click the border
The Pattu Border

In South Indian silk sarees, the pattu border is the ornate woven edge — temples, peacocks, elephants — each motif carrying generations of meaning.

Inside a saree shop in India Colorful sarees in a shop

When I first walked into a saree shop in India, the shopkeeper explained every detail: the weight of the silk signals the occasion, the width of the border marks formality, the motifs connect to regional identity. A masterclass in human-centered design.

This stripe is a tribute to that craft — a reminder that the best design communicates richness through thoughtful detail.

Sai Siddartha Maram

Design Researcher at Xbox  ·  Engineer & Designer

PhD in HCI, UC Santa Cruz  ·  Previously at Meta  ·  Invento Robotics

Scrolling down will give you a window into each of my case studies and projects. But before you do — this game is a small reminder that with every project you take on, you pick up skills, perspectives, and experiences you didn't have before. Just like Pac-Man. Enjoy the easter eggs hidden in it.

Score: 0

Arrow keys or WASD · collect the glowing orbs to unlock achievements

AI tools for research

OpenAI × UX Research
Evaluating OpenAI GPT Models Through a Game
I put 11 OpenAI GPT models — from gpt-4o to gpt-5.4 — inside a concurrency puzzle and watched how they reasoned. GPT-4 generation: 0/3 solved. GPT-5 generation: 3/3. The o-series used 16× more thinking tokens and still failed.
CHI '24
Game Play Reflection Systems
Students playing an educational game were generating rich data that never came back to them. 21 months of iteration to build a visualization that turns gameplay logs into reflection: from passive play to comparing your own strategies.

Design for people the industry overlooks

Your work over this period has been excellent. You showed a ton of self-drive and motivation, and delivered results. As evidenced by everyone's reactions to the AURA work, you built a suite of tools that serve as a blueprint for XR as we move into a new world of automation and AI. I love the philosophical approach — keeping the human in the loop. We were truly lucky to have you again this summer.

JJ Principal Researcher · Xbox

Thank you for ALL that you've done this summer. You had major impact on our family team(s) grappling with investment areas and the vision for family gaming experiences. These verbatims are testament to your ability, creativity and commitment to excellence. Passionate, curious and human-centered in all the right ways.

Udaya Senior Researcher · Xbox

Your work is very smart, and you've developed some really insightful strategies for conducting research. You've really shown yourself to be a smart critical thinker, and you've needed very little hand holding to get the ball rolling. You have consistently been ahead of the curve when it comes to learning.

Zach Lamm UX Research Manager · Meta

Your resilience and creativity have been nothing short of extraordinary. You leaned in by ideating, thinking critically, and building multiple innovative tools that not only advanced your team's approach to research but also inspired mine in X3. Your energy is contagious, and your brilliance shines through in every conversation. I always leave our discussions feeling inspired and re-energized.

Vitica Arnold, M.S. UX Researcher · Microsoft

Your work over this period has been excellent. You showed a ton of self-drive and motivation, and delivered results. As evidenced by everyone's reactions to the AURA work, you built a suite of tools that serve as a blueprint for XR as we move into a new world of automation and AI. I love the philosophical approach — keeping the human in the loop. We were truly lucky to have you again this summer.

JJ Principal Researcher · Xbox

Thank you for ALL that you've done this summer. You had major impact on our family team(s) grappling with investment areas and the vision for family gaming experiences. These verbatims are testament to your ability, creativity and commitment to excellence. Passionate, curious and human-centered in all the right ways.

Udaya Senior Researcher · Xbox

Your work is very smart, and you've developed some really insightful strategies for conducting research. You've really shown yourself to be a smart critical thinker, and you've needed very little hand holding to get the ball rolling. You have consistently been ahead of the curve when it comes to learning.

Zach Lamm UX Research Manager · Meta

Your resilience and creativity have been nothing short of extraordinary. You leaned in by ideating, thinking critically, and building multiple innovative tools that not only advanced your team's approach to research but also inspired mine in X3. Your energy is contagious, and your brilliance shines through in every conversation. I always leave our discussions feeling inspired and re-energized.

Vitica Arnold, M.S. UX Researcher · Microsoft

I grew up between cultures: Telugu at home, English at school, Hindu mythology at bedtime, video games on weekends. That gap is where most of my research lives. I keep finding the same problem: tools and systems that assume a default user who doesn't match the person in front of me. My work is usually an attempt to close that gap, whether it's a climate game that speaks to someone's grandmother or a research platform that doesn't require a bilingual vendor to hear from players in Vietnam.

I have a PhD in HCI from UC Santa Cruz, spent time at Meta building new generative research methods, and most recently did an internship at Xbox designing AI tooling for their global research team. The through-line across all of it is the same question: who is the system actually designed for, and what do they need that it isn't giving them yet?

Reach me at msaisiddartha1@gmail.com

Read my thesis

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