- Artwork by Eli Jorgensen
Shaheena Attarwala defends a woman’s right to design her own future, especially in the face of fierce adversity and opposition. She champions living ruthlessly amid oppressive whims and societal precepts. She’s a magnet that brings the issues forward and carries the water for anyone who dreams of raising their standards and never settling for status quo expectations. She’ll persuade you to hunker down, prove your grit, and rattle some cages if you have to. This episode is not just about design. So make your way or step aside. It’s time to hear her metaphoric journey, examine your own life, and bring more awareness to poverty and oppression. In other words…sh*t’s about to get real!
Shaheena is a UX Design Manager at Zoomcar, India’s first self-drive platform. At Zoomcar, Shaheena leads the UX team to build a definitive, hyper-local, multi-modal urban mobility transport solution for India and emerging economies, with close collaboration with cross-functional teams.
Born to a conservative family in a village of Uttar Pradesh to growing up in the grimy slums of Mumbai, her repugnant experiences propelled her to reduce ‘bad’ human experiences by creating more impactful and empowering solutions through a seamless union of human-centred design, curiosity, intuition and logical reasoning. In this journey of adversity, Shaheena is the first generation in her clan to rebel her way towards educating herself and changing mindsets about a girl child.
Shaheena harnesses her life experiences while building solutions. Living a frugal life has taught her empathy and compassion for fellow humans and the planet.
She’s passionate about human behaviour and cross-cultural experiences and loves reaching out to people and sharing perspectives, for she believes that is a sincere way to learn and form sustainable communities!
Apart from making the digital world a better place by building better experiences every day, she also endeavours to reshape the lives of the less fortunate by blending design, technology and her legal skills. Over the years, her initiatives to create a positive impact has received recognition from the United Nations.
Fun fact: She loves children’s bedtime stories even now. She asks close friends, her mom or siblings to tell her stories. If that’s not possible, she puts some online to listen to, and falls fast asleep 🙂
- Origin Story (3:56)
- A Kid’s View (6:25)
- Oppression In Cultures (8:42)
- Ah-Ha Moments (11:38)
- Family Relations (13:48)
- How Did You Find Design? (16:52)
- What’s Driving You? (20:53)
- Design Influence (22:26)
- Legal Skills and Design (33:04)
- Gaining Empathy (35:29)
- Don Norman (40:59)
- Teaching Curiosity (45:45)
- Harnessing Life Experiences (59:36)
- Story Banks (1:02:49)
- Design Superpower (1:06:46)
- Design Kryptonite (1:07:20)
- UX Superhero Name (1:08:32)
- Habit of Success (1:08:58)
- Recommended Book (1:10:15)
- Taking Risks (1:12:24)
- Best Advice (1:14:26)
Continue reading 070: Harnessing Life Experiences in Design with Shaheena Attarwala
