinking through workshops and talks at Universities that IBM has a relationship with.
- Industry Connect program: I’ve helped IBM facilitate Design thinking workshops with industries where multiple organisations can come together to collaborate on newer business & operating models. For example – IIT ISM to deliver an innovation program to the stalwarts of the mining industry, from Vedantu to Coal India.
the Futurist
Forever an evangelist, I now think and speak on the future of design and its intersection with everything else.
I also evangelize the need for ethics, sustainable behavior and an inclusive mindset, especially for designers.
policy speaker & writer
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Exploring User Verification with Medianama – Notes
The new draft Personal Data Protection Bill – Draft 2022 is introducing mandatory user verification as a part of platform and other fiduciary responsibilities. So to access anything, even FB & Instagram, you may have to provide your Aadhar card or other identity proof. Medianama organised a round table on exploring the user verification mandate,…
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Thoughtful Policy
My Takeaways: Interesting Links: Technology and Competition: Why would we need non-standard tools for future policymaking? Draft e-commerce policy – missing principles of Sound Public Policy Future for Sustainable Regulations and Policies For the right policies to be made, the end outcome should be imagined. The ideal world will determine the governance of the utopia.…
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Sienna’s Charter – Who’s Data Sovereign? It can only be me!
The Sienna Framework > Framework Applications Medical | Professional | Education | Location | Financial Surveillance | Online Browsing Behavior | Online Content Preface to Consumption Data Disclaimer: I’m writing this from a data owner’s point of view – Me and as far as I can see, from my very limited but human centered understanding…
Data Rights Activist
The Writer
Sienna Tales: A series of stories on a young woman’s life in 2030. What we bring alive everyday stokes my imagination to speculate on what it will look like in the future with all the things we’re making today. Here’s to living forever by design.
The Design Thinker (Tinkerer)
Observe
Essentially data driven as a practitioner, I use the standard research triangulation method to drive insights. Innovation happens in my data sources!
Reflect
Although being a seasoned design thinker, my own thought process is unstructured, yet effective as an innovator, I use frameworks & tools like EDT, Service Design, Systems Thinking, JTBD, Business Model Canvas etc to bring clients & teams to the same page.
Make
Rapid prototyping is a skill that I have evolved over decades of prototyping and testing. Fastest fingers on the block, contributing to a carpel tunnel wrist and many products in the market.
Sustainability tinkering
Ekta Rohra Jafri 