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Portrait of Shakthi Thanigaivel in a dark suit and shirt, against a grey wall.

I’m motivated by complex problems that require both research rigor and thoughtful design. My goal is to help build intuitive, inclusive and scalable products, while keeping usability and real human needs central to technological innovation.

I studied computer science at VIT, then completed an MS in User Experience at Arizona State University. Since then I’ve designed enterprise cybersecurity dashboards, consumer health flows used by millions of parents, and an AI reading product tested with low-vision users.

Today I work as a User Research Specialist at Exponent, which keeps me close to the part of design I value most: hearing what people actually do, then turning it into a decision a team can act on.

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Now

What has my attention this season.

San Jose--:--

Updated: November 2026

Reading

  • Generative AI Design Patterns, Valliappa Lakshmanan, Hannes Hapke
  • The Metamorphosis, Franz Kafka

Listening

  • Amsham, Aksomaniac
  • Rathinamo, Saurav Srisan, Tanisha Gnanavel

Watching

  • Scene, Film · Jithu Madhavan
  • Heroes, Series · NBC

Learning

  • Robotics, One wrong turn at a time

Design foundations

  1. 01

    Research and discovery

    Interviews, surveys, competitor analysis, personas and journey maps, so the problem is defined by evidence.

  2. 02

    Ideation

    Problem framing, brainstorming and wireframes, shared early with stakeholders while change is cheap.

  3. 03

    Design and prototyping

    High-fidelity UI built on a design system, checked against accessibility standards, ready for handoff.

  4. 04

    Testing and iteration

    Usability tests and data analysis, then another pass. Most good decisions come from the second iteration.

Experience

Professional

  1. Exponent logoMay 2026 - Present

    Exponent

    User Research Specialist · Phoenix, AZ

    Coordinate research studies, gather participant insights, and turn findings into product decisions.

  2. SquareResults logoJan 2026 - May 2026

    SquareResults

    UX/UI Designer · Remote

    End-to-end web and mobile design, and a scalable Figma design system with developer-ready handoff.

  3. Jun 2025 - Jan 2026

    Aigenie Enterprises

    UI/UX Designer · Remote

    Continuous discovery for an AI accessibility product; usability tests with low-vision users.

  4. Saptang Labs logoSep 2022 - Jun 2023

    Saptang Labs

    UI/UX Designer · Chennai, India

    Enterprise cybersecurity dashboards over 1M+ data points, under strict governance.

  5. Design Brewery logoMay 2022 - Jul 2022

    Design Brewery

    UI/UX Design Intern · Remote

    Mobile-first redesign of AskNestlé's landing, content and recipe flows.

Education

  1. Arizona State University logo2023 - 2025

    Arizona State University

    MS in User Experience, with distinction · 4.0/4.0 GPA

  2. Vellore Institute of Technology logo2019 - 2023

    Vellore Institute of Technology

    B.Tech in Computer Science and Engineering · 3.7/4.0 GPA

Certifications and awards

  • AI for Designers

    Interaction Design Foundation

    2025

  • Enterprise Design Thinking Practitioner

    IBM

    2025

  • Adobe Certified Professional, Graphic Design & Illustration

    Adobe

    2024

  • Cloud Computing Foundations

    Google Cloud

  • Creative Jam winner, Phoenix

    Adobe

    2024

Toolkit

Design

  • Product design
  • Design systems
  • Interaction design
  • Information architecture
  • Prototyping
  • Accessibility (WCAG)
  • Visual design
  • Motion design
  • 3D modelling

Research

  • User interviews
  • Usability testing
  • Contextual inquiry
  • Surveys
  • A/B testing
  • Journey mapping
  • Affinity mapping
  • Heuristic evaluation
  • Mixed methods

Tools

  • Figma
  • Framer
  • Rive
  • Cursor
  • After Effects
  • Blender
  • Illustrator
  • Photoshop
  • Miro
  • Jira
  • Confluence

Hiring for a product designer who checks the research first?

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