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Shailja Pahuja
New Media Design
National Institute of Design
 About me

Hello
I’m Shailja Pahuja.
Post Graduate Diploma, New Media Design student, at National Institute of Design
(NID), Ahmedabad.Currently in fourth semester and looking for
a 4 to 6 months diploma project.
I have done Bachelor of Computer Science and Engineering (BE), from
Rajiv Gandhi University Institute of Technology, Bhopal. Graduated in May 2007
I have also had the opportunity to serve Tata Consultancy Services Limited,
( Jan 2008 to May 2008 ) as an Assistant System Engineer Trainee.
I am Keen to work in Exploratory and Experimental New Media Installations,
Design for Spaces, User Experience Design, Interaction Design, Design Research,
Sustainable Spaces, eco energy, Photography.

This is my Me Board. A landscape can perfectly represent me as I am very close to

nature and as a New Media Design student, I understand my responsibility that
technology should not bind us; instead it should be tailored to liberate us. Orion
fighter symbolizes my never say die attitude. The oyster shell emphasizes my trait
as a silent observer and diligent worker. My calm nature is typified by the placid
sea. Introspection and reflection is the way I learn. The mysterious side of mine is
personified by the half moon and I have the ability to travel alone and explore like a
kite bird.
 Classroom Projects

Jollymate - Assistive Technology for Dyslexia [page 1/2]

Interaction Design, Product Design
Winner of Best Academic Showcase at USID 2009, Bangalore.
Dyslexia is a learning difference and not a learning difficulty.
This project, undertaken as a team, is a Self Learning Device for
dyslexic children(3 to 7 years of age), which emulates school 1 10
notebooks and enables them to identify & learn how to write
letters and numbers correctly , thus solves the mirror writing 2
problem.
3
Technology
4
It uses Lipi Toolkit IDE 2.1, a handwriting recognition engine, an
open source by HP, developed in Java. 5

Jollymate provides 6
•one-to-one attention
•a patient learning environment 7
•boosts self esteem
•uses jollyphonics system of learning 8
•learning through creative engagement in a multisensory way
9

Design Features 1. power on / off 5. phonetic set selection 9. notepad

•ergonomics, Visual Cognitive issues and mental models of 2. case / numeric speaker 10. alphanumeric /
dyslexic children taken into consideration. selection 6. slider for letter phonetic mode slection
•mind mapping and grouping 3. speaker seletion visual screen
•affordances according to logical constraints 4. visual screen 7. touch Screen
•single function for single control 8. pen cum stlyus
•multiple feedback mechanisms
•fine motor skills practiced
 Classroom Projects

Jollymate - Assistive Technology for Dyslexia [page 2/2]

Interaction Design, Product Design

Taskflow
Jollymate helps improve memorizing.
Once all the initial settings have been made, the phonetic set and the
letter to be practised is selected. The child sees the action and the visual
for the letter. He hears the phonetic sound, memorizes it and switches
to the notepad area to practise.
If the letter is wrongly written, touchscreen activates, showing the
formation of the letter playing in loop. It gives a visual feedback to the
child to follow the tracings. Letters of decreasing opacities helps the
child to memorize the letter. If the letter is correctly practised, it turns
green in color and gets converted into a star, with a applause sound.
Jollymate supports patient learning. At any point of time the child can
switch back to notepad area by moving the slider.

Produced a video prototype explaining the design process and the

product.
 Classroom Projects
‘Dit’ and ‘Sip’ - Revamping Morse Code Telegraph [page 1/3]
Experimental Project (Recent and Ongoing)

It’s an ongoing project, which went into exploring how a Morse code telegraph can be intuitively and finding out the various possibilities.
The idea is to build an audio visual installation, using telegraph as a communication service to facilitate conversations in and between public spaces , for example
chai ki tapri. Explored how binary connotations of a conversation, can be used to order tea or coffee. and equip it accordingly, so that it can lead to varied social
organizations.

Alternative iteration
An iPhone music application to compose ringtones, giving an experience of
creating music using two tap interactions , in an effortless and fun way, by taking
away the meaning of morse codes and considering only the Sound property of it.
The idea is to sensitize people towards morse code sounds, to be able to
differentiate between dit n dahs. And bringing back the genre of music which
contained morse codes, for example
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ia9PepHTpWw

Features
3 notes are provided
Musical instruments
5 Octaves
Gain
Autospace
Tempo (60 to 180)
Sound length : ¼ ½ 1 2 secs
 Classroom Projects
‘Dit’ and ‘Sip’ - Revamping Morse Code Telegraph [page 2/3]
Wireframes

Settings Set the octave, for dits and dahs, Select the base track.
frequency options for them and the
other parameters.
 Classroom Projects
‘Dit’ and ‘Sip’ - Revamping Morse Code Telegraph [page 3/3]
Wireframes

Interactions :
Dit key pressed onces adds a dit sound to the composition (Audio and Visual feedback to support it). Save it as a ringtone, or as an emotetune.
Any pressed for a longer time, changes the lenght of the dit and dah sound by equal amounts. This can be sent as a background music for
Dit key pressed, followed by the dah key changes the note of dit. a text message.
Both the keys pressed, changes the pause between the sounds.
At anytime during the composition, the composed melody can be heard using the play and pause
options.
To edit a dit or a dah note from the composition, directly tap on the music track line.
 Classroom Projects
Sapne - Incultating Emotional Intelligence in children using Lucid Dreaming [page 1/3]
Systems Thinking Project, User Experience Design

Concept : Aimed to introduce Emotional Intelligence as a subject in school curriculum and uses lucid dreaming as a tool to accomplish it. Sapne is dream journal (an art
workbook), giving experience of a lucid dream using multiple mediums of expression. It is a non verbal , triadic , virtual means of communication , which can be used
for need gratification.
How do you respond?
Deny Feelings
Ask Questions
Give Advice or command
Give criticism
Give explanation
Show Pity

How should we respond? Research and system model:

Respect Disgust
Acceptance: “You’re not feeling alright”.
Identifying feeling: He seems to be ‘upset’.
Acknowledge : its alright to feel the way you feel
Lucid dreaming helps creating a feeling of freedom; where there is nothing external, no laws
of society or physics. Therefore the child doesn’t feel hesitant toward expressing feelings. On
the grounds of the research on how the exploration of lucid dreams can help in inculcating
Emotional Intelligence in children, this project aims at introducing “Emotional Intelligence” as
a part of the school curriculum and which instead of emulating present day visits to a
psychologist, is designed in the form an art class and the activities are designed to express
their vocabulary of feelings of building up due to peer pressure, empathy, different emotions.
 Lucid Dream-

Lucid Dreaming Indution Meth- Applications

Dream Recall Adventures and Explrations

Identifying Dream Signs (Wish Fufillment; Satisfaction of Desires)
{Thoughts,Feelings, Actions} Rehearsel for Living
(Practical Tool for preparing for your waking life)
Present State of Consiousness
look, listen, feel, taste, smell,breathing Creative Problem Solving
Emotions, thoughts, “I“ Overcoming Nightmares
(face, overcome fears and inhibitions)
Dream Journal The Healing Dreams
describe the images, characters, (unresolved conflicts from past / present relation-
feeelings, unsual things etc. Life is a Dream
Imitations of a Wider World
Overcoming Fears
Emotional Intelligence
Intrapersonal + Interpersonal
Thoughts, feelings, actions!!

Emotional Needs Expression

to be loved, accepted, to belong peer pressure, empathy, care,
choice,
to feel himself as an individual building up of vocabulary of feel-
satisfied interpersonal relationships Confession of comfort zones, fears,
Masculine of feminine identification secret places. Expressing
empathizing with peer group
overcoming fear.
How to respond to feelings? Projective Techniques
Acceptance, Identifying feeling, Acknowledge non verbal, triadic, virtual
,
 Classroom Projects
Sapne - Incultating Emotional Intelligence in children using Lucid Dreaming [page 3/3]
Product:
I came up with a “dream journal”, which emulates an art workbook, which enables children to express themselves through multiple mediums like storytelling, drawing,
collection, finger puppets, sticking. The Dream journal “Sapne” gives the experience of a lucid dream; hence they will be free to what they want to, which will result into
honest confession of their fears and also teach them how to deal with them in their dreams, which in practice will also help during the waking state.
Alternatively, the dream journal concept can be extended to a multisensory mural in a classroom environment, to promote collabrative learning.
Setting him to sleep Fantasy Dream Recall

Expressing Anger Fantasy Confession, Exressing choice Empathy

 Classroom Projects
ATM for Visually Impaired People
Ergonomics Project

Redesigned existing ATMs to extend its use to visually Impaured people.

Prdouced a scaled down 3-D model, flash simulation of selected scenarios.

Features:
An overlay screen is placed over existing kiosk of the ATM and is
projected at the button positions. It gives a tactile feedback of
position of buttons; also an audio feedback when the user presses it.
The position of the buttons is fixed to maintain consistency. The user
moves his hand over the screen. The tactile feedback informs him
about the position of button, on pressing gets an audio feedback,
which button is being pressed. Then the user moves his hand
horizontally towards the right and finds a physical button on the
kiosk to select the option.
All the slots for receipt, earphones, and cash give an audio feedback
on touching.
The ATM card needs to be placed in the depression for the card,
instead of swiping.
Brail on keypad.

Concepts used:
Colour choice, visual cognitive issues,concepts of form, interface
design for differently abled, physical anthropometric dimensions,
critical analysis of types of screen interaction to use, touch based
feedbacks, instruction design, navigation, multiple feedback
mechanism.
Appropriate audio modulation, security and privacy issues,
arrangements of different components considering the accessibility
issues.
 Classroom Projects
Other Projects [page 1/2]
Film and Video Fundamentals
The invisible word
A short film. This movie is about spreading awareness amongst youth on the misuse of books in a fun satirical way and has a mystic climax. It narrates a student’s life
incident and the lessons learnt by it.
Got hands on experience to understand the film and video fundamentals.
Concepts used:
Semiotics, creative video methods, art of storytelling, how it travels in time and space. Emotional and rational approach to storytelling, types of films documentary,
fiction etc. Storyboarding, scenes and shots, types of shots and basics of composition. Pre-production, location hunting, resource management, camera operation,
use of lights, basic of sound design, introduction to premier pro, adobe after effects.
 Classroom Projects
Other Projects [page 2/2]
Animation
Was introduced to the basics of 2D animation and stop motion.
Assignments done:
Flip book animation, walk cycle, Material and paper cut out animation using lunch box, Lip sync exercise (made a short film on human catastrophe of media hypes,
pollution etc is affecting the earth. It evoked a surreal satirical mocking mood), animatix.
 Workshops

Attakalari Contemporary Dance: “Bodies in space“

Conducted by: Attakkalari Centre for Movement Arts, Bangalore

Explored Contemporary dance as a medium of communication. As

Mc Luhan said “Medium itself becomes the message”, we saw how
movement itself becomes the storyline. The performers vocabulary of
physical expressions itself act as a backdrop. The practical movement
sessions gave us enhanced body awareness, sense of space and a
kinesthetic experience. We were able to discover some of the rare knowl-
edge systems in human expressions and understood how a non verbal
communication can act as a sensorial expression.
We also learnt how digital media can be explored to offer new
possibilities, and how relationship between the human body and the
space (real and the imagined one) can be made more dynamic.
It also taught us various Life skills and prompted us to think about design
in a body-centric manner and provide us with the tools for
interdisciplinary explorations.
Workshops
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Photography
 Photography

Information Design through photography [page 2/4]

Religious beliefs in a village
All the pictures have colour harmony and evoke a soothing, peaceful mood in images.
Experimented with diagonal composition of elements, unusual angles and investigated the possibilities of close – up photography.
 Photography

Information Design through photography [page 3/4]

Tarnetar fair

Tarnetar Fair is a three-day festival organized in Tarnetar village of Thangadli in Surendranagar district, Gujarat
every year. It is a popular husband-hunt fair. During this fair young women with colourful dress walk through the
Tarnetar Fair and choose their groom among the young men who assemble under gorgeously embroidered um-
brellas.
It was a good experience to click pictures in bright daylight and challenging to avoid clutter, as the place was too
crowded, there was no place to step. Captured rich culture and varied activities, also explored different types of
shots.
 Photography

Information Design through photography [page 4/4]

Elements and principles of design

Explored elements and principles of design through photography and saw how their treatment lend compositional and impact to images. Also had to exhibit creative and
original interpretation of numbers and alphabets in nature.
Elements: line, shape, direction, size, texture, colour.
Principles: balance, gradation, repetition, contrast, repetition, contrast, harmony, dominance
Contact

+91 9724679613
shailja_p@nid.edu
shail.pahuja@gmail.com