Is Design Grad School Worth It? - Notepad
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Is Design Grad School Worth It?
September 2025
Since graduating with my MFA in Product Design, I’ve received countless LinkedIn DMs asking: Is grad school worth it? In a world full of Social Media tutorials, AI prompting, and timeless design books, is it really worth dedicating two years to another degree? I’m not sure I’m “qualified” to answer. The day I gradua...
The Quiet Work of Emotional AI - Notepad
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The Quiet Work of Emotional AI
April 2025
What Designing With Care Taught Me About Building with Bots. Every week, it feels like a new AI tool launches. A co-pilot, a chatbot, a plugin to help you think faster or feel smarter. And I get it, there’s a lot to be excited about. But lately, I’ve found myself circling to question, What kind of relationship do we...
When a Concept Doesn’t Stick (and Why That’s Okay) - Notepad
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When a Concept Doesn’t Stick (and Why That’s Okay)
March 2025
I spent a month designing, testing, and iterating on a digital app concept — only to let it go. Here’s why ‘Echo’ didn’t work, what I learned, and why I don’t regret the time I spent on it. This project was done in a course taught by Krissi Xenakis as part of my MFA Design Thesis. When I first envisioned Echo , I be...
From Research to Design: How the Continuum Framework Guides Shifting Narratives - Notepad
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From Research to Design: How the Continuum Framework Guides Shifting Narratives
February 2025
Designers rarely stick to one narrative — unless they already knew the answer before the work began. Still, it’s easy to fall in love with your intial narrative formed from research. You gather insights, identify patterns, and form a clear vision of what users need. But what happens when you start designing — and th...
The Power of Speculative Design to Design for Now - Notepad
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The Power of Speculative Design to Design for Now
February 2025
Not very often do you see one book being assigned in two seemingly very different classes, but it does happen. This was the case with Anthony Dunne & Fiona Raby’s Speculative Everything: Design, Fiction, and Social Dreaming . I first came across this text through Dunne & Raby’s A/B manifesto project in Rob Walker ’s...
From Ambiguity to Clarity: The Case for ‘It Sucks That’ - Notepad
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From Ambiguity to Clarity: The Case for ‘It Sucks That’
February 2025
When I started design graduate school, I immediately noticed a stark difference in how things were done compared to my undergraduate studies in architecture. The most obvious distinction? Frameworks. In design school, every stage of a project has a tangible output — some kind of physical artifact. In architecture sc...
Beyond Borders: Redefining the Third Culture Kid Experience - Notepad
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Beyond Borders: Redefining the Third Culture Kid Experience
January 2025
As the world becomes increasingly globalized, the experiences of Third Culture Kids (TCKs) are more diverse and complex than ever before. While the term has historically been defined through a Western lens, it is time to expand the narrative to include a broader range of cross-cultural experiences, acknowledging the...
Lost in Translation: Exploring Grief and Care Through Design - Notepad
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Lost in Translation: Exploring Grief and Care Through Design
January 2025
I grew up in Germany, attending an international school where, for years, I was the only person of color in my class. My Indian heritage was often a topic of conversation, people asked about Bangalore or Kerala, but never about Berlin or Geneva. Though I wasn’t seen as European, for a long time, that was the only id...