Meet the 2020 IxDA Student Design Charette Finalists
By: Daniel Harvey
Tags: Alexa, Inclusive Design, Amazon, Ixda, Interaction Design

Yuan Chen | School of Visual Arts, United States

I was born and raised in Shanghai and see my practice as having deep roots in literature and my diverse cultural background. I have an innate curiosity about the human condition, which leads me to seek the most pragmatic and empathic solution to every problem.

Currently, I am an interaction design MFA candidate at the School of Visual Arts in New York. I earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Prior to this, I studied for two years in Shanghai, where I focused my coursework on Chinese Literature. I spent three years working as a visual designer for companies both in Chicago and Shanghai. I am focused on enhancing my design skills, to finding more efficient ways of using design and technology to solve social problems and to make the world a more harmonious place.

Michelle Trame | Austin Center for Design, United States

I am a Design Strategy student at the Austin Center for Design. I have an undergraduate degree in Geography from UCLA. After college, I worked as a cartographer for a travel guide publisher and an outdoor trip leader throughout the US and overseas. Six years ago I co-founded Constellation Outdoor Education, which later acquired Backcountry Babes, a women’s specific outdoor education company. My work ending the gender gap in outdoor leadership with the Babes inspired a passion for design, strategy and social innovation that led to AC4D.

Jack Strachan | Loughborough University, United Kingdom

I am currently a graduate designer at a business innovation consultancy, Wilson Fletcher. Wilson Fletcher partners with people striving to transform established organisations all over the world. My role is to design the strategies, services and experiences that help established companies become digital businesses.

I have previously taken part in the IBM Extreme Blue challenge, a 12-week program where teams of four are set a brief in response to a real-world challenge confronting a part of IBM’s business. Teams across several countries are made up of one designer and three developers. My role as the designer of my team was to promote the use of design as a problem-solving tool, lead design direction and carry out front-end development.

Shibashankar Sahoo | Umea Institute of Design, Sweden

I am a master’s student in Interaction Design with a bachelor’s degree in Physics. Through emotion, narratives, prototypes and collaboration, I design meaningful experiences. In the past, I have worked in the domain of healthcare, mobility, machine learning and accessibility on various UX/UI projects.

Shruti Saha | Domus Academy, Italy

Hello all. I’m Shruti Saha. I’m an Experience Designer and storyteller currently completely my Masters in Interaction Design from Domus Academy, Milan. I believe that good experiences aid in the molding of an individual. And the topic for this year’s Design Charette gives an opportunity to add to this in a larger more humanitarian way. Building experiential VUIs for the differently-abled, I feel is a means to empower people. I have always been interested to use my learnings as an experience designer, to help people lead a better and empowered life. Empowerment I feel comes through Education and the opportunity to be educated.

Lynne Egwuekwe | University of Hull, United Kingdom

Currently working at wellbeing company Triyoga as a Digital Marketer and UX Design assistant, I’ve grown to love and become passionate about UX and interactive design and currently working on developing my skills so I can fully transition into interaction and user design.

Elisabeth Dunn | University of Washington, United States

I am currently a Master’s student at the University of Washington’s Human-Centered Design & Engineering program. While I am studying full-time, I am also working part-time as a UX Assistant for University of Washington’s Libraries.

A lot of my work has focused on educating and promoting behavior change on social topics such as environmental sustainability, building accepting and inclusive communities, and safely navigating through an increasingly digital and social media-focused world. However, I am currently gaining experience on how to make technology more inclusive and accessible.

As a UX Assistant for UW’s Libraries, a large focus is how to make the libraries’ digital offerings more accessible. Thus, I am apart of an ongoing usability study that seeks to improve the library experience for students and faculty with different needs. I am passionate about making a social impact through design, and would love the experience of applying my new learnings to a platform that is being used by people world-wide.

Sean Redmond | Austin Center for Design, United States

I am a writer, editor, and designer living in Austin, Texas. My work is focused on promoting inclusion and equity, particularly in education and the arts. I received a bachelor’s degree in English language and literature with a focus on nonfiction writing from the University of Chicago. My writing has appeared in Pitchfork, Newcity, The Hypocrite Reader, and elsewhere, and in 2013 I founded fields magazine, a nationally acclaimed and internationally distributed arts journal.

I am also currently a student at the Austin Center for Design. My recent design projects include working to redesign the City of Austin’s Small Business Program to improve successful business launch rates and working with local nonprofit JUST to promote financial inclusion for contract workers in creative industries.

In addition, I am a certified IBM Co-Creator, per completion of interaction design courses offered via The University of Texas at Austin and IBM.

Leah DiVito | Austin Center for Design, United States

Originally from Ohio, I am currently a student the Austin Center for Design in the capital of Texas. I earned a bachelor’s degree of from the Ohio State University where I studied Chinese Language while working in arts management roles at Ohio State.

During my immediate post-grad years I lived in Shanghai teaching English and Art, and traveled Asia participating in work-exchanges with sustainable institutions in five different countries. I have spent a number of years working for local community-driven nonprofits in Columbus, OH, and I am now excited to continue refining my skills towards the mission of creating better and more impactful human experience by way of design strategy.