Hello! I am a Beirut-based human-centered designer and currently the Head of Experimentation at UNDP Lebanon’s Accelerator Lab. In my design practice, I draw on my extensive experience in product, service, and systems design and my expertise in design research, experimentation, and impact measurement tools. My independent consulting and coaching in human-centered design allows organizations to understand their users needs, drivers, and behaviors. I work closely with clients to develop and experiment with new products and processes that are context specific and socially conscious. Fluent in four languages, I am committed to communicating with users and moving between different social and cultural contexts.
Check out some of my work under Products + Services.
I have lectured and given workshops on topics such as design research, experimentation, social innovation, and design education in the United States, Hong Kong, Armenia, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Jordan, and Lebanon. I am a former Fulbright Scholar and received my Master of Industrial Design from the University of the Arts in Philadelphia. I also hold an MA in Product Design from Académie Libanaise des Beaux-Arts in Lebanon. Prior to joining the UNDP Accelerator Lab in Lebanon, I was an independent consultant and coordinated the graduate program in Global Design at Académie Libanaise des Beaux-Arts.
“A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.”
WHAT I DO IN FOUR EASY DEFINITIONS
Design /dĭ-zīn’/ noun.
A process (not an outcome) that emphasizes dynamic approaches to identifying and solving problems through products, services, and interventions.
Product Design /prŏd’əkt dĭ-zīn’/ noun.
The conception and development of physical or digital artifacts that respond to users’ needs, their priorities, and the contexts they live in.
Service Design /sûr’vĭs dĭ-zīn’/ noun.
Optimizing services like transportation or healthcare by strategically planning and organizing all of the features that go into it, including the interaction between users and providers as well as their experiences. This branch of design acknowledges products as one part in a larger system that controls or determines human behavior.
Social Design /sō’shəl dĭ-zīn’/ noun.
The application of the design process and human-centered research tools to intervene in the social world. This branch emphasizes the social responsibility of the designer and advocates for social change and socially-oriented projects.