# Shandar Junaid — Full Portfolio Context

> Designer, Strategist, Builder, and Mentor | Founder of Affordance Design Studio
> Designing Intelligence with Purpose

## Identity

Shandar Junaid is a designer, strategist, builder, and mentor — founder of Affordance Design Studio. For over two decades, he has led design and product innovation at Adobe, Citrix, Wipro, Paylocity, and other global organizations — shaping products used by millions across the world.

## Current Focus

Building a new generation of responsible, human-centered AI products that merge usability, ethics, and intelligence. Through Affordance Design, he is transforming how people learn, work, and create — with ventures like TimeLineX and CTRL+Survive. He also trains the next generation of builders through the Vibe to Viable bootcamp.

## Approach

His approach blends empathy with engineering. Each product starts with a real human problem and scales through design systems like IX (Intelligent Experiences) and frameworks such as ROOTS — crafted to ensure that every algorithm, workflow, and interface serves human intent.

## Vision

Design is not decoration, but direction — a roadmap to build intelligence that feels human.

## Contact Information

- Primary Email: shandarjunaid@gmail.com
- Studio Email: hello@affordancedesign.in
- Personal Website: https://shandarjunaid.com
- Studio Website: https://affordance.design
- LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/shandarjunaid

## Stats

- 25+ years of user-centered design
- 15 years of strategy and consulting
- 5K+ students trained
- 200+ workshops conducted
- 195+ builders trained through Vibe to Viable bootcamp
- 56 products shipped by bootcamp participants
- 3 bootcamp cohorts completed
- 5 institutions (guest lectures on AI, design thinking, and vibe coding)
- Certified Usability Analyst (CUA) — Human Factors International, 2012

## Career Timeline

### Wipro (2006-2010)
Usability & UX Practice Manager — India / USA
Built and led a 100-designer UX practice, delivering enterprise products for Fortune 500 clients including Best Buy, Pearson, and SanDisk. Helped set up Wipro's Centre of Excellence for UX.

### Infostretch (2013-2014)
Manager UI/UX — India
Set up a 15-member design team from scratch, establishing UX design practices and building the leadership pipeline for sustained design excellence.

### HFI (2014-2015)
User Experience Consultant — South Africa
Led a 15-designer team on-site for Standard Bank's digital banking redesign in South Africa, serving 12M+ customers. Introduced CUA-certified usability benchmarking practices.

### Reliance (2016-2017)
Design Head, E-commerce — India
Built an 8-member design team for AJIO, Reliance's e-commerce platform. Redesigned the shopping experience, increasing user engagement by 25%.

### Adobe (2018-2022)
Design Evangelist / Strategic Dev Manager — India
Influenced the Adobe XD product roadmap based on direct user feedback. Trained 5,000+ designers at enterprise organizations on design tools and thinking, improving team productivity by 20%.

### Citrix (2022-2024)
Director of Product Design — India
Led a product design team of 12 designers and 3 researchers, shipping enterprise software used by 400K+ organizations worldwide. Introduced the 4IAB design process.

### Paylocity (2024-2025)
Director of Product Design — USA
Led design for HR & payroll products serving 37,000+ clients. Introduced usability benchmarking for 10,000+ users and drove design system maturity with AI-assisted workflows.

## Strengths

- Design Strategy: Redesigned AJIO at Reliance, increasing engagement by 25%. Streamlined Adobe tool workflows, boosting team productivity by 20%.
- Stakeholder Alignment: Managed Fortune 500 client relationships — Best Buy, Pearson, and SanDisk at Wipro; Standard Bank at HFI.
- Team Building: Built design orgs with embedded research — 9+3 at Citrix, 15+5 at HFI — across India, US, and South Africa.
- Frameworks & Publishing: Created the IX Framework. Published two books with Pearson: Digital Media and Android.
- Research & Measurement: Introduced usability benchmarking at Paylocity for 10,000+ users. CUA-certified analyst.

## Products & Creations

### TimeLineX
AI-powered timeline intelligence engine. A deterministic, hallucination-resistant timeline intelligence engine. Generates interactive chronological timelines with 2D visualization and immersive 3D experience. 100+ users and 80 paid users in just 1 month of launch. Credits-based usage system.
- Status: Live
- URL: https://timelinex.in
- Tech: React 18, Three.js, React Three Fiber, D3.js, Custom RAG + Gemini

### CTRL+Survive
A darkly humorous career survival runner simulating modern working life. Navigate 300 seconds across 4 stages: Education, Corporate, Layoff, and the AI Era. Balance Relevance, Burnout, Savings, and Adaptability. 100+ users in the first week of launch.
- Status: Live
- URL: https://affordance.design/ctrl+survive
- Tech: Claude Code, PhaserJS, TypeScript

### Project Workflow Protocol
An open-source set of Skills for Claude Code that standardize how software projects are planned, built, verified, and shipped. Zero dependencies, stack-agnostic.
- Status: Open Source
- URL: https://affordance.design/protocol

### IX Framework
Intelligent Experiences design methodology. A comprehensive design methodology for building AI-powered systems. Combines AI intelligence with UX design through five lenses: Intent, Interpretation, Interaction, Inference & Iteration, and Impact.
- Status: Live
- URL: https://affordance.design/ix

### Vibe to Viable
AI bootcamp — idea to deployed product. An intensive bootcamp that takes participants from zero to a fully deployed product using AI-native tools. Covers prompt engineering, full-stack development with Claude Code, Supabase backend, and the PWP build discipline. 195+ builders trained, 56 products shipped across 3 cohorts.
- Status: Live
- URL: https://affordance.design/bootcamp
- Tech: Claude Code, Supabase, Figma Make, Google AI Studio, Netlify, Git
- Formats: 3-Day Sprint (18 chapters) and 5-Day Deep Dive (30 chapters)
- Credential: Certified Vibe Coder (CVC)

## Mentorship & Teaching

Certified Usability Analyst and lifelong mentor. Trained 195+ builders through the Vibe to Viable bootcamp and guest lectured at 5 institutions on AI, design thinking, and vibe coding.

Institutions:
- Chitkara University
- Ecole Intuit Labs
- Techno India University
- Spread Design Barn
- UID / Karnavati University

## Design Leadership Principles

- Empathise: Understand people before designing for them
- Be Flexible: Adapt to the needs of the project and team
- Be Curious: Question everything, explore possibilities
- Show Positivity: Bring energy and optimism to every challenge

## Client Work

- Vodafone: New SIM onboarding app for the UK region (2015)
- Starwood Hotels: In-suite app for guests on tablets, connected to IOT interfaces (2018)
- Wells Fargo: Interactive app for booking meeting rooms, used on tablets across all meeting rooms (2012)
- Celebrity Cruises: Website and branding (2020)
- Scoma's: Interactive iPad app for restaurant tables — menu and billing (2014)

## Case Studies

- ESI Software: Crash simulation software makeover — 30% workflow reduction, 2x faster task completion
- Standard Bank (via HFI): Commercial banking dashboard for relationship managers across 6 cities and 30 branches in South Africa
- Canara Bank: NEFT optimization — reduced abandonment, zero customer support needed
- Zoffio: B2B and B2C e-commerce — improved shopping cart completion rate
- Buttercups: B2C e-commerce — improved mobile bounce rates with custom "Find your fit" quiz

## Citrix Leadership Details

Products led: Citrix Enterprise Browser, Citrix Workspace Application, Toolbar for Remote Desktops

Process innovations:
- 4IAB Meeting Process: Researcher, UX designer, PM, and Dev representative to control feature creep
- Design Sign-off step in JIRA for pixel-perfect dev interpretation
- Separated UI copy/content process from designers to dedicated Content team
- Design Critique Sessions: fortnightly sharing and feedback across the team
- UX Brief Evangelism: structured delivery of stories and assets
- Innovation Workshop: futuristic scenarios with PM, Engineering, Research, and Design

## Affordance Design Studio

Founded after 25+ years in design leadership. Bridging UX and AI to create digital affordances that don't just look intuitive — they think intuitive.

Services:
- UI/UX Design Consulting
- AI Consulting & Implementation
- Product Engineering
- Workshops & Training

## Certifications

- Certified Usability Analyst (CUA) — Human Factors International, 2012