What is your title/role at GSD&M?
Mistress of Insight & Architecture
What’s your association with the interactive and new technologies being developed for GSD&M’s client roster?
As a consumer advocate and a brand infiltration agent my role is to architect campaigns that result in affinity and encourage interaction. New and emerging technologies is a medium for us to attain that goal. We achieve this by tuning into consumer nuances and decipher what it means to our clients’ business, and more importantly, why. We elicit and derive story from data, filter through the noise to identify the relevant, spot emerging and converging trends and ultimately bridge the gap between people and products using new and emerging technology.
How important is it to understand how a user navigates through a site?
It’s vital. A user’s journey through a site is similar to one’s experience when stepping through a space or a building. A beautiful building has an aura and ambiance that captures the inhabitant’s and visitor’s heart and mind. Similarly, a successful site architecture enables intuitive user navigation, increases engagement, and hence leads to higher conversions. Understanding user intuition and behavior is key to such a design.
How can we stay relevant and fresh when designing for the web?
To stay relevant and fresh, we must view the web as a living and breathing creature. Like any other live organism, both the website’s design and its content must adapt to the changes of its environment in order to survive. Understanding the users and their ever-changing behaviors and needs is critical to this goal.
How are new technologies bleeding over into music culture, food culture, and the arts?
The new and emerging technologies allow us to shift our attention from procedures and formalities into enhanced, uninterrupted, and seamless experiences. For instance, an app could allow me to place an order swiftly and efficiently, ultimately freeing me to focus on my real goal: engaging my social circle and soaking up the fun.
How many countries have you been to? How many languages do you know?
16 + I’ve watched a band of monkeys steal granola bars from a pack of tourists in Costa Rica, hitched rides on a vespa to an undisclosed location in Mykonos, been held by Parthenon security for questioning, and had infamous conversations with a red couch in Amsterdam. As for languages, I am fluent in English & Farsi and a hint of French & Arabic.
Tell us something.
I hold the — non–official — record for the most open tabs in a browser, and most recently been nicknamed Vine’rina. When not storyboarding, wireframing, and architecting campaigns, I am globetrotting, exploring rooftops in heels, hunting dark chocolate, chasing food trucks, and dancing at festivals.
