✦ hi, I'm Devika · product designer + researcher · 4+ years

A curious
designer
who researches
first.

I'm a product designer and researcher. I find the gaps between what products assume and how people actually live, then I design to close them. Currently at Tata Elxsi, shipping wearable and AR/VR experiences.

"The best design decisions are made before you open Figma. Research is where design actually begins." me, always ✦
Devika
designer + researcher ✦
@ Tata Elxsi 🩷
SF Bay Area
✦ how I got here

Research first. Design always.

I started in design, then landed in research, and quickly realised the two are inseparable. The moment I saw insights actually shape what got built, I was hooked.

Since then, I've worked across the full loop: running qual and mixed-methods studies, synthesising findings into strategy, then designing the actual product response. Two funded startups have shipped work that started with questions I asked. That's the part that gets me out of bed.

Now at Tata Elxsi I'm doing the same on wearable tech and AR/VR, working at the intersection of people, emerging hardware, and the product decisions that shape both.

✦ what makes me different
I research the gap, then
design to close it.
That's the whole thing.
🔬
research
Qual, mixed-methods, participatory. 40+ participants across healthcare, wellness, and consumer tech.
🎨
design
From insight to Figma. I design the product response to what I find, not just the report about it.
🚀
startup impact
An investor-funded product. Work that shipped because insights changed the decision, not just the deck.
← the researcher who can also ship the thing ✦

My Toolkit

tools i actually use ✦
Figma
Miro
Notion
Google Forms
Google Sheets
Google Slides
Maze
Hotjar
Typeform
Slack
Zoom
Loom
Airtable
Canva
MS Office
Figma
Miro
Notion
Google Forms
Google Sheets
Google Slides
Maze
Hotjar
Typeform
Slack
Zoom
Loom
Airtable
Canva
CSS
Dovetail
Lookback
UserZoom
Jira
Adobe CC
Mural
Claude
ChatGPT
Cursor
v0

What I Believe

on research, design + process ✦
01
✦ on research
"Good research is just being genuinely curious about people. Methodology is a vehicle, not the destination."
02
✦ on design
"The best design decisions are made before you open Figma. Research is where design actually begins."
03
✦ on products
"Most products are built on assumptions nobody bothered to question. That gap is where I live."
04
✦ on impact
"Research that lives in a Notion doc and never changes anything isn't research. It's documentation."

Currently Into

the non-work stuff ✦
📺 binge watching
Stranger Things S5, Bridgerton
📚 reading
The Meaning of Human Existence Edward O. Wilson
🌱 working on
Next case study + touching grass more. Slow progress on both.
🎨 designing
Flows, systems, and things that didn't exist before the research did.

The random stuff

things that make me, me ✦
unpopular opinion
Overthinking is a superpower if you're a designer-researcher. I've made peace with it.
selectively organised
My research notes? Immaculate. My Figma layers? Named with intention. My desk? We don't talk about that.
fun fact
I've shipped a product for a funded startup and I still get a little giddy when a design actually gets built.
what drives me
I'm drawn to the stories that get left out of the room when products are built. The users nobody thought to ask. The design decisions made on gut instead of insight. I want to be the person who closes that loop, from the first interview to the final screen.
"research first,
design always"

that's my whole thing ✦
✦ open to opportunities

Want to work
with me? Let's talk.

I'm looking for roles where research shapes design and design ships, not just gets presented in a deck and forgotten.

Say hello → See my work