Start with people
Understand lived experience before deciding what to make.
Designer · Educator · Institution Builder
Designing for a more human world.
I work across design, education and systems—helping people turn complex challenges into meaningful products, learning experiences and institutions.
01 / 04 — INQUIRY
People · Systems · Possibility
People · Systems · Possibility01 — A point of view
Design is how we make sense
of what could be.
My work begins with people—and asks what we can change together.
I’m Mathew Sebastian, a designer, educator and institution builder. My work brings together human-centred design, product strategy, education and public systems to make ideas useful in the real world.
My path has moved between designing products, teaching design and critical thinking, and building institutions where design can have a wider reach. I’m a founding board member of HCD Institute and a Fellow of DIC Hub, IIT Hyderabad, working to grow human-centred design education and practice.
Storytelling is part of that work too: from Kottayam Lit Fest, where literature meets cinema and ideas, to projects that connect Kerala with wider cultural and civic conversations. Across advisory work and collaborations, I’m interested in how people, organisations and systems can imagine and build better futures.
Think in systems
Connect the details of an experience to the conditions around it.
Make learning visible
Use practice, reflection and iteration to turn ideas into capability.
02 — Projects & practice
Ideas made real,
with others.
01 / Culture · Kottayam & Kumarakom
Kottayam Lit Fest
A storytelling festival bringing literature, cinema and ideas together across Kottayam and Kumarakom.
With Mankind Cinemas, cinema partner, and Kottayam Pushpanath Publications, publishing partner.
02 / India · Nordics
Nordic Blue Horizons
An Iceland-led Kerala–Nordic roundtable on the blue economy, sustainable energy and eco-tourism, convened through SethuIndia and HCD Institute.
03 / Venture building
Tallhills
A venture platform focused on turning ideas into revenue-generating businesses through capital, execution and market access.
04 / Space branding
There, Earth
A space-branding project close to my heart.
05 / Advisory · Consultancy
Strategy for human systems.
Advising organisations on design strategy, education, innovation and institution building—from framing the challenge to shaping what comes next.
For advisory, consulting, speaking or collaboration enquiries, start a conversation.
03 — An institution in the making
Design education
for a human future.
I’m a founding board member of the Institute of Human-Centred Design and a Fellow of DIC Hub, IIT Hyderabad. HCD Institute works to bring human-centred design into schools, colleges, companies and governments—connecting human insight with the complex challenges shaping our world.
It’s an important part of my work as an educator and institution builder: creating the programmes, community and ways of working that help design make a difference.
Discover HCD Institute ↗04 — Writing & ideas
Design, education
and the systems between.
I write with HCD Institute about human-centred design, education, Indian innovation and public systems. The pieces below are published there under my name.
Design Thinking at the 4th CBSE National Summit on School-to-Work Transition
Design thinking and the skills students need as the world of work changes.
Read on HCD Institute ↗HCD Institute: Questions & Answers
Clear answers on human-centred design, the Institute, its programmes and how to get involved.
Read on HCD Institute ↗Taking the Baton: HCD Institute and the Next Chapter of Indian Innovation
India’s tradition of ingenuity and the role human-centred design can play in what comes next.
Read on HCD Institute ↗Designing for Everyone: A New Diploma in Universal Design
Why access and inclusion belong at the start of the design process.
Read on HCD Institute ↗The Largest Design Challenge in India: Indian Railways
What a vast shared public service can teach us about designing for people at scale.
Read on HCD Institute ↗Why Every School Needs a Design Thinking Lab
How a learning space for observation, prototyping and iteration can complement the classroom.
Read on HCD Institute ↗Designing Healthcare Where the Resources Run Out First
Lessons from Indian healthcare systems designed to work under real constraints.
Read on HCD Institute ↗Designing for the Next Six Billion
Why the world’s hardest problems need design grounded in local realities and resource constraints.
Read on HCD Institute ↗What UPI Teaches the World About Human-Centred Design at Population Scale
A look at what India’s digital payments system reveals about designing for scale.
Read on HCD Institute ↗Design Thinking in the Age of AI: Why Schools Need It Now
Why empathy, problem framing and human judgement matter as AI changes how we work.
Read on HCD Institute ↗What Is Human-Centred Design? Meaning, Process, and Examples
A practical guide to the principles, process and Indian context of HCD.
Read on HCD Institute ↗10 Human-Centered Design Examples from India
Ten Indian case studies showing what changes when design starts with people.
Read on HCD Institute ↗How to Start a Design Thinking Lab in Your School
A practical guide to setting up the space, curriculum, teacher support and measures for a school design lab.
Read on HCD Institute ↗05 — Start a conversation
Have a good
question?
I’m open to thoughtful conversations about design, education, speaking and collaboration.
uxd@mathewsebastian.com ↗