Nikesh Kumar
Open to work and relocation
I am a UX designer based in Seattle. I’ve worked with startups, enterprise clients, and research labs to design systems that are accessible, intuitive, and scalable. With 4+ years of experience, I'm focusing on designing immersive and interactive experiences, with a long-term focus on designing, testing, and storytelling creatively.
Experience
University of Michigan
UX/Product Designer
Jun 2025 - Present
- Audited the Integrated Product Development course and developed a cohesive design system from moodboards
- Developed a Wordpress theme and plugin to enable easy, interactive interfaces for students to create product websites and for professors to conduct product launch voting online & offline and aggregate results seamlessly
Hyundai/HATCI
4 Months
UX Researcher & Designer
Jan – May 2025
- Conducted 9 user interviews, 55+ survey responses, 1 stakeholder interview to understand how AI can assist drivers in bad weather
- Ideated 30+ concepts and narrowed down to Blue Guardian – an accessibility-focused design solution
- Implemented a WCAG and NHTSA-compliant design system on Figma; averaged SUS score of 95 from 4 usability tests
Newman Insight Marketing
6 Months
Founding Designer
May – Dec 2024
- Spearheaded designing an accessible and inclusive brand identity
- Created and launched a 100% WCAG compliant WordPress website and 150+ branding assets
- Engineered a JavaScript-based interactive invoice, reducing invoice generation time by 80%
Quicken Simplifi
4 Months
UX Consultant
Jan – May 2024
- Facilitated user interviews, competitive analysis, heuristic evaluation, and usability tests
- Delivered strategic recommendations that improved information flow and reduced cognitive load
Tejas Networks
1 Year 8 Months
R&D Engineer
Jan 2022 – Aug 2023
- Collaborated with hardware team to develop software for 3 heavy-duty routers from 0–1
- Designed scalable C/C++ algorithms that reduced API latency by ~30%
- Automated testing and repetitive tasks with Python and shell scripting, reducing testing time by ~90%
University of Waterloo (MITACS)
3 Months
UI Designer & Web Developer
June – Sep 2021
- Assessed competitors & crafted Lo-Fi Figma wireframes and high-fidelity prototypes
- Programmed Haptiverse, a scalable MERN + AWS platform for Haptic Researchers
Education
University of Michigan
3.945/4.0
M.Sc. in Information
2023 - 2025
Manipal Institute of Technology
9.18/10.0
B.Tech. in Information Technology
2018 - 2022
Work
Safer car navigation with Blue Guardian
UXDAccessibility-first HUD for safer navigation in severe weather
Lumicharge: A Solution to Power Outages
PRODUCTA dual-purpose floor lamp designed to keep renters prepared for power outages
Improving Finance Management for Freelancers
UXRStreamlining personal finance using Quicken Simplifi
Résuméhttps://madebynikesh.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/documents/Kumar_Nikesh_Resume.pdf