About

Hemalatha Venkataraman

I graduated in May 2018 with my MFA in Design Research and Development, with a Graduate Interdisciplinary Specialization in 'Analysis of Material Culture' from The Ohio State University. An architect by qualification (and an artist/writer by passion), I have since been working as a design researcher and experience strategist in the cosulting space for the last six years.

I believe in human-centered design, and using participatory and co-design methods with users to identify core needs and motivations when designing new solutions, testing existing ones, and formulating informed strategies. I think that the users are really the experts of their own lived experiences and that their knowledge should inform research and solution direction and development. I am also a huge proponent of interdisciplinary collaboration and out-of-the-box thinking to solve complex issues and research topics into simpler, easy-to-comprehend insights in the form of maps, visual frameworks, posters, and reports/presentations. Analysis and synthesis of heavy qualitative data is my superpower—find me a wall and a lot of data, I am happy.

Even as I have worked on a range of projects from different industry types (banking, healthcare, pharmaceuticals, senior living, architecture, public sector, and retail), I am specifically interested in design research work (and positions) in social innovation and corporate social responsibility. I consistently strive to work at the intersection of my multiple skillsets—design and design research, art, architecture/urban design, and social good.

My graduate thesis was specifically focused on exploring a new methodology ("Narrative Probes") in the front-end of generative design research, to elicit tacit sociocultural narratives from people. It acts as a preliminary step before co-design settings; it concentrates on a slow process of immersion that emphasizes the building of social bonds between people (through an analogue means of communication). I am in the process of working on passion-design projects that involve art, architecture, and community at the moment through a series of visual documentation.

Do you have a job offer for which you think I might be fit? I’m open to mid to senior level design research and strategy, and UX research positions. Please shoot me an email. Here is my resume below for further details. Ciao!