Sumit Pandey

Designing Smart Things

PhD thesis, University of Oslo, 2019 — below: the short annotated summary.

What was the focus of my thesis?

Smart technologies — AI, IoT, data systems — are not just individual tools. They are infrastructures that shape how we design, strategise, and operate. My research explored these technologies as assemblages: fluid combinations of interfaces, backend systems, policies, and practices.

You're not just designing a UI; you're shaping how people perceive, decide, and act.


Why it matters today

Whether you're rolling out an AI-driven tool or shipping platform features, you're rarely "just" designing screens. These systems are entangled and co-evolving with your organisation's strategy and practice. My research offers frameworks for that complexity.


Insight #1: From product to assemblage

Smart technologies are not just artifacts but assemblages—always in flux, composed of systems, infrastructures, stakeholders, and practices.

Why it matters today

Product teams often treat features as fixed. But real-world products—like Cognite Maintain—live within assemblages: customer org charts, field data systems, pricing models. Designing only the UI misses systemic risks.

How I used this in practice

While defining Cognite's APM go-to-market, I mapped every new feature against customer readiness, infra maturity, and sales alignment. This helped shape a scalable "land and expand" model.

Insight #2: Design as a program, not a fixed process

Programs are propositional frames that evolve through experiments. Knowledge emerges not through answers to questions, but through a dialectic of making and remaking.

Why it matters today

Design is not a checklist. It’s a continuous negotiation between intention and outcome. Treat roadmaps as living hypotheses, not fixed backlogs. Prototypes shape decisions. Strategy shapes UX. They must co-evolve.

How I used this in practice

At Cognite, I framed the Industrial Tools product line as a design program. Each sprint was an experiment—not just in code, but in sales conversations, team rituals, and adoption metrics.

Insight #3: Dark matter shapes product outcomes

Dark matter—organisational incentives, values, culture—acts as a substrate that shapes and often resists product transformation.

Why it matters today

Your cleanest design won't ship if it conflicts with internal incentives. Understanding these hidden systems is core to strategic product design.

How I used this in practice

During the definition of Cognite's APM suite and go-to-market, I ran internal interviews to uncover org-level blockers—competing KPIs, long-term customer commitments, and team silos—and mapped solutions into both the UX and the GTM playbook.

If you’re navigating complex products shaped by AI, infrastructure, and organisational change—let's connect.

Download my full thesis.

Expertise

Design Research Field Research Contextual Inquiry Design Ethnography Interviews Thematic Analysis Practice-based Research Co-Design
Research partner logos
Research partners across the PhD years.

Publications

  1. Pandey, S. (2019). Designing Smart Things (Doctoral dissertation, University of Oslo).
  2. Pandey, S., & Culén, A. L. (2018). Eyespy: Designing Counterfunctional Smart Surveillance Cameras. Proceedings of the 10th Nordic Conference on Human-Computer Interaction, 838–843.
  3. Pandey, S. (2018). Entangling, Oscillating, Frilux-ing: Branding the art of design. Proceedings of DRS 2018 International Conference: Catalyst, 7, 3048–3064.
  4. Pandey, S. (2018). Framing Smart Consumer Technology: Mediation, Materiality, and Material for Design. International Journal of Design; Vol 12, No 1 (2018), 37–51.
  5. Pandey, S., & Culén, A. L. (2017). Hearsay: Speculative exploration of intelligent voice based interfaces. Proceedings of the Nordes Conference (Design + Power) No. 7 (2017).
  6. Pandey, S., & Srivastava, S. (2016). Knowledge Brokers in Service Design: Lessons from Organizational Studies. 317–326. Linköping University Electronic Press.
  7. Pandey, S., & Srivastava, S. (2016). ‘Pop-up’ Maker-spaces: Catalysts for Creative Participatory Culture. Proceedings of ACHI 2016, The Ninth International Conference on Advances in Computer-Human Interactions, 50–56.
  8. Pandey, S. (2015). Proto Design Practice: Translating design thinking practices to organizational settings. Interaction Design and Architecture(s) Journal, 27(Winter 2015), 129–158.
  9. Culén, A. L., Pandey, S., Srivastava, S., & Coughlin, K. (2015). Can Games Motivate Urban Youth for Civic Engagement? Proceedings of HCII 2015, 549-560.
  10. Pandey, S., & Srivastava, S. (2014). Data Driven Enterprise UX: A Case Study of Enterprise Management Systems. In S. Yamamoto (Ed.), Human Interface and the Management of Information. Information and Knowledge in Applications and Services (pp. 205–216). Springer International Publishing.
  11. Pandey, S. (2013). Responsive Design for Transaction Banking – A Responsible Approach. Proceedings of the 11th Asia Pacific Conference on Computer Human Interaction, 291–295.
  12. Culén, A. L., Bratteteig, T., Pandey, S., & Srivastava, S. (2013). The Child-to-Child (C2C) Method: Participatory Design for, with and by Children in a Children’s Museum. IADIS International Journal on WWW/Internet, 11(2), 92–113.
  13. Pandey, S., & Srivastava, S. (2011). SpellBound: A Tangible Spelling Aid for the Dyslexic Child. Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Human Computer Interaction, 101–104.
  14. Pandey, S., & Srivastava, S. (2011). Tiblo: A Tangible Learning Aid for Children with Dyslexia. Procedings of the Second Conference on Creativity and Innovation in Design, 211–220.
  15. Pandey, S., & Srivastava, S. (2011). Keynect: Tangible Social Network. Procedings of the Second Conference on Creativity and Innovation in Design, 347–350.
Sumit Pandey, Oslo2026