info
Pournami Pottekat is a Product Designer and Researcher currently based in the United States.
Through intentionality, adaptability, and empathy, I deliver actionable insights that drive product success — combining mixed-method research with data-driven decision making.
I'll be soon graduating with a Master's in HCI/d from Indiana University Bloomington in May 2025 (almost to the finish line!), but I'm originally from India, where I got my Bachelor's in Computer Engineering from the University of Mumbai.
While I take on various roles in projects—including design, development and product management—I'm most passionate about user research. It's always been the most rewarding aspect of my work.
I’m currently seeking for UX Research opportunities where I can make an impact in AI, Healthcare, Conversational AI, Freight Industry or other spaces challenging enough where I could grow as a researcher along with the product.
Feel free to reach out at pournami.work@gmail.com to discuss potential collaborations. I'm excited to learn about your product and explore how I can help drive its growth.
Here's my resume!
Skills I Can Bring To The Table
Qualitative Methods
Literature Review, Content Audit, Platform Audit, User Interviews, Digital Ethnography, Observations, Co-design Workshops, Contextual Inquiries, Diary Studies, Mental Model Diagrams, Personas, Thematic Analysis, Affinity Mapping, Journey Mapping, Usability Testing.
Tools: Dovetail, Dscout, Miro, FigJam.
Design
Information Architecture, Visual Design, Sketches, Wireframing, Hi-fidelity Prototyping, Figma Animations.
Tools: Figma, Adobe Creative Suite
Quantitative Methods
Tree Testing, Experimental Research, Survey Design, SPSS, Qualtrics, Statistics.
Tools: UXTweak, Qualtrics, SPSS
Soft Skills
Storytelling, Proactiveness, Documentation, Organization skills, Leadership, Ability to give and take constructive feedback.
There’s more, I like doing academic research too!
Aug 2024 - Present
Research @C-CIL
Conducting an independent research study, supervised by Prof. Austin Toombs in the c-cil (Community-Computer Interaction Lab) lab. My research focuses on how people navigate ending parasocial relationships with media personalities. Stay tuned for updates!
dec 2023 - mar 2024
Research Volunteer for Co-design Workshop Study
Assisted Dr. Pallabi Bhowmick at IU in facilitating a co-design workshop with older adults and student designers. The workshop aimed to understand their collaboration dynamics and explore potential solutions for check-in toolkit interfaces.
Analyzed over two hours of qualitative workshop data from 21 participants using Dscout, conducting thematic analysis to extract key insights.
SEPT 2023
Published in Springer
Published research paper titled “Outfit recommendation system based on colour compatibility to assist colour blind users—A Survey”, in Springer Book Series - Algorithms for Intelligent Systems, 2023.
Back in India, I was actively involved as a UX Designer in multiple student organizations
Aug 2022 - May 2023
Design Lead, Google Developer Student Club SIES GST
Organized and facilitated a 5hr design sprint workshop for 20+ engineering students.
Mentored 2 designers on the team for GDSC website re-design.
Aug 2021 - May 2023
UX Designer, Technical Team SIES GST
Led the redesign of the Student Portal and Companion App for my college's Student Council, now actively used by 1500+ students at SIES GST.
Hosted talks and workshops on design thinking, Figma tutorial and more for 100+ students.
Hired and mentored a team of 3 UX designers for the redesign project.
Aug 2021 - May 2023
Front-end Web Developer, Codechef Chapter SIES GST
Developed and maintained components of a competitive coding website that hosted regular coding competitions for college students using ReactJS.
Designed and developed the landing page for a national-level hackathon using HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, which attracted 300+ student registrations.
Outside of work, I like
Newfound love for baking cupcakes.jpg
I love caring for my plants.jpg
I like Kayaking.jpg
Basil plants are hard to care for :’).jpg
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River Rafting in Manali, India.jpg
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