Transdisciplinary Designer · Educator · Leader
25+ years designing at the leading edge—from Microsoft's global UX transformation to the world's most pressing humanitarian challenges. Founder of Authentic Design. President, IDSA.
Authentic Design · Seattle, WA
About
"My vision is an equitable world for all, realized by the creativity of all. My mission: to help every person and organization become a value creator by unleashing their inner design thinker."
Surya Vanka is a transdisciplinary designer who has worked at the leading edge of physical and digital experiences for over 25 years. He is founder of Authentic Design, President of the Industrial Designers Society of America, and advising founder of the Global Impact Collective.
Surya was Director of User Experience at Microsoft for over a decade, leading the central design excellence team. He trained over 25,000 employees worldwide in user-centered design, co-created the Metro Design System (used across Windows, Xbox, Office, Bing, Skype), and helped transform Microsoft into an experience-first company.
A tenured professor and Center for Advanced Study Fellow at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, he pioneered digital design education platforms anticipating today's distributed studio model. His research produced ColorTool (adopted by Samsung, featured in Wired, BBC, NPR) and MaterialTool (Prentice Hall), both still in active use over 25 years later.
He began his design training at the National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad, and earned his MA from The Ohio State University—building a practice grounded in technical rigor, cultural intelligence, and the conviction that design is a universal human capacity.
25+
Years of practice
25k
Professionals trained
6
Continents taught on
200+
Keynotes delivered
3×
Top speaker award
2
Books authored
Portfolio
Featured projects from a portfolio built around Collective Design—the belief that when people design together, they unlock solutions no individual could reach alone.
01
National Issues
Led a DesignSwarms workshop with Mary's Place shelter during Seattle's civil homelessness emergency. Women with lived experience of homelessness co-designed alongside design professionals, producing Identity Haven (secure cloud identity storage), Fight Through the Fog (a dignity-restoring platform), and a city-wide awareness campaign.
Partners: Mary's Place · SIC 2015
02
National Issues
Partnered with Ohio State University when someone died of an opioid overdose every 11 minutes in Ohio. 30 participants—students, first responders, doctors, people with lived experience—swarmed for two days. One result: Prime Rx, a daily-dose medication delivery system designed to prevent accidental addiction.
Partners: The Ohio State University · 2018
03
Global Challenges
30 teenagers (aged 15–17) at Rising Academies participated in a DesignSwarms workshop, creating 16 proposals including GhostApp—a gender-anonymous social platform—for submission to the First Lady of Sierra Leone. Sierra Leone ranks 182nd in the UN Gender Inequality Index.
Partners: Rising Academies · Boston College · UN Women
04
Global Challenges
In partnership with Autodesk, FabLabHub, and the Global Humanitarian Lab, led a workshop to design portable fab labs that could be transported to hard-to-reach conflict-zone refugee camps on the backs of mules—promoting independence and dignity for camp residents.
Partners: FabLabHub · Global Humanitarian Lab · Autodesk
05
Critical Local Issues
Working with Sanofi engineers who had field experience in Burkina Faso, 20 top engineering students designed solutions for the "last mile" vaccine cold chain problem in sub-Saharan Africa's meningitis belt—a region of 300 million people where the disease is preventable but vaccines fail to reach communities safely.
Partners: Sanofi · Boston College · REU
06
Reinventing Design
Chaired the IDSA 50th Anniversary Conference in Seattle—named "The Future of the Future"—convening 1500+ industrial designers to reinvent the discipline. Sent an open invitation globally: "Come to Seattle and reinvent industrial design for the next 50 years." The conference reshaped the discipline's self-understanding.
Partners: IDSA · Civilization Studio · 2015
07
Design Education
Developed DesignSwarms workshops for Drexel University, Srishti College (Bangalore), and Kansas State University—equipping educators to teach students ethics, ambiguity, and creative problem-solving for jobs that don't yet exist. Coached 40+ faculty at Srishti in facilitation and collective design methods.
Partners: Drexel · Srishti · Kansas State · Autodesk
08
Creative Companies
Led the company-wide design excellence group during Microsoft's decade-long transformation from design laggard to industry design leader. Trained 25,000+ employees, co-created the Metro Design System, organized the first 15,000-person global Hackathon, and served as Chief of Staff to the UX Leadership Team.
Microsoft Corporation · 2003–2014
09
Creative Cities
Partnered with the Downtown Seattle Association and School of Visual Concepts to lead citizen design teams in reimagining Seattle's downtown recovery after the pandemic devastated a city that had been outperforming every major US downtown in January 2020. Selected ideas were tested and implemented with real Seattleites.
Partners: Downtown Seattle Association · SVC · 2021
10
Knowledge Creation
Over a decade at UIUC, created two enduring bodies of design knowledge. ColorTool catalogued cross-cultural color meanings across 42 countries (adopted by Samsung; featured in Wired, NPR, BBC). MaterialTool (Prentice Hall, 1996) catalogued 450 processes and 650 materials—both still actively used 25+ years later.
University of Illinois · Prentice Hall · Xerox · IBM · Apple
11
Civic Design
Partnered with AIGA Seattle in 2016 to tackle three questions: Why doesn't every American vote? Why are those who do vote often uninformed? How can every person's voice be heard? 40 participants from all walks of American life swarmed together to create solutions for fostering an engaged electorate and demystifying the civic process.
Partners: AIGA · Civilization · Seattle 2016
12
Resilience
Two months after a 7.1 magnitude earthquake killed 228 people and destroyed 40+ buildings, led a bilingual DesignSwarms workshop with Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana and city officials. México City is built on a dry lakebed that amplifies seismic damage. The workshop addressed the question every resident lives with: not if the next big quake hits, but when.
Partners: UAM Azcapotzalco · Government of México Tenochtitlán · 2017
13
Inclusion · AI
Facilitated the Microsoft New England Machine Learning Accessibility Hackathon using the Inclusive Design Swarms method. Advocated that technology doesn't work until it works for everyone—introducing Inclusive Design as a practice baked into AI, ML, deep learning, and voice assistant development from inception rather than as an afterthought.
Partners: Microsoft NERD · Design in Public · AIA Seattle · 2015–2021
14
Inclusion · Aging
By 2050, 64 nations will have 30%+ of their population over 60. Partnered with leaders in the US, India, and Hong Kong to bring Collective Design to aging—extending the ability of elders to live independently and with dignity. Workshops brought together older adults as co-designers alongside students, reframing aging from a problem to be managed to a challenge to be designed through.
Partners: Cornish College of Arts · Hong Kong Design Week · Ana Pinto da Silva · 2017
15
Critical Local Issues
Somali Bantu refugees in the Boston area face severe culture shock and unresolved trauma, with a community suspicious of all but two trusted interventionists. Over a 2-month series of DesignSwarms workshops, interventionists, social scientists, and students designed together to scale support. Eight solutions emerged, including HiveMind (a secure community self-help platform) and OldFamilyNewFamily (a peer coaching network where established immigrants guide new arrivals).
Partners: Boston College · Research Program on Children and Adversity
Career
Authentic Design Microsoft — Director Microsoft — Principal Microsoft — Designer Univ. of Illinois Ohio State / NID2014 –
Present
Authentic Design
Founder & Chief Designer · Seattle, WA
Founded to unlock creative potential in individuals, communities and organizations. Created and scaled DesignSwarms® globally. Led consulting for Amazon, Autodesk, T-Mobile, REI, and Microsoft. Social impact projects in homelessness, opioid addiction, refugee design, ocean pollution, vaccine distribution, and digital equity. President of Seattle Design Festival and iXDA Interaction Week 2019 Chair.
2011 –
2014
Microsoft
Director of User Experience · Engineering Excellence Group
Chief of Staff to the 12 senior-most design leaders company-wide. Drove the shift to an experience-first culture. Co-organized Microsoft's first global Hackathon (15,000 employees worldwide). Led strategic design briefings to C-level executives from Citibank, GE, and Exxon. Helped shape the UK Design Council's Double Diamond framework.
2003 –
2011
Microsoft
Principal Designer / Manager · UX Excellence
Hand-picked by the office of the CEO. Co-created the Metro Design System deployed across Xbox 360, Xbox One, Windows 8, Windows Phone, Bing, Skype, and Outlook.com. Created the UX metrics framework and first-ever UX career path definitions. Led UX Day attended by 2,000+ engineers and designers annually.
1997 –
2003
Microsoft
Interaction Designer → Design Manager
Joined as Designer-in-Residence. Advanced to managing Exchange Server and Enterprise Server product experiences. Led a company-wide accessibility initiative earning the Accessibility Achievement Award. Developed design training programs that became an industry model (cited by UK Design Council Case Study: Managing Design in Eleven Global Brands).
1991 –
1997
University of Illinois
Tenured Associate Professor · Urbana-Champaign
Earned tenure and became a Research Fellow at the Center for Advanced Study—one of only 8 selected annually from 2,500 faculty. Developed pioneering online design education platforms (IDonline, DesignNet) linking 8 international universities. Created ColorTool and MaterialTool—research platforms still in active use 25+ years later, supported by IBM, Apple, Samsung, and Xerox.
1986 –
1991
NID Ahmedabad · Ohio State
Professional Diploma & MA Industrial Design
Trained at India's premier design institution (NID), then pursued graduate research at Ohio State combining ergonomics, technology and computing. Designed public-use telephones for rural India, aviation collision-avoidance cockpit systems, and curricula for the Government of India's Department of Electronics.
Invention
DesignSwarms® is an agile, lightweight design framework that brings together swarm behaviors and design thinking to generate breakthrough ideas at remarkable speed—across teams of any size, background, or discipline.
First developed in 2014, it has grown into a global method used at corporations, universities, non-profits, and humanitarian organizations. It works because anyone—even without design training—can use simple but rigorous process maps to practice creative problem-solving as part of a team.
Nominated for the Smithsonian National Design Awards. Used by the winners of the Frontier Design Prize 2022.
30+
Organizations using the method
15+
Universities teaching DesignSwarms®
1–5
Days per workshop format
MVX
Output: Minimum Viable Experience
Used at
Recognition
Featured in
"Surya is one of those rare people who can operate simultaneously at the level of visionary leadership and hands-on craft."
— Design community recognition
★
Microsoft Engineering Best Practice Award
Microsoft Corporation · Twice
★
World Brand Congress Global Design Leadership Award
World Brand Congress · 2013
★
Ohio State Distinguished Design Alumnus Award
Ohio State University · 50th Anniversary
★
Accessibility Achievement Award
Microsoft Corporation · 2003
★
Best Educational Paper Award
IDSA · ColorTool Research · 1998
★
Top Speaker Award
Industry conferences · 3× winner
★
Center for Advanced Study Fellowship
University of Illinois · 1 of 8 from 2,500 faculty
★
Smithsonian National Design Award Nomination
Smithsonian · DesignSwarms®
Workshops
Five practitioner workshops. No lectures. The group exercise is the class. Available in-person globally or remote, from 4-hour intensives to 5-day residencies, scaled from 8 to 120 participants.
Book a session →For designers, product managers, and marketers who need to be comfortable with design decisions grounded in real customer data — the way Amazon, Microsoft, and REI do it. Learn when to trust the data and when to trust your instincts.
The methods Airbnb, Amazon, Microsoft, Starbucks, and Uber use to design products for the world. A wrong colour choice can doom a well-designed product. Designing for difference is what determines global success.
How IKEA, Uber, Airbnb, Apple, and REI disrupted entire industries — and how your team can use the same systematic, proven ideation techniques. Surya's own ideation toolkit and idea generation canvas included.
A ground-up practitioner course in IxD — scenarios, information architecture, prototyping, and usability. Built on 16 years of Microsoft product design. Students practice translating user needs into IxD concepts, then specifying and evaluating solutions.
Good design is inclusive design. Vint Cerf invented email to communicate with his deaf wife — and changed the world. Practiced at Airbnb, Microsoft, OXO, Herman Miller, and Ford. Participants tackle a real design challenge for an audience outside the mainstream.
The best interactive workshop I have ever attended.
Disruptive Innovation
I walked out of there with the best design buzz.
Data-Driven Design Sprint
New thinking on accessibility versus inclusion — and incredible facilitation.
Designing for All
A great reminder of how a well-orchestrated process can lift a team.
Disruptive Innovation
I learned the secret behind why Microsoft's products are easy to use.
Interaction Design
Design for one, extend to many.
Designing for All
Get in Touch
Available for keynotes, consulting engagements, design leadership coaching, DesignSwarms® workshops, and academic partnerships. Based in Seattle—working everywhere.