Apala is a world-renowned expert on cross-cultural design and contextual innovation, and an award winning designer (International Audi Design Award). Her passion is to envision how user experience can be inclusive, democratic and a change agent. She is also fascinated by changes in user experience across time and space.

Apala has been leading HFI’s research in the future of UX and has been published in the World Future Society Journal. Her innovative and pioneering techniques have benefitted global giants to develop exciting new concepts and products across domains. She specializes in creating UX strategy for organizations who are looking at creating breakthrough UX for their customers and other stakeholders. She has developed a vast array of user research techniques that help understand UX in diverse cultures and economies.

Apala’s talk at TEDx Golflinks The Three Laws of UX in Bangalore (2013) is an inspiring perspective of the "bottom of the pyramid" socio-economic class and the user experience that must be improved for an entire spectrum of the population, regardless of their socio-economic status.

She has co-authored the new book Institutionalization of UX: A Step-by-Step Guide to a User Experience Practice along with Dr Eric Schaffer, and previously co-edited the Taylor and Francis published book Innovative Solutions: What Designers Need to Know for Today’s Emerging Markets.

She is an internationally acclaimed speaker (USA, Canada, Europe, South Africa, India, Malaysia, China) for her keynote talks on contextual innovation, ecosystem research, internationalization, and designing for emerging markets.

Apala was responsible for setting up and growing HFI’s consulting operations across Asia (Mumbai, Bangalore, Pondicherry, Shanghai, and Singapore). She led the operations as Vice-President, Asia, before transitioning to be Global Chief of Technical Staff and, then, Chief Design & Delivery Officer.