ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Mileha Soneji - Product designer
Mileha Soneji believes that having empathy and being able to put yourself in another person's shoes is what makes for great design.

Why you should listen

Mileha Soneji is a trained strategic product designer, originally hailing from the city of Pune in India. She currently works in the Netherlands as a strategist. Her work entails combining the fuzzy front-end of the design process with emerging technologies to answer the question of what needs to be designed in the future.

Even as a child, Mileha had a keen interest in (re)designing things around her, even though she had little knowledge about it as a profession. This led her to take up the Bachelor in Product Design at the MIT School of Design. After graduation, she got a couple of years of work experience in India, where she quickly realized that apart from the actual tangible design, a successful product needs a backbone of thorough research in user needs and market analysis. The need to study this further brought Mileha to Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands to study Strategic Product Design for her Masters.

More profile about the speaker
Mileha Soneji | Speaker | TED.com
TEDxDelft

Mileha Soneji: Simple hacks for life with Parkinson's

Mileha Soneji: Soluções simples para os que têm o mal de Parkinson

Filmed:
1,033,316 views

Soluções simples sempre são as melhores, mesmo quando lidamos com algo tão complicado como o mal de Parkinson. Nesta palestra inspiradora, Mileha Soneji compartilha projetos acessíveis que tornam as tarefas do dia dia um pouco mais fáceis para os que têm a doença de Parkinson. "A tecnologia nem sempre é a solução", ela diz. "O que precisamos é de soluções centradas nas pessoas".
- Product designer
Mileha Soneji believes that having empathy and being able to put yourself in another person's shoes is what makes for great design. Full bio

Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.

00:12
In India, we have these huge families.
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Na Índia, temos famílias enormes.
00:15
I bet a lot of you all
must have heard about it.
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Aposto que já sabiam disto.
00:18
Which means that there are
a lot of family events.
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Logo, há muitas reuniões familiares.
00:21
So as a child, my parents
used to drag me to these family events.
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Quando eu era criança,
meus pais me levavam a essas festas.
00:26
But the one thing
that I always looked forward to
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O que eu mais esperava com ansiedade
00:29
was playing around with my cousins.
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era brincar com os meus primos.
00:32
And there was always this one uncle
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Havia um tio que costumava estar presente,
sempre disposto, brincando conosco,
00:34
who used to be there,
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00:35
always ready, jumping around with us,
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00:37
having games for us,
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inventando jogos,
00:39
making us kids have the time of our lives.
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fazendo a garotada extremamente feliz.
00:42
This man was extremely successful:
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Este homem era muito bem-sucedido:
00:45
he was confident and powerful.
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era confiante e poderoso.
00:47
But then I saw this hale and hearty person
deteriorate in health.
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Mas depois vi esta pessoa saudável
e bondosa adoecer e definhar.
00:53
He was diagnosed with Parkinson's.
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Foi diagnosticado com o mal de Parkinson.
00:56
Parkinson's is a disease that causes
degeneration of the nervous system,
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É uma doença degenerativa
do sistema nervoso.
Uma pessoa que era tão independente,
01:00
which means that this person
who used to be independent
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devido aos tremores, tem dificuldade
muito maior de tomar café.
01:03
suddenly finds tasks like drinking coffee,
because of tremors, much more difficult.
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01:09
My uncle started using a walker to walk,
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Meu tio teve que usar um andador,
e para fazer uma volta,
01:12
and to take a turn,
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ele tinha que dar, literalmente
um passo por vez, assim:
01:13
he literally had to take
one step at a time, like this,
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e demorava uma eternidade.
01:17
and it took forever.
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01:20
So this person, who used to be
the center of attention
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Essa pessoa, que costumava
ser o centro das atenções
em todas as reuniões familiares,
01:23
in every family gathering,
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de repente escondia-se das pessoas.
01:25
was suddenly hiding behind people.
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01:28
He was hiding from the pitiful look
in people's eyes.
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Ele fugia dos olhares de piedade.
01:32
And he's not the only one in the world.
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E ele não é o único no mundo.
01:35
Every year, 60,000 people
are newly diagnosed with Parkinson's,
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A cada ano, 60 mil pessoas recebem
o diagnóstico de mal de Parkinson
e este número tende a aumentar.
01:40
and this number is only rising.
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01:44
As designers, we dream that our designs
solve these multifaceted problems,
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Nós, designers, sonhamos que nossos
projetos resolvam múltiplos problemas,
que sejam uma solução para todos eles,
01:49
one solution that solves it all,
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mas não precisa ser sempre assim.
01:52
but it need not always be like that.
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01:55
You can also target simple problems
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Pode-se atacar problemas simples
e criar pequenas soluções para eles
que resultem em um grande impacto.
01:58
and create small solutions for them
and eventually make a big impact.
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02:03
So my aim here was
to not cure Parkinson's,
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Meu objetivo não era
a cura da doença de Parkinson,
mas o de tornar as tarefas diárias
bem mais simples
02:06
but to make their everyday tasks
much more simple,
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e, então, provocar um impacto.
02:09
and then make an impact.
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02:12
Well, the first thing I targeted
was tremors, right?
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Bem, a primeira coisa em que mirei
foram os tremores, certo?
02:16
My uncle told me that he had stopped
drinking coffee or tea in public
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Meu tio contou-me que havia parado
de tomar café ou chá em público
porque se sentia envergonhado.
02:21
just out of embarrassment,
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02:23
so, well, I designed the no-spill cup.
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Projetei uma xícara que não deixa
derramar o líquido,
02:27
It works just purely on its form.
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graças apenas à sua forma.
A curvatura superior reflete o líquido
sempre que acontecerem tremores,
02:29
The curve on top deflects the liquid
back inside every time they have tremors,
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retendo-o melhor do que
as xícaras convencionais.
02:35
and this keeps the liquid inside
compared to a normal cup.
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O legal é que ela não foi rotulada
como produto para portadores de Parkinson.
02:38
But the key here is that it is not tagged
as a Parkinson's patient product.
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02:44
It looks like a cup that could be used
by you, me, any clumsy person,
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Ela pode ser usada por vocês, por mim,
por qualquer pessoa desajeitada
e é possível usá-la com mais conforto
para fazer misturas de bebidas.
02:48
and that makes it much more comforting
for them to use, to blend in.
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02:53
So, well, one problem solved,
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Bem, resolvido um problema,
há muitos outros ainda.
02:56
many more to go.
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02:58
All this while, I was interviewing him,
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Enquanto eu o entrevistava,
e lhe fazia perguntas,
03:01
questioning him,
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03:02
and then I realized that I was getting
very superficial information,
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percebi que estava obtendo
informações muito superficiais,
ou apenas respostas
para as minhas perguntas.
03:06
or just answers to my questions.
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Eu precisava nvestigar a fundo
para obter uma nova perspectiva.
03:09
But I really needed to dig deeper
to get a new perspective.
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03:13
So I thought, well,
let's observe him in his daily tasks,
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Então eu pensei em observá-lo
em suas tarefas diárias,
03:16
while he's eating, while he's watching TV.
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enquanto fazia refeições,
enquanto assistia a TV.
03:19
And then, when I was actually
observing him walking to his dining table,
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Então, ao observá-lo dirigir-se
até a mesa de jantar,
03:23
it struck me, this man who finds it
so difficult to walk on flat land,
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surpreendeu-me que esse homem
que andava com dificuldade no plano
pudesse subir escadas. Como consegue?
03:29
how does he climb a staircase?
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03:31
Because in India we do not have
a fancy rail that takes you up a staircase
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Na Índia não temos escadas rolantes
como nos países desenvolvidos.
03:35
like in the developed countries.
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Tem-se que usar as escadas.
03:37
One actually has to climb the stairs.
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03:39
So he told me,
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Então ele me disse:
“Deixe-me mostrar-lhe como eu faço”.
03:41
"Well, let me show you how I do it."
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03:43
Let's take a look at what I saw.
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Observem o que eu vi.
03:48
So he took really long
to reach this position,
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Ele demorou para encontrar esta posição
e enquanto isso, eu pensava:
03:51
and then all this while, I'm thinking,
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"Oh meu Deus, será que ele vai conseguir?
03:53
"Oh my God, is he really going to do it?
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Vai conseguir mesmo fazê-lo,
sem usar o andador?”
03:55
Is he really, really going to do it
without his walker?"
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03:58
And then ...
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E então...
04:02
(Laughter)
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(Risos)
04:08
And the turns, he took them so easily.
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E ele fez as voltas com muita facilidade.
04:13
So -- shocked?
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E aí...chocados?
04:14
Well, I was too.
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Bem, eu também fiquei.
04:19
So this person who could not
walk on flat land
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Então essa pessoa que não podia
andar em piso plano
era de repente um ás em subir escadas.
04:22
was suddenly a pro at climbing stairs.
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04:25
On researching this, I realized that
it's because it's a continuous motion.
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Pesquisando o fato, eu compreendi
que era por ser um movimento contínuo.
Havia um outro homem com os mesmos
sintomas e que usava um andador,
04:30
There's this other man
who also suffers from the same symptoms
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04:33
and uses a walker,
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mas que, quando andava de bicicleta,
04:35
but the moment he's put on a cycle,
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04:37
all his symptoms vanish,
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todos os seus sintomas desapareciam,
porque fazia um movimento contínuo.
04:38
because it is a continuous motion.
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04:41
So the key for me was to translate
this feeling of walking on a staircase
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Para mim, a chave era traduzir a sensação
de andar em uma escadaria
em andar num piso plano.
04:45
back to flat land.
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04:47
And a lot of ideas
were tested and tried on him,
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Com meu tio, tentei
e testei muitas ideias
mas a que no fim funcionou
foi esta. Vamos vê-la.
04:50
but the one that finally worked
was this one. Let's take a look.
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04:57
(Laughter)
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(Risos)
(Aplausos)
05:00
(Applause)
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Ele andou mais rápido, não?
05:05
He walked faster, right?
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(Aplausos)
05:06
(Applause)
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05:11
I call this the staircase illusion,
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Eu chamo isto de ilusão da escadaria
e na verdade, quando a ilusão da escadaria
acabou de repente, ele parou.
05:14
and actually when the staircase illusion
abruptly ended, he froze,
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05:18
and this is called freezing of gait.
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É o que chamamos de bloqueio da marcha.
É muito frequente.
05:20
So it happens a lot,
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Então por que não ter a ilusão
da escadaria em todos os cômodos,
05:21
so why not have a staircase illusion
flowing through all their rooms,
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deixando-o sentir-se mais confiante?
05:25
making them feel much more confident?
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05:29
You know, technology is not always it.
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Sabem, a tecnologia
nem sempre é a solução.
Precisamos de soluções
centradas nas pessoas.
05:32
What we need are human-centered solutions.
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05:34
I could have easily
made it into a projection,
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Seria fácil usar uma projeção,
ou um Google Glass, ou algo assim.
05:37
or a Google Glass, or something like that.
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Mas usei uma simples impressão no piso.
05:39
But I stuck to simple print on the floor.
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05:42
This print could be taken into hospitals
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Esta impressão pode ser feita em hospitais
para acolher melhor os pacientes.
05:45
to make them feel much more welcome.
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05:48
What I wish to do
is make every Parkinson's patient
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O meu desejo é fazer com que todo paciente
com o mal de Parkinson
sinta-se como o meu tio naquele dia.
05:51
feel like my uncle felt that day.
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Ele me disse que eu o fiz sentir
que recuperara seu antigo ego.
05:54
He told me that I made him feel
like his old self again.
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05:59
"Smart" in today's world
has become synonymous to high tech,
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“Inteligente” no mundo atual virou
sinônimo de alta tecnologia
06:03
and the world is only getting
smarter and smarter day by day.
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e o mundo torna-se, a cada dia,
cada vez mais inteligente.
06:07
But why can't smart be something
that's simple and yet effective?
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Mas por que inteligente não pode ser
o que é simples e eficiente?
06:12
All we need is a little bit of empathy
and some curiosity,
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Tudo o que precisamos é de um pouco
de empatia e um tanto de curiosidade,
06:16
to go out there, observe.
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de sair a campo e observar.
06:18
But let's not stop at that.
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Mas não paremos por aí.
06:20
Let's find these complex problems.
Don't be scared of them.
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Vamos descobrir os problemas complexos.
Não se assustem com eles.
Vamos subdividi-los e reduzi-los
a problemas bem menores,
06:24
Break them, boil them down
into much smaller problems,
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06:27
and then find simple solutions for them.
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e achar soluções simples para eles.
06:30
Test these solutions, fail if needed,
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Testem essas soluções,
fracassem se for o caso,
06:33
but with newer insights to make it better.
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mas com novas percepções
para fazê-las melhor.
06:36
Imagine what we all could do
if we all came up with simple solutions.
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Imaginem o que poderemos fazer
se todos nós inventarmos soluções simples.
06:40
What would the world be like
if we combined all our simple solutions?
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Como seria o mundo se juntássemos
todas as nossas soluções simples?
06:44
Let's make a smarter world,
but with simplicity.
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Façamos um mundo mais inteligente
porém usando a simplicidade.
Obrigada.
06:47
Thank you.
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06:49
(Applause)
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(Aplausos)
Translated by Ruy Lopes Pereira
Reviewed by Leonardo Silva

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ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Mileha Soneji - Product designer
Mileha Soneji believes that having empathy and being able to put yourself in another person's shoes is what makes for great design.

Why you should listen

Mileha Soneji is a trained strategic product designer, originally hailing from the city of Pune in India. She currently works in the Netherlands as a strategist. Her work entails combining the fuzzy front-end of the design process with emerging technologies to answer the question of what needs to be designed in the future.

Even as a child, Mileha had a keen interest in (re)designing things around her, even though she had little knowledge about it as a profession. This led her to take up the Bachelor in Product Design at the MIT School of Design. After graduation, she got a couple of years of work experience in India, where she quickly realized that apart from the actual tangible design, a successful product needs a backbone of thorough research in user needs and market analysis. The need to study this further brought Mileha to Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands to study Strategic Product Design for her Masters.

More profile about the speaker
Mileha Soneji | Speaker | TED.com