Take a walk around the Brand

On a different note discussions on his project with Abhishek of the future car dashboard design for a high end prestigious iconic brand which he is signing up for, I got trippy. Went about talking, “most often designers doing UX in a team dominant with techies tend to become incrementally different from engineers in the design process, they follow standard templates of styling, trends, navigation, UI and so on in arriving at the interface solutions. Take a detour, deal with the intangible in conceptualizing the UX, take a walk around the brand and ask. What would be the right interaction gesture for this iconic brand, what is the tone of audio feedback for this brand, how would this brand converse with me, what could be the visual gleam and texture of this brand, how will the material interaction of this brand behave and respond?”

Corridor Conversations

Met Rohan after a long gap today at the staircase landing. He is doing his Information visualization design project with an MNC and we got into conversation regarding his project and usual design teacher questions as to who was he designer for, and so on. The conversation moved on to the topic of familiarity of people with past information media and interactions and how introducing the next version has a tedious learning curve across immediate generation too let alone older ones. New products get introduced with no historic or perceptual connect with added newer navigational logic and semantic. The change is a step up and not a seamless tread. Walk into a bank and see how the middle aged staff struggle with newer systems or software versions. You see the younger staff tutoring them, while their child back home is faster in switching channels. It seems as they/we designers may say, there will always be the gaps and can be bridged, but hello bridges are on rivers, we are talking about easable transits with no deliberates. Divya, student designer, has reasoned in a similar way in a context different. While designing a convenience for his grandfather for a condition due to aging, he stated ‘Design for Transition’. Saying bye, we said to each other, we don’t seem to design for the Transition! This it is, the next.

Seven Grey Cards

A set to formulate syllabus for Industrial Design conceived from the five broad attributes of good design.

Download the printable version here.

“We need the Ants…..along with the Grasshoppers!”

This is in the context of design education where one is getting carried away by the florescent, gimmicky technology confused notions of innovation and design, etc….fiddling and enticed, start-ups, customized manufacturing, programmable objects, etc…

...in the meanwhile there is lots more to be done, we all know what we mean!!

The country needs ants. Design professionals who are experts in providing solutions by: following a systemic process, are contextual in problem solving and giving useful, usable, desirable and empathetic solutions (opportunity vs problem is a business-friendly term agreed and needed!!).

The curriculum and pedagogy of design education needs to focus on and train the ants who will sustain growth and the grasshoppers who will reveal the ‘change’ in time. We need the ants, more of them, who have the ability and are trained in the said skill sets above, while letting the grasshoppers of the lot freewheel in design :) 

Ants are the support system, the ‘sthithapragyasa’, and Grasshoppers constantly challenge and question, ‘the garnishers’. Grasshoppers are born free that-way and ants are too born in a way that they tread on ground. It is to identify them by the mentors and drive the pedagogy with a focus on the ants who will be the solution providers for sustenance and while not missing on those grasshoppers who will add the spice of life, both are meaning towards quality driven by the design school's conscience.  

A Surreal Design Montage

In one of the recent design conferences in Chennai, the gentleman from Yanko Design asked, “tell me what is Indian design, like you have Italian Design, German Design and others who have distinct terms or adjectives associated”. I said to him, “now this is a big question or rather intriguing thought!!”

While starting to write this article for Paperworld 2013, Germany, of which this is an extract, it was Diwali time in India, the festival of lights and New Year for the business community in India. The flavour of ‘Indianess’ if I call it can be seen in traditionally made products such as the accounts book for Diwali. It’s called Chopda Puja, a practise of opening a new accounts book on this festival day and making the first entry. The use of cloth on the cover is centuries old, typical to many ritual texts and books.  Like in any other culture, textile the most visible and used product would I believe reveal the attributes of design in its variety of forms and context. Design in the modern, western world sense which started as a movement, ideologies such as anti-machine vis-à-vis machine aesthetics that eventually unified at the Bauhaus never happened in India in that sense. A few schools of design took birth in early 60s which brought in this thought of which you find influences in a few products, communication media, furniture, etc from the designers trained from these schools. Today there are over 30 institutions teaching design and fashion styled in the lines of western models, thanks to globalisation!

The Indian design idiom is being deliberated upon by many academics and experimented by professional practitioners. The industry is slowing imbibing the idea of visual sophistication, thinking and style popular internationally into their products.

If you ask a middle aged man say working in Govt. bank as to why he bought a kind of sofa set for his house, he would say, ‘it looks rich and grand, sturdy, and long lasting’. The typical Indian consumer though simple in taste is aspirational, rooted in societal status. Historically products, spaces and architecture have been hierarchical as per the status of individuals in the community. The ornamentation and degree of its richness continues to be a strong attribute of high aspirational value for a common consumer in India. Modern design therefore would have a different interpretation in the Indian context.

Design in India maybe is embedded in its culture. The traditional and contemporary coexist.  The urban and rural landscape or people-scape on one canvas would reveal abundant use of colour, patterns, motifs in the cloths, homes, etc. The juxtaposition and use of these elements in my view is mostly intuitive, celebrative and bold in nature. Here I would like to give an example of the oldest garments, the sari for women and dhoti for men. If you ask a young 35 year old why she bought a particular sari, in all probability she would say, I don’t have this ‘design’. This maybe would lead us to our search for design in India how textile in India which is abundant in use and diverse in surface design could reveal the story.

The unstitched garment as Prof Kumar Vyas calls it, a sari is made in a variety of patterns, motifs and weaves which greatly signify design unique to India. When the young lady said design she meant:  the border pattern, the colour scheme, the rich and detailed surface work done on the pallu (the extending drape of elegance and modesty), the texture, the material (silk or cotton or tusser, chiffon) and the most important consideration, the region it comes from like Kacheepuram or Banaras or Pochampalli added with the unique style of the weavers (many of them have a GI).  In contrast to this the Dhoti for men is predominately white in colour with a red, green, blue or gold zari border. This illustrates the meaning of design to majority of Indian people, in a way! Design that is decorative in an aesthetic way, has value, traditionally modern and has choice of colours, sober and vibrant and is comfortable to wear.

Take a glimpse of any part of India and you would see the traditional yet modern, classical yet contemporary, vernacular yet International design alongside everywhere leaving the viewer dizzy and overwhelmed.

Author: Ravishankar, Edit by: Pallavi Thakur

My Chairs and...

Form & Expression

This July, Nijoo Dubey my faculty colleague at the National Institute of Design and I took the FORM course for the PG Furniture Design students. They were asked to concieve a stool in MDF material with an expression, emotion or a metaphor thereby giving it a character. They visualised and constructed seats with overall form and details with characters such as 'Vagabond', 'Anthropod', 'State of Mind', 'Anti Matter', 'Tactile', etc.

They were immersed in it during the entire course and the outcomes were amazing. This was truly my most gratifying times of my teaching career. They made it happen. 

  

Note on Sustainability

Sustainability, the word, phrase, label of the century: Overused, over-talked, lifesaver of all, spoken on many podia over coffee, breakfast, lunch and slept over cocktails.
The nearby pan shop/petty shop lets you light your cigarette free even if you have not bought it from there. The value of one free strike is the gratification of the first puff. It is the bonding, a symbiotic understanding between the two and the eventual friendship.
You are stranded in the rain late in the evening and the auto rickshaw driver drops you home which is some 15 km away. He asks for extra money over the meter or a flat amount, you argue, negotiate, etc , finally give in and you are home, what a relief you feel when you step in and then forget everything. The auto rickshaw driver has reached you ‘home’ with maybe a little extra. The value he offers is immeasurable. He has no insurance of any sort, no medical claim, no reduction in children school fee, etc and he has to follow the Govt. stipulated structure, a quazy worker in khaki.
This service needs to be really understood and thought through for the benefit of all users and providers and not left quasy. Because it has proven to be a very workable mode of travel in our congested cities. Relook by design. management and administration will make this service sustainable in real sense.
In real sense sustainable thinking is about value.

In Simple Terms...Design

As a student of design when I would show my design concept to my teachers each had a view:

Teacher 1
Looks at the work and says “maybe…I don’t know..yes! hmmm.. maybe possible…” and smiles.
Dealing with Intangibles & Ambiguity

Teacher2
“where are the lines defining the form going?”…stretching his arms spanning the view in the window says, “everything is a composition”.
Design Principles

Teacher3
“how will a left handed person use it!”
Empathy, Usability

Teacher4
Look at the work and would instantly start drawing 10 variations of a specific detail in the design (in your orientation across the table)
Creativity, Exploration, Multiple Options

Teacher5
With only a glance” how will it be made?”
Manufacturability, Cost

Teacher6
“Who and why will somebody buy this?”
Customer definition, Value Perception

Teacher7
“Some how it doesn’t justify…why!”
Context & Need

On Universal Design

When I talk to people about Universal Design… the questions I have encountered and the answers I had for them, sample a few:
Q: It is Idealist
A: It is good to be idealist in inception to achieve a solution which is close to it.
Q: Will it work in India
A: Everything works in India
Q: You cannot bring any change in this country
A: UD is about bringing Incremental Change
Q: Is UD for disabled people
A: UD is about inclusion and harnessing assistive technology for all
Q: Isn’t UD fundamental to design thinking and practice
A: Yes UD is fundamental design process which business needs to align with because design most often is driven by popular needs and audience.
Q: Ok what is it then
A: It’s a Practice
Q: We (India) are condemned to be Universal (!)
A: Let there be the syrup bottle cap that is easy to open
Q: People are indifferent, undisciplined
A: Design to Discipline will be an attribute of UD
Q: It cannot be applied to all products
A: Maybe, but 50% of users are being missed out while conceiving most products, the older, women, children and the disabled.
Q: How does Business benefit from UD
A: From meaningful discriminators and value to customers

The other day, while driving to work my colleague very simply asked me, what is universal design? We were then at a traffic signal, I pointed her to a middle aged couple on a motor cycle where the slightly heavy built lady in a slippery synthetic sari was sitting side ways, precariously on the bike and said, “this bike design has not considered nearly 40% of its users, sari guard is only an afterthought but if the design attributes considered at conception had included the 40% she represents, it is universal design to put it simply “. The bike was visualized and designed for the young male not considering the usage patterns in India by many couples of all ages, etc, it can still be designed as desirable and sexy for the young by including the requirements for the 40%.

This is one of the many common sights in India.

Today it is ‘fitting to the existing’ habit of the people who are adaptive, accommodating, forgiving, uncomplaining consumers, unfamiliar with systemic design. Looking at the future, the scenario - populous congested spaces, literacy variance, migration, lifespan health, half the population that is going to live in urban areas, technology penetration, etc: Such a scenario calls for Universal design approach towards products, spaces and services to make them comprehendible and usable in a localized cultural context.
From the user side universal design approach as I envisage would broadly cover two aspects: one, the lifespan which covers all the aspects of human biological growth and circumstantial variances in the man-made environment from childhood to youth, middle and old age of gender, and two, the differently born, their engagement with the man made world.
When one pans the life of individuals, the day to day will uncover all activities they are engaged in, objects they interact with, spaces they are conditioned to and the health conditions that exist. This fish eye lens approach to observing and identifying inconveniences large and small would be a primary phase to universal design way of problem solving for all users of a particular object or space.
I have attempted this approach in the classroom as a primer to UD by giving the students the following exercise: After a short preamble of how design attitude/ practice begins at home, they were asked to look around their home, pick up an object or space used by all (mother/wife, father/wife, brother, sister, toddler, grandmother/father, domestic help/visiting relative from native town/other hypothetical participants/situations) and design/redesign. Home is the micro environment, a reflection of the macro environment outside with a sample user set that exists outside. This exercise reveals to the students the universal design way of doing things and I found this to be a good way to get started.

Indian Classical Bell Metal Lamp

Classical Bell Metal Lamp
Conceived in the environment of traditional bell metal casting master artisans of Payyanur, a small town, near Kannur, north of Kerala state, India. It was designed by me and developed during a Design Workshop conducted by me, objective being for the sustenance of traditional craft artisans of the region through product design diversification. It is made through the traditional lost wax process and cast in bell metal which is a combination of
mainly tin and copper.

Design of the form inspired from the traditional and ceremonial objects of India, I have attempted to create a timeless, characteristic and classical piece. The purity of its form and proportion is distinctly Indian. This product is being made by individual Bell metal master artisans on order basis and was also being retailed through various State Handicraft Exhibitions.

Notes on Universal Design in India

The ability level the product demands must be minimized.
India where there is excess of everything, a mind set of living in the present future, indifferent behaviors, and uncomplaining adaptability to populous man made environment, thinking universal design is complex.
So what are the collective and universal pain areas of India and its people which affect considerably and look for solutions by design?
Variance in literacy, multiple languages, migration from rural to urban, health & hygiene conditions, gender issues, global cultural influences, technology penetration & spread, congested environments, 25 million differently able, etc
If one drills further into these areas we would come up with universal design need/problem statements to address and solve. This would have a wider impact on larger audience that uses and interacts with day to day objects and environs The key factors Universal Design looks at are motor, sensory and cognitive abilities with respect to usability of objects and systems across demography for a comfortable quality life. Also by approach, in an Indian arena Universal Design could eventually discipline behaviors of the able for better quality of being for the differently able.

There would be two parts to the approach and practice of Universal design.
One, the lifespan study which covers all the aspects of human growth and circumstantial variances in the man made environment from childhood to youth, middle and old age of both genders, the diversity of co existing people in the aspects of culture, social economic status, literacy, etc and two, the differently able, their engagement with the man made world.
Address the aspects of the lifespan a linear structure that would uncover core problem areas. Once identified, considering the diversity of the user set in a phase of the lifespan, one could formulate the problem statement and design. The second entity which is the more caring one needs assistive technological intervention with affordability being one of the major factor. With this understanding design for diversity through a life span of the user set would be one part and assistive design for the differently able would be another part.

Design Problem

‘Design’ in the Digital/Information/Technology Age has been my preoccupation these days, in the context of education and practice. Question that comes to me: what is it that I can offer today as an individual design professional or a team player where everybody knows little or more of everything!!
Is it user centric thinking!...everybody talks of it; research!!...there are enough in number; strategy!...marketing professional forte; product idea conception!...techys’ default forte; visual appeal!...free for all domain, software freely available to all and so on.
Lets for the time being keep aside verbose on ‘the designers’ role’ etc and think simplistically for clarity.
Take technology driven products and services as the case. The navigator on mobile publicized today has an interface conceived I am sure by a team
which has not questioned its understandability /comprehend ability with people.
Has anybody dwelt into what is the mental model of a Ramu on the street, of the route from A nagar to B nagar? Or even a Rahul!! He/she would never have seen a map (in 3D as if from a plane) in his life except maybe in school, of a world map or of Columbus’s sea route journey. These interfaces are very common to western users maybe because of the direct analogy of maps they are used to in their frequent long distance drives. This taken for granted kind of direct adaptation of interfaces to global users sets the Need Statement to answer the above predicament of design expertise.

Door Signs!

On the 2nd day of their orientation program at the National Institute of Design (NID), Bangalore, the 40 foundation students of the 2008 batch were given an impromptu assignment to come up with solutions of a door sign to depict entry side. These glass doors on campus were newly fitted and didn't have handles and one didn't know which side to push to open.
The students were asked to come up with out of the box symbolic solutions without being literal. The following ideas were applied to the doors.

Anshu George depicted through foot prints of a split personality!!


Sohini pasted a signage as if written by the local carpenter in his own pronunciation.


Kartik showed lot of hand prints creating a play.


Ayush played around with the word exit by placing it inside and deliberatly exagerating the x.

Semantic Ambiguity

The language we use in the nomenclature of prompts/labels in human-product interfaces is a vital consideration in design. More so in today's and future context with diverse users and IT consumer durables becoming more affordable and common place. The interfaces of products such as ATMs, mobiles, home computers, cameras, TVs, etc. Whats prompted me to write is the semantic ambiguities that exist. Lets analyse/question a few commonly phrased prompts which we have been seeing since digital technology became domestic.
Take the search prompt. When someone tells me to search for something it means either something is lost, misplaced or hidden somewhere! It could also mean that the system has got all of it jumbled up somewhere (like in a haystack) and you look for it, if you find it good luck to you pal!! This nomenclature has probably evolved from a developers stand point and remained unquestioned and users eventually got used to its function. I believe that the metaphor 'search' is inappropriate both ways: its inducing a sense of ambiguity to the user (which he/she has not realised) and more importantly fixated the back end design development not allowing it to be re-interpreted.
The cancel & clear buttons on ATMs which appear one below the other, ambiguity in meaning and action. The menu in mobiles, a very interesting analogy but the eventual functionality it offers doesn't really fit and there many users I have spoken to who are unable to connect menu to functions like messages, setting, clock,etc.
As we move towards times when these products are going to get abundantly used by people across regional languages and cultures the semantics and the related analogy or metaphors need to be sensibly thought over/rephrased and adopted. This equally applies to the icon designs as well which today are quiet complex, an interesting area of design opportunity for cross cultural penetration of products. There are am sure experts in semantics of digital media constantly researching about these aspects but it we don't see it being applied in all the everyday newer versions coming into the market.
I believe a richer/human user experience is when instead of 'LOG IN', I say... 'AND YOU ARE' (in Hindi it would sound ' AUR AAP HAIN!')...kind of semantic!!