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Becoming a "Reflective Practitioner"
Becoming a "Reflective Practitioner"
‘Stories’ have always been special to me, not solely for their ‘entertainment’ value, but because the world is full of them. There are stories in conversations, the things we make, in the ways we interact, in cookbooks, encyclopedias, religious scripture, and certainly in fictional work. Growing up with nearly 3000 books in my brother’s collection at home, whenever I'm not playing or experimenting, I read widely out of pure curiosity and joy.
What I didn't realize then was that story and play are the most natural forms of learning, and that curiosity was pulling me in a direction long before it had a name in my mind. Stories, my young mind came to believe, have the power to change people and systems. All I wanted was to be a fine storyteller, making the world a better place.
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All that we do, almost all the time, is design, for design is basic to all human activity. The planning and patterning of any act towards a desired, foreseeable end constitutes the design process...
All that we do, almost all the time, is design, for design is basic to all human activity. The planning and patterning of any act towards a desired, foreseeable end constitutes the design process...
Design is the conscious effort to impose meaningful order.
Design is the conscious effort to impose meaningful order.
Victor Papanek, Design for the Real World
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In 2004, the camera became my first real tool for that pursuit — observation, empathy, framing, narrative — stories as photographs. It came naturally, and I excelled with higher education in the UK, four exhibitions, and ultimately to the Waterman's Gallery in London, where my work on life as an immigrant was selected among the most promising South Asian graduate works. The 2008 global recession forced me to adapt and diversify to land as a journalist at the Daily Mirror, UK. What felt like a setback then helped me grow professionally by enhancing my skills in research, critical thinking, and communication design.
The real intellectual turning point came during Bangladesh's Shahbag Movement of 2013. What began as a collective demand for justice was quickly politicized, fracturing society along sharp lines of disconnect, isolation, and intolerance. Participatory social media played a defining role — both as a force for mobilization and for division. I witnessed how emerging technology was reshaping society and human interactions in real time, similar to how photography and journalism have changed the world in the past. By this point, I had a strong knowledge base, ethical foundation, and set of practical skills. But I was growing increasingly curious about the role of technology and design as a catalyst for change.
In 2015, a visiting scholar grant for my journalistic work took me to UC San Diego. Live, learn, reflect is my life's principle, and UCSD is where I lived it most deliberately. By chance, I was introduced to Don Norman's reflections on design that we do not just use “things”, we construct narratives about our interactions, our experiences, our sense of self. The knowledge of Interaction Design opened a 'Norman' door, and my curiosity followed. This new perspective eventually moved me to reframe my career growth, staying true to my original goal. As emerging technology merged deeper into everyday life, changing how people interact and experience the world, I wanted to understand that part of the system, and my interdisciplinary background offers foundational strength in the design field.
UNT became the platform where that curiosity found its clearest direction yet. While many critics focus on the problems emerging technologies bring, I have always been more drawn to the possibilities of solving those problems and the ethical use of technology for a better future. As a graduate student in Interaction Design and teaching foundation-level design at the College of Visual Arts & Design, I explored, reflected, and refined my determination to pursue a PhD and a career in design research.
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In the midst of winter, I found there was, within me, an invincible summer.
In the midst of winter, I found there was, within me, an invincible summer.
Albert Camus, Personal Writings
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But desire alone is not enough to achieve any goals, though it plays a critical role. It is what you do when the strength of your desire is tested that defines the path forward. In retrospect, the doctoral journey, along with parenthood, has been my most transformative experience.
Now, as a design researcher, I can fully utilize my multidisciplinary skill set and diverse knowledge base. My work sits at the intersection of human-computer interaction, learning experience design, and educational psychology, where my background lets me see problems from multiple perspectives, move between roles, and stay grounded in the human experience at the center of it all. As a researcher, a designer, or a teacher, my goal remains the same. The curiosity that once pulled a child toward 3,000 books, toward a camera, toward the stories embedded in every human interaction — it still leads the way to make the world a better place.
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