Samir Chabukswar

Samir has over 20 years experience in systems, process, man-machine, and user experience design. He is the founder of YUJ Designs - one of India’s leading user experience design studio. He has successfully helped Fortune 500 companies design and realize UX strategy for their products, and was involved in the design and management of over 1700+ user experience projects across a variety of products and domains.

Samir is passionate about building high quality design teams and mentoring designers. He has led YUJ Designs with the same vigor to make it one of the leading UX studios in India, and has become a recognized leader in the field of UX design. He is a frequent speaker at international conferences and has authored publications.

Samir holds a Masters degree in Human Factors from Clemson University, US, an advanced degree in Business Administration and a Bachelors degree in Industrial Engineering.

Dr. Girish Prabhu

Dr. Girish Prabhu is currently one of the Deans at Srishti Institute overseeing their human centered innovation and experience design programs. Before Srishti, he has held various management positions in new product development both in the US and India, and was instrumental in implementing human-­‐centered design and innovation in multiple product areas. Girish has 25+ years of experience in design led innovation, new product & business development, and product localization. His expertise covers various consumer product and service domains such as education, healthcare, entertainment, and retail. Girish has published referred papers in international journals and holds 16 U.S. patents. Dr. Prabhu is always keen on improving methods, frameworks and approaches in stakeholder-centric innovation and experience design.

@futuredesigner

30 min Case study | Categeory: Professional Growth | Target Audience: Designers at all levels

The role of the designer is changing faster than you imagine. Design, at an organization level, though essential- is getting commoditized. In the space of UX Design, the role of a specialist designer seems to be heading towards a significant roadblock- in the sense that experience responsibility now lies with multiple roles and departments. In this scenario, what should designers do? What are the opportunities for designers to have a greater impact on business? What is the need of the hour for designers?
For designers to make an impact at a strategic level, and in the future, designers need to ‘transform’ themselves. From the current, individual/ tactical contributor, to a more holistic/ strategic reformer. Our hypothesis is, in order to do so; designers will need to acquire new skill sets and create roles unheard of before. They will need to employ entrepreneurial thinking led by design to make a disproportionate impact within and outside organizations.

Three key takeaways

• Future skills that are needed for designers to transform themselves

• Propose a education/ training model that is essential for the growth and transformation of designers

• Possible future roles of designers to make an impact at a strategic level