Jury Alumni

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  Farai Madzima

  UX Manager, Shopify

  2023 Interaction Jury Member

  Born in Zimbabwe, Farai was going to be a doctor but didn’t get the grades. Now he’s a designer. Make of that what you will.
  Using words, scribbles, and pixels he’s spent the last 14 years helping design and build products and teams in the UK, South Africa, and Canada.
  Today, he makes a living designing interactions and leading a team as a UX Manager at Shopify in Ottawa.
  In South Africa, Farai designed banking apps used by many across the continent. He grappled with unique design challenges because most internet users have never used a laptop or desktop. And some buy data by the megabyte.
  Farai enjoys speaking about bridging knowledge gaps between designers. He’s appeared at events worldwide, including IXDA Interaction and IASummit.
  He organizes Pixel Up!, a series of UX and design conferences and meetups in South Africa. These events connect designers and developers in Africa with their peers around the world.
  Also, he adores verbiage, in all languages, township jazz, nerdy hip-hop, and the number 127.
  

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  Joana Kelly

  COO, Small Planet

  2018 Interaction Jury Captain

  Joana Kelly is the COO at Small Planet, where she helps teams create award-winning mobile products for clients like Disney, NPD Group, and Planned Parenthood.
  
  Her work has earned the Communication Arts Magazine​ Award of Excellence and the Fast​ Company Innovation By Design Award, been featured on the App Store and Google Play, and ​ been downloaded millions of times.
  
  Joana has guest lectured at the School of Visual Arts and taught at Parsons The New School for Design. She received her undergraduate degree from New York University and holds an MFA in Design and Technology from Parsons The New School for Design.

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  Ryan Swedenborg

  Artist and Designer, Spotify

  2022 Interaction Jury Member

  Ryan Swedenborg is an artist and designer based out of NYC, where she currently works for Spotify. Her work takes the form of visual identities, applications, apparel, reports, celebrations, prints, sculptures, and paintings. Being a WNBA fan, collecting Reba merch, and wandering around New York are her hobbies.

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  Jill Nussbaum

  Executive Director of Product and Interaction Design, The Barbarian Group

  2015 Interaction Jury Captain

  Jill works with clients to develop long-term product experiences that explore emerging technologies and manages the Interaction Design team at the Barbarian Group. Previously she was an Executive Creative Director at R/GA, and a key player behind the design of the Nike+ platform. In her role, she oversaw the evolution of the platform to include Nike+ Fuelband, Nike+ Basketball and Nike+ Training.Jill is an active member of the New York design community and enjoys teaching, public speaking, writing, and advising young designers and tech start-ups. She currently teaches in the Interaction Design MFA program at SVA, and is a contributing writer for PSFK. She frequently guest lectures at conferences and learning institutions like Fast Company, SxSW, AIGA/NY, IxDA and General Assembly.

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  Kristen Dudish

  Executive Director, The New York Times

  2019 Interaction Jury Member

  Kristen Dudish is an Executive Director of Product Design at The New York Times, where she leads teams in creating smart and meaningful digital experiences for both readers and newsroom creators. Previously, she was part of the product design teams at New York Magazine and The Knot. She got her start designing and illustrating greeting cards for Hallmark.

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  Hanah Ho

  Senior Art Director, The New York Times

  2021 Interaction Jury Member

  Hanah is a designer residing in Brooklyn, New York. She is currently a senior art director at The New York Times, developing campaigns and visual identity for podcasts and audio. Previously she was at the branding and design agency Champions Design, and Hillary for America where she worked to elect the first female president. She is currently serving on the board of AIGA NY and is passionate about connecting designers with new opportunities and engaging in the design community. She holds a BFA in Communication Design from Carnegie Mellon University.

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  Yumi Endo

  Lead Designer, Humanitarian Data Exchange (HDX), United Nations OCHA

  2018 Interaction Jury Member

  Yumi Endo is a Japanese native, New York-based designer with a passion for art, design and technology.
  
  She has previously worked as a design consultant at frog design in NYC, where she created meaningful product experiences for many internationally acclaimed clients including GE, Comcast, Nokia, Microsoft, Bloomberg, United Nations OCHA(Office for the coordination of humanitarian aids) and Rockefeller Foundation.
  
  She currently works for United Nations OCHA’s humanitarian data sharing platform as a lead designer.
  
  She is also an owner/creator of a jewelry brand, Cut by Yumi Endo which has been showcased in international art/design conventions including Maison et Objet in Paris, International Contemporary Furniture Fair (ICFF) in NYC and Tokyo Design Week in Japan.
  
  Yumi often likes to integrate three-dimensional effects in her 2D designs, creating unique visual and tangible experience.
  
  Yumi holds a Master of Fine Arts in Design + Technology from Parsons the New School for Design and earned a Bachelor of Design with an honors degree in Product and Graphic Design from University of New South Wales, Australia.

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  Brian Kelly

  Director of Experience Design, Verizon

  2018 Interaction Jury Member

  I'm a digital product designer specializing in high-touch mobile applications.

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  Desirée Zamora García

  Product Design Manager, Webflow

  2022 Interaction Jury Member

  Desirée is a designer, speaker, and editor whose practice has spanned a diverse range of spaces in interaction design. She is driven by a desire to push the boundaries of interaction design in service of creative expression, and giving people agency over their own presence and opportunities on the web.
  
  Today she leads teams of product designers at Webflow, a no-code website publishing platform. Her editorial work enables designers to influence discussions about web technologies, standards, and frameworks. In 2013, her design of personal finance tools for funding a college education were the runner-up for the Core77 award in government. She also works as an editor at A List Apart

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  Dever Thomas

  Partner, Design, Work & Co

  2021 Interaction Jury Member

  Dever Thomas is a design partner at Work & Co in Copenhagen. She sets and executes create direction for some of the world’s most admired global companies including IKEA, Aesop, Céline, La Mer, YouTube, and Virgin America. In her role, she collaborates closely with other disciplines — technology, product management, strategy — to shape the final product. She is a thought leader on digital design, published in the Wall Street Journal and Business of Fashion, and her work has won awards from Fast Company, Communication Arts, Glossy, and the UX Awards.

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  Daniele Codega

  Design Director, Work & Co

  2019 Interaction Jury Captain

  Daniele Codega is a Design Director at Work & Co, a nearly 300-person technology and design company with offices in the US, Brazil and Europe. The company partners with Apple, Lyft, Epic Games, Equinox, Mailchimp and others to define and launch digital experiences people love using every day.
  
  Daniele’s known for working with clients on the strategic and systematic design of large-scale digital products. He has extensive experience working at the intersection of physical and digital, media, and luxury for companies such as Apple, Gucci, Samsung.
  
  Prior to Work & Co he was a Product Design Director at Elephant, leading design for various Apple projects. Earlier, he led digital product design for Gucci, Samsung, Reuters, and Huffington Post.

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  Ian Spalter

  UX Lead and Manager, YouTube

  2015 Interaction Jury Member

  Ian Spalter is a UX lead & Manager at Youtube