Kalyani Tupkary at the IceWeb 2024 by SVEF Samtök Vefiðnaðarins

I had the pleasure of sitting down with Kalyani Tupkary—a visionary in the design world whose work seamlessly blends foresight with tangible user experiences. As attendees mingled and celebrated the year’s achievements, Kalyani shared with me her journey from a small town in India to shape the future of user experience at Twitch and beyond.

Kendall Klein: Kalyani, it’s terrific to have you here. Can you tell us about your background? Where are you from, and how did you become interested in design?

Kalyani Tupkary: Thank you, Kendall. I grew up in a small town in India. At 16, my understanding of design was entirely limited—I thought being a designer meant being good at drawing. I didn’t know any designers personally, but I had heard of the National Institute of Design (NID), the oldest design school in India, and I set my sights on going there.

KK: That’s quite a leap of faith. How did your journey into UX design unfold from there? What inspired you to enter this field, and what experiences have shaped your career?

KT: Once I got into NID, my perception of design began to evolve. I realized it wasn’t just about drawing, making, honing a craft, and solving problems. After graduating and stepping into the industry, I discovered that being a designer involved processes, methodologies, and frameworks. After almost a decade in design, I’ve come to see that being a designer isn’t confined to a neat little box—it’s a bit of everything, and often, it’s oddly shaped.

When I was at institute I DID think design was about drawing, making, honing a craft and 'problem solving'. After graduating I THOUGHT it was about process, methodologies etc. The point I was trying to make – each time I thought I knew what a designer is but that my understanding was limited.

KK: How did your early experiences, especially at NID, shape your approach to design today?

KT: During my undergrad, we had to choose our major discipline after our foundational year. We attended talks by alums who had ventured into various fields. The most insightful sessions were with those who started in one discipline but ended up practicing another or even creating unique blends of disciplines. It taught me that disciplinary boundaries are permeable. I truly learned how to think—and sometimes, how to unlearn. These skills are transferable across different disciplines and beyond.

Kalyani Tupkary | 2024

KK: You’ve worked on some significant projects. What has been the most challenging product experience you’ve designed, and what made it particularly difficult?

KT: One of the most challenging and rewarding projects was redesigning the Twitch mobile app, where we completely revamped the navigation. It was a rare opportunity to reshape discovery and redesign the app for a platform with a strong brand and passionate community. Internally, it meant navigating overlapping organizational lines and collaborating across product, engineering, research, and executive teams. It pushed me to think in public and grow as a designer.

KK: Balancing intuition and data is crucial in design. How do you navigate gut intuition with data-driven research when creating great products?

KT: Both intuition and data are about asking “why” to understand the underlying reasons behind things. They’re two sides of the same coin. Intuition sparks new ideas, which I then validate and refine with research and data. Sometimes, research challenges my instincts; other times, my instincts guide the direction of the research. Our strength as designers lies in crafting compelling narratives, and we can do this using data and intuition, depending on the context and project stage.

KK: Reflecting on your journey, if you could advise your 21-year-old self, what direction would you suggest taking? Are there any career paths or decisions you would approach differently now?

KT: I would tell myself to pay attention to what I genuinely like and figure out my taste. When you’re young, it’s easy to get swayed by trends or what others deem remarkable, which can drown out your inner voice. Understanding why you like something is important, and leaning decisively into that is essential.

KK: Can you share a project you’re particularly proud of and explain why it stands out?

KT: In 2022, Twitch’s design team initiated a design-led quarter, during which each group was given a prompt to imagine Twitch’s future. Instead of following the usual product design process, our group employed speculative design approaches to envision possibilities beyond the immediate present. We created an interactive pop-up exhibition with fictional tweets and product release videos set up in Twitch’s kitchen area, where people naturally gather. This allowed colleagues to interact with these concepts organically. Check out the Video.

Insights from this speculative work were woven into our annual roadmap planning and informed an open letter that the Chief Product Officer and Monetization Officer wrote to the community. This project was unique because it blended commercial work with my parallel practice focused on the future. My colleague Shihan and I even discussed our process at Config 2023, Figma’s annual conference. We also developed Tomorrow’s Products Framework, a designer tool for creating futures others can touch, hear, and feel.

KK: That’s incredible. Your ability to blend speculative design with practical applications is inspiring. Before we wrap up, is there anything else you’d like to share with aspiring designers?

KT: Embrace the odd shapes that design can take. Don’t confine yourself to predefined boxes or labels. Stay curious, be willing to unlearn, and always keep the dialogue open with your inner self. And remember, the boundaries between disciplines are more permeable than they seem.

Her Practice

“I work as a product designer. This is primarily industry-facing work,” Kalyani explains. “But I also have a parallel practice where I make things, often just experiments for myself.” This duality allows her methods to meander between the structured world of product design and the boundless possibilities of speculative design. Her interests lie at the intersection of design, technology, and the future—a space where traditional boundaries blur.

She admits that combining these facets into a coherent career is “a weird and ongoing challenge.” Yet, it’s a challenge that enriches her professional work. “This parallel practice enriches my approach to product design,” she says. By stepping outside conventional frameworks, Kalyani brings fresh perspectives to her industry projects, infusing them with creativity that transcends the ordinary.

One of the most captivating aspects of her work is her long-standing fascination with alternative perceptions of time. This curiosity has given rise to projects like the Calendar Collective—an archive of real and imagined calendars traced through voicemails. “All of these challenge known perceptions of time and nudge the audience to explore alternate ways of occupying time,” Kalyani notes.

The Calendar Collective invites visitors to rethink how we measure and experience time. It’s a digital tapestry woven from diverse temporal frameworks, each offering a unique perspective on life. You can peek at this intriguing project here.

As part of this exploration, Kalyani created the Even Odd Calendar, a temporal layer superimposed on the Gregorian calendar. This innovative concept disrupts our conventional understanding of weeks and months, proposing an alternative rhythm to our daily lives. “It challenges known perceptions of time and nudges the audience to explore alternate ways of occupying time,” she emphasizes.

For those interested in delving deeper into her work, her website here provides more details about these projects.

Kalyani’s ability to navigate both the practical demands of product design and the philosophical inquiries of her projects is a testament to her versatility and vision. By embracing the “weird and ongoing challenge” of combining these worlds, she enriches her practice and contributes to a broader conversation about how we understand and interact with time.

In an industry often driven by immediate results and tangible outputs, Kalyani’s parallel practice serves as a refreshing reminder of the power of curiosity and the importance of questioning the norms. Her work encourages us all to pause, reflect, and perhaps even reimagine the constructs that shape our everyday experiences.

As our conversation concluded, it was clear that Kalyani Tupkary is not just shaping products but also the very essence of what it means to be a designer in today’s evolving landscape. Her journey is a testament to the power of introspection, adaptability, and the courage to think beyond conventional frameworks.

For those interested in exploring more of Kalyani’s work, visit her website at kalyanitupkary .com. Her story is a compelling reminder that the future of design lies in the seamless fusion of intuition, data, and an unwavering commitment to exploring the unknown.

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