A few people, a shared frustration, and a shared vision
Design for Pakistan started in 2023 as a conversation between designers, researchers and educators who kept running into the same thing: work meant for people, made without them. Everything since has been built by that community — slowly, in the open, and with room for anyone who wants to help.
Pakistan does not lack ideas or talent. It lacks the practice of designing with people.
Human-centred design is taught in Pakistani universities and practised in Pakistani studios, but very little of it reaches the services that decide how ordinary people live — clinics, schools, transport, licences, complaints. Design for Pakistan exists to close that gap: to put design practice where public value is at stake, and to build a generation of designers who know how to work there.
Alongside them, friends and colleagues gave support at every stage — hosting sessions, reviewing work, bringing partners to the table and turning up to the early events when there was little to show yet.
Founders and early community
Design for Pakistan has never had a founding staff. It was carried by people doing this alongside their own work, and it still is.
Steering committee
We are putting a steering committee in place to guide strategy, hold us to our commitments, and make sure decisions outlast any individual. It will bring together practitioners, academics and people from the institutions we work with.
Names coming soon.
We will publish the members and their remit here once the committee is confirmed.
A slow start, on purpose
Three years of building the community before the institution. Everything here was run by volunteers alongside full-time work.
Founded, and the first cohort
Design for Pakistan was started by Dr Suleman Shahid and Hasan Habib, together with community members including Ali Murtaza and Javeria Masood, and with support from friends and colleagues who lent time, rooms and introductions.
The first cohort ran the same year — six people in three pairs, twelve weeks, learning the method by doing it.
See cohort 01Design Baithaks, and UX Pakistan leaves Lahore
A run of events and Design Baithaks were held under Design for Pakistan through the year — small, informal gatherings that did more for the community than any launch would have.
UX Pakistan 2024 followed as our first major event, organised at Habib University. It was a considerable success and the first edition of the conference held outside Lahore.
uxpakistan.comThe second UX Pakistan edition
The 2025 edition of the conference was again organised under Design for Pakistan, establishing it as an annual fixture rather than a one-off.
The next cohort, and a structure to hold it
We are setting up the next cohort, working on the next conference, and putting a steering committee in place so the initiative does not depend on the people who happened to start it.
Partner with us →
Bring us a service that is failing people and we will tell you honestly what it would take.
Support the workFund a pilot →
Three years of this has been volunteer-run. Funding is what lets the next stage be more than that.