# Ruchita Lodha > Design at Pixar Location: Emeryville, California, United States Profile: https://flows.cv/ruchita I’m drawn to complex, evolving problems, especially ones that sit at the intersection of design, engineering, and storytelling. I care about crafting experiences that are not just functional, but resonant. Systems that feel intuitive, energizing, and built with care. My approach is shaped by a deep respect for the people I design for, a love of experimentation, and a belief that great design should nourish both craft and community. I thrive in collaborative environments where autonomy, humor, and curiosity are welcome and where we’re always learning. ## Work Experience ### Senior Product Designer @ Pixar Animation Studios Jan 2025 – Present | Emeryville, CA Building 0 to 1 artist facing tools — focusing on efficiency, accessibility and ergonomics. 🍃 Currently - Designing a new procedural set of tools to animate crowd characters efficiently - Redesigning the playlists sharing and management workflows for layout artists ### Product Designer @ Pixar Animation Studios Jan 2022 – Jan 2025 | Emeryville, CA - Built a custom scripting platform for artists to develop and publish bespoke tools for themselves - Lead the design and development of the tools design system - Designed a new gen multi shot lighting and vfx toolset for lighting artists - Evangelised design thinking, research and user testing at Pixar for creative tools ### Product Designer @ Blizzard Entertainment Jan 2022 – Jan 2022 | Irvine, California, United States With a team of three, developed a multi brand design system for Blizzard.com that empowers the game sites at Blizzard. ### Associate Designer @ Blizzard Entertainment Jan 2021 – Jan 2022 | Irvine, California, United States - Evangelized the design of a first cross platform developer portal for game teams to integrate tools and launch titles faster - Lead rebranding and design system efforts for the Battle.net brand and products. ### Graduate Student Instructor @ University of Michigan - School of Information Jan 2020 – Jan 2020 | Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States Taught discussion lectures for the course “Database Application Design” to over 40 graduate students. Developed an in-depth learning packet for students to improve their understanding of relational databases. ### Product Design Intern @ Blizzard Entertainment Jan 2020 – Jan 2020 | Irvine, California, United States - Performed a thorough accessibility audit and redesign of the current Battle.net launcher features - Redesigned the social features such as avatar selection to improve engagement and usage - Designed an internal foul language management tool to be used by game studios within their games ### Impact Design Fellow - Stephen M. Ross School of Business @ BlueConduit Jan 2020 – Jan 2020 | Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States Scholarship recipient for the Business + Impact Studio at Ross School of Business in conjunction with Blueconduit. Lead the research and design for a platform for residents to understand the lead pipe infrastructure and its health implications. ### Graduate Research Assistant @ University of Michigan Jan 2020 – Jan 2020 | Ann arbor Conducted literature survey and data analysis of the Lower Eastside Economic Mobility (LEEM) program to analyse their impact on low-income participants’ psychosocial wellbeing toward increasing employment and economic self-sufficiency. Authored a paper highlighting the results, published in ACM CHI 2022 Deployed and managed SkillsIdentifier - a tool to identify skills and competencies and empower low-resource job seekers. ### User Experience Consultant @ Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage Jan 2020 – Jan 2020 | Washington DC-Baltimore Area Developed a folk museum display for Ginseng root to highlight its cultural and medicinal value and create awareness for preservation. ### Product Manager - Design Clinic @ University of Michigan School of Information Jan 2019 – Jan 2019 | Ann Arbor Managed a team of five at the Design Clinic - a pro bono design group. Ideated and designed a competency tool for Research administrators at the University of Michigan to guide them in their career development. ### Senior Frontend Developer @ Instamojo Jan 2019 – Jan 2019 | Bangalore Managed a team of three as the frontend lead for the product team. Developed interfaces for products such as the logistics product MojoXpress, Smart Links, and MojoCommerce - impacting business management for micro, small and medium scaled businesses. ### UI Developer @ Instamojo Jan 2017 – Jan 2019 | Bengaluru Area, India - Developed front end interfaces of the merchant payment products such as Payment Links - Revamped the UI for new customer onboarding using React.js, Redux and Sass. ### Software Development Engineer @ ZopNow Jan 2016 – Jan 2017 | Bengaluru Area, India • Developed a Frontend UI for an e-commerce platform to manage accounts, orders, and marketing. • Development of a server and application monitoring system, and operational analytics for sales and marketing using technologies like OpenTSDB with BigTable, Hadoop, Tcollector, and Grafana. • Development of Frontend Architectures and translating requirements for internal users into fully functioning features using JavaScript and HTML/CSS and libraries such as jQuery and Bootstrap framework. • Developed a Push Server for fast and reliable message delivery and notification updates using Node.js and Socket.io. • Designed the Admin Interface for the POS(Point of sales) product. ### Software Development @ ZopNow Jan 2016 – Jan 2016 | Bangalore • Created a developers console for managing and utilizing APIs to be used for an e-commerce platform. • Optimized the product search results in the e-commerce website with SOLR leading to improved accuracy by 15%. • Developed backend APIs for product marketing and customer support in PHP and MySQL on MVC Architecture ### Technology Consultant trainee @ PRICEWATERHOUSE COOPERS, S.C.(Hong Kong) Jan 2015 – Jan 2015 | Bangalore Area, India • Analysis of supply chain management tool, MSDN and understanding IT requirements solicitation within companies to provide consolidating results. ## Education ### Master's degree in Human Computer Interaction University of Michigan - School of Information ### Bachelor of Engineering (BE) in Computer Science RV College Of Engineering ### High School in Science and Maths Delhi Public School, Dwarka ## Contact & Social - LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/ruchitalodha - Portfolio: https://ruchitalodha.com - Portfolio: https://www.ruchitalodha.com --- Source: https://flows.cv/ruchita JSON Resume: https://flows.cv/ruchita/resume.json Last updated: 2026-03-31