David Kaisel

Driven by a fascination for how the design of products and services influence behavior, David’s work focuses on understanding users to harness that influence to improve health and welfare, especially in marginalized communities. His experience ranges from the “traditional” – designing Italian office chairs, client management for a Silicon Valley product design consultancy and product strategy for a “lab-on-a-chip” device – to more experimental use of design process coordinating missions for Doctors Without Borders, forecasting disruptive global health innovations at the Institute for the Future, and cribbing UXR tools from the software world to unpack demand, adoption, and abandonment of proposed solutions for household water treatment and urban community sanitation. Work, and a passion for indigenous food and music, have led to extended residencies in Italy, England, Brazil, Colombia, Angola and Central America. When not at his desk, he can be found rowing on Lake Merritt or under his 4WD VW camper. David has a Master of Public Health from UC-Berkeley, an MBA from the University of Washington, and a BS in Industrial Design from San Jose State University.