Hi, I'm Pavithra AKA Pavi :)

I was that art kid doodling in class and entering competitions. My mom, a software engineer and part-time art teacher, filled our Bay Area home with kids learning to paint and create. That beautiful chaos of community and creativity shaped who I am today.

I grew up in the Bay Area and love exploring San Francisco's energy and diversity. When I'm not researching or designing, you'll find me hunting down good food, exploring new cities, sipping boba, drawing for fun, cooking experiments, watching movies, belting karaoke, having spontaneous dance parties, or shopping, basically enjoying the little things :)

My Journey to UX

I started in tech, AI/ML, text-to-speech, IoT, but something was missing. I realized I didn't just want to build technology; I wanted to make sure it actually worked for people.

At the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, I double majored in graphic design and information + data science, taking every UX and HCI course I could. Each one felt like "Oh, THIS is what I'm supposed to be doing."

Things clicked at the Adaptive Cognition & Interaction Design Lab (ACTION lab), where I designed emotion-aware chatbots and co-authored a paper honored at ACM Creativity & Cognition 2025. Through projects like the Cultural Food Hub app and Pawsible (showcased at a design expo with 500+ attendees), I learned that good design is about accessibility, emotional storytelling, and creating experiences that actually work.

Now I'm at UC Irvine pursuing my master's in Human-Computer Interaction and Design, constantly leveling up. I'm proud to have found the thing that combines all my interests: art, people, problem-solving, and making things that genuinely help.