Udhaya Kumar Padmanabhan (UKP)

Meet Udhaya Kumar Padmanabhan (UKP), a seasoned executive design leader with over 20 years of experience in the design industry. UKP has designed for numerous business verticals globally, spanning from design leadership and management to strategy, research, product management, front-end engineering, user experience (information, interaction, and visual design), CX, delivery, and operations. He is a classic example of Niels Bohr's definition of an expert, having made every mistake that can be made in a narrow field.

UKP's education and certifications include studying human-computer interaction (HCI), user-centered design (UCD), and HFI. He is a proud alumnus of Bangalore University, where he studied Mathematics, Statistics, and Computer Science, as well as of EDIT, where he studied web, multimedia, and 3D.

His previous roles include being the global strategic design director at Designit, founder, and principal of UXFirst and UXGrid, chief experience officer, and head of design at ABOVE Solutions, ButterFruit Design, director of UX, consulting, and communication at FusionCharts, co-founder at iFortify software, global head of UX at MSC Software, head of UX practice at Aztecsoft, UI architect at Epiance, head of product interface engineering at Liqwid Krystal, project manager of new media at Aviana NRIT, and senior interactive designer at Multiview Software.

UKP specializes in various fields such as product management, product design, research, usability, user-centered design, customer experience, service design, instructional design, interaction design, visual design, product engineering, NPD, GTM strategy, branding, marketing, pre-sales, and sales. He is an adept at giving form to the formless and an avid believer that experience is something you don't get for nothing.