Aastha Bhargava
Born and raised in Mumbai, India, Aastha has had exposure to cultural, socio-economic and linguistic diversity from a very young age. In a country as diverse as India, the challenges of designing technology and experiences are many. Aastha finds the challenge of designing simple interactions and intuitive user interfaces for a diverse range of users to be a very interesting one. She is particularly fascinated by how cultural differences can impact interaction design.
Inspired by Aeronautics at a young age, Aastha learned of user experience design while exploring the cockpit of an airplane. Observing how the design of cockpit instruments and controls can impact pilot’s performance, cognitive workload, situational awareness and safety, Aastha was motivated to pursue a degree in User Experience Design at Symbiosis Institute of Design in India. After graduating in 2012, she worked with Leo Burnett in Mumbai as a User Experience Designer. There, she worked on a variety of projects ranging from mobile and tablet banking interfaces to websites for paint manufacturers and mining companies. She was also part of the team which represented India in a world-wide usability study on gestures for Samsung Televisions.
Aastha loves to travel and immerse herself in local cultures and enjoys sketching in every place she visits. She is also fascinated by gemology and loves collecting rocks from hiking trips. She has also nursed many rescued or injured birds and released them back in the wild.
Along with the experiences that await her at SVA, Aastha looks forward to taking flying lessons in the near future!
Amy Wu
Born in Manhattan and raised in Queens, New York, Amy graduated from the School of Visual Arts with a BFA in Graphic Design. She has worked as a print and book designer for Eric Baker Design Associates, Frère Independent, Lion Brand Yarn, and Penguin Group USA.
After five years, she returns to SVA with the desire to expand her design skills into user experience. She is looking forward to learning a new way of thinking, transitioning from print to screen, and moving from a 1- to-1 relationship to a 1-to-many conversation.
Amy considers herself to be a maker, enjoys cooking, and has a growing owl collection. She has a special place in her heart for the food movement community.
Dami You
Dami is a visual designer living and working in New York City. She was born and raised in Seoul, Korea. She graduated from Pratt Institute in 2009 with BFA in Graphic Design. After college, she began her career at frog NY as a visual designer, and worked in creative team at The Daily, which was the first daily publication on the iPad, a collaboration between Apple and News Corporation.
Although she has experienced many moments of joy and felt a sense of accomplishment in working on various design projects at her works, she longed for her own experimental designs and wanted to learn more deeply about good user interface design. Most importantly, the concept of “human-centered” designs gave a spark to a new curiosity in her mind. As her passion for in-depth, multilateral approaches to concepts grew stronger and as she started contemplating on her future plans as a designer, she decided to pursue a masters degree. She is excited to expand her skill set and gain a broader perspective and knowledge of interaction design by studying at SVA.
She is a person who believes in Charles Goslin’s quote, “Be true to your work and your work will be true to you.”
