Hola 👋🏼,

I am Karthik Venkataraman and this is my story.

I have always believed that a good design enables, while a bad design disables, irrespective of the users’ abilities. I chose to become a designer on this strong notion, to resolve problems and design solutions that benefit the community as they navigate through physical and digital spaces with time. My journey towards design started a long time ago, in the mystical land of India.

India is a kaleidoscope of cultures that includes umpteen variations in food, clothing, language, art forms, and religious beliefs. Growing up here gave me a colorful childhood filled with vibrant exposure to folklore, myths, and jugaad. This environment was perfect for igniting my creative spark, developing cultural empathy, and kick-starting the never-ending thirst for knowledge.

As a young child, I would spend hours opening up my toys to know how they work inside and miserably fail to put them back. Later came the influence of computers and the internet, which increased that curiosity, but this time with hardware, software, and the web. It pushed me to pursue Information and Communication Technology (ICT) from SASTRA, a prestigious university in the southern part of Tamil Nadu, India.

Undergrad days at university enabled me to meet new people from different parts of the country. It gave me a better perception of them, their culture, and their needs. Being a part of the university's design team opened the gates to the world of design. I started designing everything from t-shirts, posters to websites & mobile applications for events and other needs. That's when I realized that design, combined with my engineering instinct, could help me build solutions that look not only aesthetic but also be inclusive and accessible to everyone.

After graduation, I joined Zoho Corporation as a web designer in 2017, inarguably one of the best places to start your career. Zoho doesn’t set any boundaries for its designers. As a designer, I worked on product, UX, visual designs and also developed my prototypes. I believe a full-stack design exposure is what a designer needs in the upcoming years. This provides a deep understanding of the entire development lifecycle and the technologies used, which is much-needed if you wish to provide the best experience for your end-users.

I quit my job at Zoho in 2021 to pursue my Master's in Human-Computer Interaction at Uppsala University, Sweden. Being one of the oldest university in Europe, Uppsala University holds the reputation of being one of the world's top research institute with an influential alumni network. My Master's in Human-Computer Interaction is more academically oriented, where we learn the foundational concepts of HCI research, design methodologies, evaluation strategies, future interfaces and so on.

When I'm not designing, I'm usually traveling around to meet new people, taking photographs, volunteering for an NGO, and trying to learn the secrets of our cosmos.

Thanks!