TED Community » Shashank Khanna

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About Me

I am an Experience Designer and a Social Innovator. I apply design thinking as an instrument to understand problems in developing economies and offer holistic solutions. I detest believing that people are not tech-friendly, rather in my view it is this technology which is not friendly to people and that is where I tend to be more inclusive. My research and design has materialized into special interfaces, which allow people to access digital services irrespective of low literacy or special needs. Some of these interfaces have been specifically designed to deliver essential banking services to the low-income segment. Currently I work as a Senior Interaction Designer at Yahoo! Inc post an internship with Microsoft Research India and Samsung Global Design Studio. I hold a Master’s in Design from the Industrial Design Centre, IIT Bombay and Bachelor's in Architecture from DCRUST, Murthal. Luckily there are no boundaries between my professional and personal interests, basically I love what I do and share my time in painting abstracts, getting high with a camera in hand and studying the mystic nature of sufism.

Location:
India, Bangalore
Current organization:
Yahoo! Inc.
Past organizations:
Microsoft Research India, Samsung Global Design, India, NSEF (National Social Entrepreneurship Forum)
Current role:
Senior Interaction Designer
Gender:
Male
I am:
Activist, Architect, Artist, Brainstormer, Buddhist, Designer, Idea generator, Inventor, Photographer, Social entrepreneur
Associations:
SANDBOX Network
My website links:
Personal Website, Microfinance Insights Article, Photography
Universities:
Industrial Design Centre, IIT Bomaby, Department of Architecture, DCRUST
TED conferences attended:
TEDGlobal 2013
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More About Me

I'm passionate about

Design, Technology, Education, Sufism, Buddhism.

Talk to me about

Everything

People don't know that I'm good at

Day Dreaming!

My TED Story

I am a speaker at TEDxIPSAIndore. I am greatly influenced by a statement my professor made once “If you want to see India as a developed nation in the next ten years, how can you contribute as a designer?”. This statement inspired me to initiate an academic project to understand how people with low income levels and low literacy levels deal with finance and technology and the interplay between the two. My research investigated the mismatch between current banking services offered to these low income & literacy groups and explored opportunities to bridge that gap. As part of this project, I reached out to a technology partner FINO (Financial Inclusion Network and Operations) to design mobile banking solutions that bring access and availability of innovative financial services to these groups . These IVRS based solutions have now been active since one year across India.

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