Shivanand Pegu

UX & Design Researcher · Interaction Design

M.Des, IIT Delhi · New Delhi, India · shivanand.pegu@gmail.com

Designer and researcher pursuing an M.Des at IIT Delhi, focused on interaction design, UX research, and design research. I came to design through architecture — four years as a project architect before pivoting to research — and work between rigorous field research (gesture studies, contextual inquiry, ethnography) and applied UX and brand design. Currently seeking UX research / design research opportunities.

Education

• M.Des, Industrial Design — IIT Delhi 2025 – 2027

  Graduating July 2027. Focus: interaction design, UX research, and design research.

• B.Arch — School of Planning & Architecture, Vijayawada 2022

Experience

• Teaching Assistant — Games Lab, IIT Delhi IIT Delhi

  Helped build the Games Lab from the ground up under Prof. Aakash Johry — spanning the lab website (information architecture & UX), its visual identity, and the physical space.

• Project Architect — Studio Chintala, Bangalore Dec 2022 – Jun 2025

  Sole point of contact across clients, consultants, and site. Translated client needs into experiential spaces — experience centers and office interiors — and led projects from first sketch to completion, including scheduling, budgeting, and 3D modelling.

• Intern Architect — Collective-Project, Bangalore Feb 2021 – Jul 2021

  Produced construction drawings — plans, sections, and elevations — to project specifications.

Selected projects

• Post-Touch Interaction Design

  Sole designer-researcher. A research-through-design study of expressive gesture: a two-hand, computer-vision creative canvas (MediaPipe, 30 fps) refined through a 12-finding usability study.

• Nishaniyaan Design Research

  Visual ethnography of the Amar Colony furniture market — covert observation and semi-structured interviews synthesised into themes of labour, illusion, and the afterlife of objects.

• Ban Baat, Bangkok Design Research

  Solo international design-ethnography immersion with the last alms-bowl artisans of Bangkok — craft-process documentation and cross-cultural fieldwork.

• Gemini Contextual Inquiry UX Research

  Team of 3. Contextual inquiry into how people organise and retrieve AI-chat conversations, translated into a redesign of grouping, search, and retrieval.

• Simple Shutter UX Strategy

  Solo. A persuasive UX strategy for beginner-friendly cameras — personas, journey and empathy maps, and a Motivation–Ability–Trigger (Fogg) intervention model.

• The Local Entropy Branding

  Solo. A complete fragrance brand built from a single scent (petrichor) — strategy, positioning, typography, identity, and packaging.

• NEO Branding · Leadership

  Lead designer & brand strategist for IIT Delhi's first festival celebrating Northeast India — a scalable brand system across print, environment, digital, and merchandise.

Full case studies are on the Work page.

Skills

Research

Contextual inquiry · user interviews · behavioural observation · ethnographic fieldwork · research-through-design · usability testing · persona development · literature review

Analysis

Affinity & thematic analysis · journey mapping · empathy mapping · insight & pain-point synthesis · kinematic / behavioural data analysis

Interaction

TouchDesigner · MediaPipe (hand tracking) · generative visuals · mid-air / spatial interaction · kinetic mapping

Tools

Figma · FigJam · Miro · Adobe suite · 3D & spatial tools (Rhino, SketchUp, Blender, AutoCAD) from an architecture practice

Awards

• 2nd Runner-Up — Games for Change × Roblox Game Jam, IIT Delhi 2025

  Team of 4. "Open Waters," a co-op game that teaches players to spot online scams and build safe, supportive communities.

Looking for UX research / design research opportunities — get in touch.