Hi there, I‘m Vaishali!

(Pronounced as vai-shaa-lee)

🌲 A product designer based in Seattle, WA.

🕘 Currently: Founding Product Designer at SafeInsights (Rice University), leading end-to-end UX for a complex research platform — streamlining research proposal workflows, agreements, and building AI-powered tools to improve how researchers write code.

⏳ Prior: Designed across B2B and B2C products in the public sector, e-commerce, and enterprise tools.

  • Improved information retrieval by 50% at the City of Bellevue.

  • Drove 25% increase in online sales at Himalaya Wellness.

  • Shipped usability improvements for Samsung’s Galaxy Z series.

I also hold a Master’s in Human-Centered Design & Engineering from the University of Washington.

🧠 What I care about: Designing clarity in complex systems — bringing structure to ambiguity through information architecture, usability, and scalable design systems.

I’m especially interested in accessibility, inclusivity, and building products that make sense to people, not just systems.

🎨 Outside of work: I paint and practice photography — ways I stay connected to human stories, details, and cultural nuance. You’ll also find me traveling, experimenting in the kitchen, or tending to my growing collection of plants. 🌱

What I bring to the table —

Systems-first thinking

I design beyond screens, considering workflows, policies, services, and downstream to create cohesive, scalable solutions.

Exploring light and movement through photography.

Experimenting with physical composition.

Comfort with ambiguity and constraints

I’ve led work in environments with unclear ownership, competing priorities, and regulatory constraints, making informed tradeoffs and moving teams forward.

Cross-functional partnership

I work closely with engineering, product, legal, and operations partners to align on goals, clarify constraints, and deliver solutions
that scale.

Reinterpreting classic portraits through my lens.

End-to-end ownership through execution

I take responsibility from early problem framing through launch and iteration, ensuring design decisions hold up in
real-world use.

Painting murals.

When I’m not working, I’m —

Getting inspired by Escher’s tessellations.