Myra Manekia

About

I was born in the US and raised in South Africa — two countries that shaped, early, how I think about the human mind: attention, memory, language, behavior, the ways different people make sense of things. That's where my interest in cognition started, before I had the word for it. Now I'm a designer trying to take that interest seriously. Cognitive science as method. AI as creative collaborator. Design treated as something that always takes a position — about attention, memory, and care. Cognitive Science and Human-Centered Design at Pomona College, design sprints in fintech and startups since 2022, now finishing my MDes at ArtCenter — graduating August 2026. When I’m not designing, you’ll find me curating playlists by language or building Legos.

Experience

• Product Design Intern · Payfast by Network06-01-2024 – 08-01-2024

  Product design intern at South Africa's second-largest online payments platform (80,000+ merchants). Designed app store listing screens and a banner for the rebranded merchant app, introducing a chevron-pattern background drawn from the brand's existing visual system (launched October 2024). Also redesigned the Cause Index donation platform end-to-end — built a cognitive-design research framework on the visual, layout, and language factors affecting donation behavior and incorporated two new features. Selected as the final designs; the platform update was later shelved.

• User Experience/Product Design Intern · Hailo Transfers06-01-2023 – 07-01-2023

  First design hire at an early-stage startup. Built the foundational design system reporting directly to the founder, and designed and tested the high-fidelity mockups, user flows, and prototypes that shipped at launch. Ran user interviews to surface friction in the core flows and carried those findings into the shipped product.

• Boba Barista, Lead Designer, Project Manager · Milk and Honey01-01-2023 – 10-01-2024

  Designed the online ordering platform for a 9,000-student campus, owning it from concept to launch and guiding a 6-person cross-functional team through research, usability testing, and iteration. In the six months after launch, total revenue (in-person and online combined) grew 52% against the pre-launch in-person baseline.

Education

• ArtCenter College of DesignMaster of Design (MDes), Interaction Design
• Pomona CollegeBachelor of Arts - BA, Cum Laude, Cognitive Science (HCD Concentration)
• Roedean School (SA)High School Diploma, Math, Advanced Math, Physical & Life Sciences, English, French, Zulu
• GoEast MandarinMandarin HSK 3 Module
• Le Centre International d'AntibesFrench Language DELF B1

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