Hi!
I am John Rodrigues - User Research and Design strategist, with a Master's degree in User Experience and Interaction Design from Thomas Jefferson University, USA. I have been working in Design and Innovation for the past four years.
My journey as a designer started when as a kid, I made a reacher stick for my disabled grandmother. Identifying pain points, prototyping, and testing were intuitive actions which I followed long before I knew “Design Thinking”. On a slight detour from my Design journey, I pursued a graduate degree in Engineering where I got learn how products are built without often understanding the why. The search for that “why” led me to Industrial design which finally led me to UX Design. By constantly exploring, learning and reinventing my career at multiple points, I have found design to be at the intersection of my interests and passion - a job where I can solve problems for a living!
As a Designer with his roots in Engineering, I could see a gap existing between how a product is designed and how it is eventually built. With an aim to address this, I co-founded an Innovation lab in India - D&D SmartLabs, where we worked on multiple projects by interweaving design concepts with a structured developmental approach. One of our projects - “D&D SmartKit”, was awarded The Top Rams Business pitch competition and the Matt Glass award for Entrepreneurship conducted by Blackstone Launchpad Jefferson. Along with an active social media presence, D&D SmartLabs also hosts a weekly podcast “D&D SmartTalks” where we collaborate with designers , developers and innovators to dive further into the worlds of Design and Innovation.
My work experience includes working with The Dice group, Blackstone Launchpad and PAM inc as a UX Design Researcher and Strategist. In addition to that, I have been a Lead Ambassador for Collaborizm, an online collaboration platform for solo entrepreneurs and creative professionals. My work with Collaborizm has been profiled in the New York Times.
When not obsessing over Design and Innovation, you will find me playing the guitar, travelling or making short films. I also manage a Youtube channel - Design_with_John, where I share my learnings and talk about all things Design!
Good design is feasible, desirable, viable but above all meaningful. Having worked across varied platforms like App, Web, AR/VR, IOT, AI and Robotics, I have come to understand that the true merit of any design lies in the Impact that it creates. By keeping people at the center of design and innovation, I work to amplify human experience by designing and building meaningful products.
Thank you for reading my story!
Feel free to reach out to me and have a chat over a coffee!
