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!