Issuu

Ishan Nakate @nustasthetics Thanks to the internet, everyone is now a designer – or at least has a view on what good design is. This has changed the design landscape profoundly. Smart designers have worked this out and now function as partners rather than suppliers, often working alongside experts in other fields – sharing expertise rather than imposing it. This is being symbolized by the lone glowing skyscraper, illuminating the whole city. Reach out to us on industryrelations@avantika.edu.in

Editor’s Desk Design has come much beyond being just about the looks. We see its scope and implementation impacting every level of an organization regardless of which domain. Democratizing design has brought an innovation driven focus to every facet of a business.

any business no matter its scale through his work at Razorpay. Fatema Ranpura on democratizing UX at Dream 11, Anuj Kapur’s gamechanging case study of using Design Solutions to curate a better restaurant experience. Amongst many more.

The creator economy, on the other hand, is a diversion from centralized corporations. As we now witness the spread of individual creativity at a sizable scale, NFTs, blockchain, and digital currencies are the upcoming buzzwords amongst creators and corporates alike.

Finally, we have Kiran Mazumdar Shaw and Anna Hazare for a special feature interview. Both renowned leaders created an influential impact through their work and careers. Moreover, American Sculptor Ed Massey decorates this edition as our international feature. His take on the advancements of the art world and the process behind his public artworks are sure to leave you inspired.

Exploring both themes of this issue our lineup of authors include: Arun Chetty on transforming and simplifying financing for

Miral Zafar

Table of Contents Feature: Kiran Mazumdar Shaw

Infocus: Kumar Vikash

(Executive Chairperson at Biocon & Biocon Biologics) Kiran Mazumdar Shaw on Empowering an Inclusive Economy

(Co-founder & Managing Director at Creative Days) Design Thinking the Road to Democratization of Creativity

How To: Dr. Suresh Nair

(Chief Technology Advisor at Social Alpha. Founder and CEO of Design Alpha) Design Principles to Build Healthcare Products

Thought Leadership: Aman Mehta

(Vice President - UX & Design at Zenoti) Mapping the Evolution of Design from a Personal Memoir

Case Study: Anuj Kapur

(Head of Design at PolicyBazaar.com) Curating Experiences with Design Solutions

Infocus: Arun Chetty

(Director of Design at Razorpay) Reconstructing Finance while Enabling Businesses

How To: Sameer Bhiwani

(UX Lead, Customer Engagement at Google) How To Designeer

Feature: Ed Massey

American painter and sculptor

Infocus: Parag K Vyas

(Founder at Grau Bar Design) Fine Jewellery, a Model for Democratization of Design

Thought Leadership: Mayank Bharadwaj (Co-Founder at Kinner Jobs) From the space of silence: Kinner Jobs

Young Achiever: Shraddha Sabnis

(B.Des Student at Avantika University)

How To: Fatema Ranpura

(Vice President, Product Design at Dream11) Democratising User Research to Build Empathetic Products

Thought Leadership: Nagaraju Mundrai

(Chief Design Officer at Liquidspace Studio) Democratizing Interior Design

Community Builders : CII Design

(Executive Officer at CII) Integrating Design to Enhance Value & Quality of Life - CII Design Initiatives

How To: Harsh Kapoor

(Chief Design Officer at 1GEN) Democratizing Design to Create a more Inclusive and Sustainable World

Feature: Anna Hazare

(सामाजिक कार्यकर्ता ) ध्येयवादी जीवन का सार

Infocus: Arjun Vishwa

(Digital Designer & Visual Artist at FiniteLoop) Design thinking for visual design

Infographics: Bridging the Gap

Bridging the Gap between Industry and Academia

Thought Leadership: Prathamesh D.

(Senior Design Lead, Dentsu International) Designers as Facilitators in Democratizing Design

How To: Ananya Vetaal

(Senior Manager- User Experience at Havells India) Creating Smart(er) Products through Design Democratization

Case Study: Naveen Puttagunta (Co-Founder & CEO of Divami Design Labs) Democratizing UX in the 21st Century

Feature

Kiran Mazumdar Shaw

Executive Chairperson at Biocon & Biocon Biologics

A pioneer of the biotechnology industry in India and the head of the country’s leading biopharmaceutical enterprise, Biocon, Ms. Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw is a healthcare visionary, a global influencer, and a passionate philanthropist. She has been ranked among ‘World’s 25 Most Influential People in Biopharma’ by Fierce Biotech and was recognized as the EY World Entrepreneur of the World in 2020, which is a testimony to her entrepreneurial journey of over four decades. She is the Vice Chair of the Global Board of Directors of U.S.-India Business Council (USIBC). She is the Business Ambassador for the State Govt. of Victoria, Australia. She has been appointed as a full-term member of MIT Corporation, as well as a member of the Board of Trustees, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, U.S LinkedIn: Kiran Mazumdar Shaw

MIT Group of Institutions | July 2021

@theweavemagazine

Empowering an Inclusive Economy Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw needs no introduction. We all know what a force to reckon with she is. She single-handedly founded Biocon in 1978 and built it into a globally recognized name at a time when the biotech industry was not welcoming towards female entrepreneurs. Today, Biocon delivers on the promise of making medicines accessible and affordable to millions of patients worldwide. In her opening statement, she says, “I always enjoy talking to young people because I think it is extremely important for all of you to believe that there is a huge opportunity for you to have a very purposeful life ahead.” Q1. From the time you donned the entrepreneur hat, what are some of the changes in diversity and inclusion you have seen and further expect to see? From a young age, my

purpose in life was to be gainfully employed and economically independent. I think all women can relate in wanting to prove to ourselves that we can be financially independent. Whether it be Sudha Murthy or myself, many other women who tried to pursue a professional career within the industry found it arduous as we were a rare breed. At 25 years old, I had no business experience. Banks did not want to lend to me because I could not provide them collateral. Typically, women did not own property nor have huge amounts in the bank that could act as collateral. My father was my greatest supporter, but I did not want him to stand guarantee for me. There was a huge sense of pride in me, but there was also a very deep sense of purpose. There is a perception hurdle among venture

funds, which men generally run, that women cannot be risktakers, aggressive or ambitious when running a business. An entrepreneur is an entrepreneur. We all want to succeed. We are all risk-takers. Whether it is a man or a woman, everyone encounters problems, challenges and risks while building their company. So, there should not be any discrimination between genders. Whilst it is true that women have to try that much harder, I think it’s getting much easier now because you are seeing a lot more women in the tech world at least. I think women should stop worrying about whether entrepreneurship is tough or not. Just go for it with a sense of driving purpose, self-belief and an ambition to succeed. Q2. What do you think the government can do to ease policy and 02

procedures for doing business especially in terms of women? Policies should focus on young people because it is not easy to run a company, and it does not matter whether you are a young woman or a man who is starting a company. The government needs to start with improving ‘ease of doing business’ in the country. Next, the government needs to make it easier for start-ups to access capital. Right now, they are beholden to either angel investors or debt financing to fund their growth. That is not the ideal way to go about funding new ventures. I had to face huge funding challenges when I was trying to grow my fledgling company in the early 1980s. Biocon had to rely on debt financing because there was no venture funding at that time. In those days, I had to pay as high as 16 to 18 percent interest on bank loans! While access to capital is crucial for companies to scale up, current rules 03

make it very difficult for them to do so. Any company that wants to list on the Indian stock exchanges has to have revenues, income, and some profit. This is not a logical demand, as start-ups typically do not turn profitable within the first few years. It is really about an idea that has the potential of becoming a big business. An alternative suggestion to evaluate whether a company should get to access capital markets is by checking if they have registered venture funds as investors, which would have done their due diligence before putting in money. Secondly, an early-stage investor should be exempted from paying taxes for a few years. Such a tax-free mechanism for start-ups will allow them to reinvest in the business. A mechanism that allows start-ups to remain tax-exempt for a few years as long as they reinvest their profits into the business can prove beneficial. Once a startup stops investing back in the business, the tax exemption will go. That could be an attractive way for people to build

up nascent businesses. I reinvested every bit of profit back into building the business in the early days of Biocon. Even though we hear about many technology unicorns, each one with billions of dollars in valuation, I do not think many of them have listed on the Indian stock exchanges. This is why we should be supporting good policies so that the entrepreneurs of this country, both women and men, can do much better. Q3. Can you tell us your perspective on the importance of gender diversity for better business growth in our nation? Every educated person in this country counts. I always tell women to focus on their education and find gainful employment. My mother, who turned 90 this year, is a fantastic entrepreneur even at this age. She single-handedly runs her laundry and drycleaning business. She is proud of the fact that she does not have to depend on any of her kids. In fact, for every one of our

birthdays, she gives us a gift from her earnings.

When I started Biocon in 1978, one of my driving missions was that I wanted it to have a good gender balance. I wanted to create a company that can give opportunities to women scientists. At that time, women held 60% of leadership roles in the company. I want today’s young generation to have the same level of confidence and selfbelief that we had in my generation.

we struggle to increase the number of women employed in some of It is crucial for all of the other areas like us, especially women, production. At present, to be economically 17% of our total workforce independent and are women and we are gainfully employed. I think making additional efforts the sense of purpose you to improve diversity ratios. get in life; you cannot get Our business leaders by just being a housewife. ensure that women are Yes, my mother has well-represented in every also been a very proud team. We also have housewife. I am proud of a strong merit-based my mother as she raised culture and we practice me and brought me up ‘Equal Pay for Equal so well, but I am much Work’ irrespective of the prouder of her today To ensure women are gender of the employee. because of what she given a fair chance To help a large number does. I think all children when competing against of women in middle are always proud of their men, a woman should management transition working moms. All the also be evaluated on to senior leadership roles men must understand her potential and not we have introduced that. just experience, while targeted development a man should only be programs. Our endeavour Q4. What qualities evaluated for experience is to build a cadre of should budding and performance. At empathetic women entrepreneurs, especially the selection level, leaders who will excel women, learn or develop hiring managers must in managing the future to be taken seriously understand women course of the business. and succeed in business have not had the same Additionally, we have today? privileges as men and extended maternity leave do not have the same and introduced part-time Today every listed legacy of work experience opportunities for women company is invariably as men, hence evaluation returning to work after forced to think about criteria for women has to a career break as part diversity and inclusion. be different from men. of our efforts to improve Women must understand gender diversity. that they have a great Today, Biocon employs a opportunity to be large number of women Q5. As a role model to selected for high profile scientists in R&D, Quality many, can you share jobs and build successful etc and we continue to your recipe for success careers. improve gender diversity and how design thinking in other functions, but 04

has played a role in it? I have always admired forthrightness, compassion, and fairness in people. I simultaneously try to embody those traits myself. I am approachable, and I would not ever be comfortable cheating anyone or doing something unfair. That does not mean that I am a pushover or am weakminded. If you are narrow-minded in looking at a problem from just one aspect or perspective, you will not be able to think of innovative solutions. It is essential to look at a problem as a puzzle and think of more than one way to solve it; that is when you will get your mind thinking about problem-solving in a way that you never thought possible.

fermented with selected microorganisms to improve the flavour and aroma of the coffee, but the process they were using took them 36 - 40 hours. Intrigued by this, I developed an enzyme process for them that allowed the processing to be done in two hours and resulted in a superior product. You need lateral design thinking to find new opportunities by leveraging your current technologies or processes. Q6. Biocon is an example of democratizing health care. What is it that countries like India can do to contribute to this region and make it happen?

India is already doing it. Look at the vaccines industry. All of us in India operate in an ecosystem that is about When I started Biocon, I began as a fermentation- economies of scale, unlike the western based company model. The western developing enzymes. In model is all about high those early days, I visited value, low volume, and a coffee plantation reimbursement from where they explained government healthcare the microbiology of systems. In India, we coffee processing to me. Green coffee beans were follow a model of high 05

volume, low value, which can make products like vaccines and lifesaving medicines affordable enough for the common man. This model is about leveraging your capability base and your cost base to deliver on the affordability index that you are looking at. Our motto is “highest quality at the lowest cost” and that is how we want to make a global impact. At Biocon, we want to be the lowest cost insulin producer in the world. We are building our business in a way that lets us use technologies to innovate and benefit millions of people with diabetes globally by giving them access to high-quality insulin through a lowcost delivery model. Innovation begins from what we call cell line development. Getting a high-yielding cell is extremely important because that lowers cost. And then it is about your business model. Written by Miral Zafar Interviewed by Arnav Agarwal & Miral Zafar

“Women do not have the same amount of work experience as men, because remember, we have lived in a world where men have always had the advantage. Evaluate a woman for her potential and evaluate the man on the performance.”

InFocus

Kumar Vikash

Co-founder & Managing

Director at Creative Days

Being both a designer and an entrepreneur, Kumar Vikash has abundant experience in both, advocating for users and flourishing a business. He has been working in the realm of User experience for over 4 years. He is passionate about creative solutions and creativity and as such has been able to provide creative marketing solutions to many companies. LinkedIn: Kumar Vikash

MIT Group of Institutions | July 2021

@theweavemagazine

Design Thinking the Road to Democratization of Creativity For us, cultivating a design thinking approach is the crucial ingredient to addressing a problem. Capable of driving innovation, design thinking leverages the power of empathy. Being visionary designers, we believe in creating meaningful products, systems and services with a user-centric mindset like the most impactful brands in the world do. Simon Sinek has aptly said, “People don’t buy what you do; they buy why you do it.” A crystal-clear understanding of “Why” enables you to strike the right chord between the user’s problems and the solution your products are offering thereby resulting in authentic customer engagement. At Creative Days, we strive to go deeper with problem-solving with a user-centric mindset. So how exactly do we do this?

Learning through Observance This is the fundamental driver of the everevolving virtual world. Our learning-focused design approach highlighting observance helps us analyse a problem correctly.

the case, we develop a result-focused prototype to build an authentic digital connection. Design, for us in the ultimate sense, a way of analysing problems based on meticulous research and consequently solving them precisely.

Ideating As a thriving creative design agency, we brainstorm a lot to ideate exceptional design solutions, no matter which industry. By harnessing the proven 3 stage process, encompassing: Conceptualize, Practicalize and Criticize, we craft the best of all digital worlds by considering business goals, user needs, aesthetics, flow, layout, technological and budget constraints.

Testing Our testing techniques seek to fine-tune the details of our systems. By testing the product’s overall usability with highfidelity fully functional digital prototypes, we strive to provide our clients with a crystalclear big picture of blueprints, journey maps, design experience, and preferences of ideal customers.

Iterating Our seasoned design experts know there is no shortcut to an astounding design. By stepping in our client’s shoes and collaborating to examine 08

“The whole notion of creative democracy in the form of a design process grants visibility to our esteemed clients to propel candid innovation forward.” The whole notion of creative democracy in the form of a design process grants visibility to our esteemed clients to propel candid innovation forward. For instance, the previous year, we leveraged our knowledge and design competencies in designing a platform for a ground-breaking product, “Cheezee,” owned by Nebutech, a Bangalore based

Tech start-up. Cheezee enables electric vehicle owners to pre-book slots at a nearby charging station. Our challenge was to make the entire process of advanced slot-booking notably hassle-free, empowered with customization. For the same, we are required to conduct thorough research of the market related to electric vehicles to gain deeper insights into the pain points of EV car owners while keeping aside any sort of presumptions. Design thinking merges business, people, and technology to realize unmet needs, aiming to address them by discovering practical solutions. With time, we have mastered the art of ensuring ample participation in the

complete process of design thinking. We firmly believe that involving multiple creative design perspectives leads to a diversity of knowledge in ideation, implementation and clarity regarding the availability of the resources to put forward fresh insights. The same is essential to construct design solutions that come across as efficient and feasible. This is what Design Thinking is all about, where we as creative “Passionpreneurs,” embark on a quest of “Serendipity,” to find ourselves in an impactful environment where we become capable of innovating something that can impact the lives of millions with our immeasurable empathy and passion. As designers, we flourish the most when we facilitate the design process rather than striving to own it. That is indeed the true democratization of creativity. When we collaborate with organizations to make them perceive the design similar to the way we perceive it, there arises no question of poor decision making that proves to be regrettable in the end.

“As designers, we flourish the most when we facilitate the design process rather than striving to own it. That is indeed the true democratization of creativity.”

How To

Dr. Suresh Nair

Chief Technology Advisor at Social Alpha, founder and CEO of Design Alpha

Dr. Suresh Nair is an alumnus of IIT Bombay, he co-founded Design Alpha with the support of Social Alpha. Design Alpha supports entrepreneurs working on products and technologies in the domains of health, environment, agriculture and education. In 2014 Dr. Suresh Nair was awarded The DST Lockheed Martin award and there are various other accolades he has received for his innovation. LinkedIn: Dr. Suresh Nair

MIT Group of Institutions | July 2021

@theweavemagazine

Design Principles to Build Healthcare Products Healthcare products are intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent a disease or other health condition. Even with over 100,000 different medical devices on the market today, the industry is growing every year, and numerous startups are focusing on this area. Due to the direct health and safety effects that these healthcare products have on the users, medical devices are subject to many regulations and must undergo extensive validation procedures, composed of checks, tests, analysis, and reviews before they are allowed in the market.

Proof of Concept The foremost activity for any innovator is to prove to others and convince them that their idea works. It can be demonstrated using standard laboratory equipment like power supplies, signal generators, spectrum analysers, oscilloscopes, computers, and off shelf development kits. Design Requirements’ formulation is one of the most vital aspects of the design process because it lays the foundation for the rest of the design. Once the idea is proven, the next step is to go for

the design. First we come up with a Requirement Specification document. It will have overall system requirement specifications including, input/output, user interfaces, regulatory compliance, reliability, etc. It shall then be translated to mechanical, electronics, power, software requirements engineering specifications, with possible subsystem specifications. Designto-cost is another essential factor to be seriously considered as a requirement specification. It invokes the designers to explore alternate technologies, methods to

The Concept to Product Development Life Cycle is schematically represented below.

where the final volume manufacturing will take place. The pilot volume can be a few tens, and the samples will be used for reliability and regulatory compliance testing. Thus, once the product successfully undergoes compliance testing, no further modification shall be permitted on either component or processes. Any such change will call for re-compliance.

achieve the function at optimum cost. The design towards the first prototype needs to be very close to the final product, in terms of form and fit, aesthetics, ergonomics, and functionalities. The prototypes can be built using fast processes like 3D printing, vacuum casting, soft tooling, machining, rapid PCB fabrication, hand soldering, etc. Under prototypes, a few stages like Alpha and Beta prototypes are standard. 13

The alpha prototype shall be tested internally first and then handed over to potential users to get feedback. All these feedbacks shall be implemented in building the next prototype, called the Beta prototype. It can also be considered as a Minimum Viable Product (MVP). Pilot Build The pilot build has to be done once the design, process, iteration, all are set. It needs to be done in an ISO13485 certified manufacturing facility,

Compliance testing Compliance testing and approval are mostly considered to be a significant hurdle in healthcare device development. During the design process, whenever the components are selected, mechanical enclosure designs are done, PCB layout is performed, or interconnections are planned. Those are to

“Requirements formulation is one of the most vital aspects of the design process because it lays the foundation for the rest of the design.”

be done according to the radiated emission, conducted emission, and Electrostatic discharge compliance requirements. Enough grounding to be included on the PCB, analog, and digital grounds to be accurately connected even with the enclosure. In the PCB design, wherever input/output ports are exposed, ESD protection diodes are included in the design. Many other compliance tests like chemical agent cleaning compatibility may also be called for based on the device and its proposed usage. Reliability The life of the system is estimated based on highly accelerated live test data. If there are mechanical switches, these may have to be physically tested for their appropriate function for the expected times and validated. Risk management aspects: ISO 14971 defines risk as the combination of the probability of occurrence of harm and the severity of that harm. • The intent behind

risk management is to identify, evaluate, analyze, assess, and mitigate potential product issues. • Risk management is a complete product lifecycle process. • In addition to ISO 14971, there are several other essential medical device industry standards requiring risk management. The partial list includes: • IEC 60601 • IEC 62366 • ISO 10993 • ISO 13485 • ISO 13485 standard is specific to quality management systems. • The expectation is that one manages risk throughout the entire product life-cycle and the entire QMS.

the patient trusts the expertise of the clinicians. The patient seldom wonders if the products used by the clinicians are safe and have been thoroughly and rigorously tested. The patient often unknowingly accepts the risks of the medical device we design, develop, and manufacture.

“During every stage of healthcare product development, one has to believe that the medical devices being designed and developed could be used on their dear ones.”

Conclusion During every stage of healthcare product development, one has to believe that the medical devices being designed and developed could be used on their dear ones. Imagine this from the perspective of a patient going in for any medical procedure. The patient probably thinks very little about the risks of the medical devices about to be used. Generally, 14

Thought Leadership

Aman Mehta

Vice President - UX & Design at Zenoti

With over 20 years of experience in product design and user experience, Aman Mehta has a deep knowledge of the design industry. He focuses on being user-centric and creating unique solutions to provide exceptional user experiences. LinkedIn: Aman Mehta

MIT Group of Institutions | July 2021

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Mapping the Evolution of Design: a Personal Memoir “UI is the saddle, the stirrups, & the reins. UX is the feeling you get from being able to ride the horse.” — Dain Miller, Web Developer As an eight-yearold in India, Holi - the festival of colour that celebrates the onset of spring - was the perfect, socially sanctioned call to mischief. While adults were busy socializing, the kids scampered around and indulged in water fights. Everything was like any other year, with each of my friends and cousins brandishing a ‘pichkari’ – a foot-long syringe, used to spray coloured water on unsuspecting victims.

a strategically timed tantrum to convince my mother to buy for me. It is a level of social validation I have been chasing, unsuccessfully, ever since. Looking back, that was my first experience of the power of design and its inseparable relationship with user experience.

My journey at the firm was not just a transition from product designer to Sr. project manager. It was a learning curve that rooted my design in user experience, giving me an understanding of user psychology and developing solutions from the user’s perspective.

Stalwarts like Hitesh User Experience is the Oberoi and Deepali Singh Ultimate Measure of guided me through my Design early years. I earned my stripes by developing “Design creates culture. sites like Naurki.com, Culture shapes values. Jeevansathi.com, and Values determine the AllCheckDeals. Sanjeev future.” Bikhchandani, founder — Robert L. Peters, Graphic and executive viceDesigner chairman of the firm, who was recently awarded the I began my career as a Padma Shri, has always designer with Infoedge, been a great inspiration. That was when yours truly India’s premier online appeared on the scene, classifieds company, The experience I gained armed with an enormous which has developed eventually led me to build plastic water gun in websites that have the real estate brokerage fluorescent green! I still transformed how the site 99acres from scratch remember the collective nation connects and with my team. We were gasp, followed by wideinteracts - for everything putting ourselves in the eyed kids gathering from matrimonials to real shoes of users coming to around me, mesmerized estate purchases, and grips with a new platform by the object in my recruitment. while being greenhorns at hands - which had taken building iOS and 16

Android apps ourselves! Of course, it was intimidating at first. But what set our imagination free was realizing that our inexperience was an asset – just as our design would be novel for the end-user. As soon as this experience-based connection was established, the ideas flowed. The project convinced me that all great design is like sculpture – a process in which the final form takes shape by chiselling away the unnecessary. The Simplicity of Priorities, to Complexity in Design “Simple Sells, Simple is Usable, and Simple Scales.” – Rand Fishkin, CEO & Co-Founder of SEOmoz The next phase of my journey began when I joined Quikr, India’s no. 1 online marketplace and classified advertising platform, as AVP - Product Design & User Experience, eventually becoming the Vice President - Design and UX. Manish Sinha, my mentor at the firm, helped me gain valuable 17

insights into a canvas beyond design. I found myself leading product teams and managing the technology side of things. Pranay Chulet, Founder and CEO of Quikr, gave the design team the platform to explore and build a design-led culture in the organization. My design philosophy has been shaped and expanded by working on products like WoNoBo, which gives prospective homebuyers a virtual street view of properties and being involved in the launch of the Quikr Homes magazine – aimed at builders and brokers. I was involved in providing inputs from a design/ UX perspective, merging more than 10 acquisitions, including real estate portal Commonfloor, business automation firm Realty Redefined, real estate analytics firm Realtycompass, and home rental startup GrabHouse. I realized that a user experience focus is just as effective and efficient a compass, guiding the design ship for B2B customers as B2C. Building AMP

and PWA apps at Quikr was an education in building unified design experiences that delivered consistency in user experiences by reusing components and features and reducing the learning curve for endusers. Experience designs Evolution “The next big thing is the one that makes the last big thing usable.” — Blake Ross, Co-creator of Mozilla Firefox User experience and technology are the strands of the doublehelix DNA defining the evolution of design. One sparking change in the other. The move from personal computers, to smartphones and tablets, to voice-activated assistants like Siri, is

“What set our imagination free was realizing that our inexperience was an asset – just as our design would be novel for the end-user.”

mirrored in the rise of peer-to-peer business models, online-only operations, and so much more. When I became the Global Head of Design for OYO hotels and homes, our vision was to build an intuitive and consistent design system. Mentors like Ritesh Agarwal, Anil Goel, and Kavikrut pushed me to create global products with capabilities for language and payments support that transcended culture and borders with personalization, recommendations, addon services, membership discounts, and many more features.

“Across continents and cultures, applications and solutions; a focus on user experience and leveraging technology effectively have been my guide.” Across continents and cultures, applications and solutions; a focus on user experience and leveraging technology effectively have been my guide.

Once upon a distant past, Design was based on the personal choices and vision of organization heads. Gradually, it The challenges were became more customervaried - designing longcentric in recognition of term rental experiences the end-user. I remember in India and Japan, a time when doing no managing rental vacation customer usage research home acquisitions in was the norm. Designers Europe, redesigning are now thinking out of experiences, improving the box to ensure their usability, and developing creations are more userB2B products for friendly – to stand out in a inventory, sales, pricing, competitive market. and transformation of This end-user based properties. approach means that design has to deliver a It has been a remarkable unified and consistent journey and perhaps experience - across my greatest learning websites, mobile apps, experience so far.

tablets, and even smaller devices like smartwatches. Finding ways to deliver the right set of features is no mean feat, but such details are what enables realworld personalization. More than ever before, design is now about understanding the customer and delivering exactly what they want – whether that optionality is about language, payments, recommendations, reviews, or notifications. Through all these iterations, as the tools at my disposal and the priorities of end-users evolve, I continue to chisel away the unnecessary.

“More than ever before, design is now about understanding the customer and delivering exactly what they want – whether that optionality is about language, payments, recommendations, reviews, or notifications.” 18

Case Study

Anuj Kapur

Head of Design at PolicyBazaar.com

With over 13 years of experience Anuj Kapur has been using design to help start ups and agencies grow. A skilled design thinker with a large body of experience his solutions are innovative and growth oriented. LinkedIn: Anuj Kapur

MIT Group of Institutions | July 2021

@theweavemagazine

Curating Experiences with Design Solutions “Design is functional. If you do not understand the problem statement, the functionality, how the customers are interacting with the real estate, your design solution is just art”, says Anuj Kapur, Head of Design at Policy Bazaar. Anuj was called by the promoters of a restaurant in the Cyber Hub in Gurgaon it was 60% a restaurant, and the rest a stand-up stage where shows were held every day. They asked him to help digitalize their entire ecosystem. During the meeting, it came out that the restaurant at the Cyber Hub in Gurgaon was bleeding money. Anuj visited the location and observed it for about a week. He went through the working of the restaurant - from the processing of Kitchen Order Ticketing (KOT) to the software of KOT. That evening, he observed the stand-up venue, noted people’s actions and the ordering process.

Anuj observed that during the show, out of 80 people, hardly 6 would order food. “There is always a certain amount of data that you will have to analyze to justify the hypothesis is correct. But there is certain data that you can input from real life because you have been part of their target segment.” Being a part of the process, Anuj questioned - Why weren’t customers ordering?

the middle of the show as the stand-up comedian would get distracted. During the short breaks, it was a task to collect and deliver around 80 orders for four waiters. Many times, customers had questions about the food and wanted customization. Secondly, during the live show, when the lights went off, it was inconvenient for the customer to turn the flashlight on their phone to look at the menu.

The promoters believe that the problem was the audience and location. “In every company, each person has a hypothesis on why a certain thing is working or not working. Our job as a UX designer is not to agree or disagree with this hypothesis, but to validate with the customers.”

Thus the promoter wanted Anuj to design an app where customers can order, and it could be delivered. But that was not a suitable solution.

The problem of customers not ordering was because a live show was going on. The waiter could not collect orders in

“Design is functional. If you do not understand the problem statement, the functionality, how the customers are interacting with the real estate, your design solution is just art.” 20

People come there for the whole experience of the show, not solely for the food. Anuj wanted the customer to be part of the experience. He wanted them to get rid of their electronics and enjoy the show. “It is necessary as designers to be faithful to our customers that just for the sake of engagement, we do not create more avenues to distract them.”

them where the customer could simply tick the food they wanted to order using the pen attached on top of the tear-away notepads.

Those questions were recorded so that Anuj could solve them in the next set of menus.

Part two of the hack was that the food was to be When the show started, delivered after the break basic instructions was over. After the midincluded one more point break, the front rows that was, “We are going to got served first, so the blink the light on the top comedian would not get twice five minutes before disturbed. Everyone else the mid-break. It will be a received their orders good time to look at the within the next fifteen menu and order the food minutes. If the customer that you want. Whoever had any request or In UX, there is Hick’s Law has ordered could tear complaint, they could which states that the the paper and hold it in write it down, and the time it takes to make a the air. The waiter will waiter would collect it decision increases as come and collect your from them since the use the number of options KOTs and will get you the of technology was out of increases. The other rule food after the mid-break solution. is the Goal-Gradient is over.” Effect which states that By the end of the week, as people get closer to Day one: The comedian the show was doing a reward, they speed up was told about this more business on food their behaviour to get new system and was and beverages than the to their goal faster. Anuj requested to engage the restaurant was doing the used these laws to ease audience and encourage entire day. In a month, the customer’s decision- them to order food if the restaurant started making phase. possible. He did the “It is necessary cleverest thing. He went The problem statement to random tables and as designers to Anuj formulated was - the asked them if they could be faithful to our process for placing orders request something for customers that just was inadequate. The him too. During the midbudget set was around break, about sixty hands for the sake of four thousand rupees. went up. Two waiters went engagement, we do not Anuj organized some ahead and collected all create more avenues to warm LED lights and tear- the KOTs while the rest away notepads that had answered customers’ distract them.” the menu printed on doubts and requirements. 21

making profits again. This project helped Anuj validate several points. The first being the importance of customer experience and how it can change a brand’s face and its impact on the books. If you do not validate the pain points, you are doing a disservice to your company and customers.

validated, scale it up.” The third is Design, often viewed as a digital world solution. Design is a solution.

The second validation was to never ask what the problem is but to observe it. When asking the question directly, the answer might be biased. “While doing research, we try to validate that the data be actual, factual, and correct. Sit with the users, observe their behaviour, run experiments to get rid of bias, and once it is

Lastly, it is integral for a business to know the difference between their new customers and their revisiting customers. Your re-visitors will teach you what is good, and your new visitors tell you what is wrong. Your re-visitors come back because they want to explore your USP, and it is integral that you do not lose it. A new customer brings

The closer you are to understanding the user, the more accessible and widespread your answer will be. You can design experiences without using technology.

experience from all over the world. You validate with your customers to improve. It is essential to listen to the feedback rather than being defensive. Written by Samiksha Banka Interviewed by Jigyasa Dixit & Samiksha Banka

“Design is a solution. The closer you are to understanding the user, the more accessible and widespread your answer will be. You can design experiences without using technology.”

Image Courtesy : hbr.org 22

Infocus

Arun Chetty

Director of Design at Razorpay

Arun is a product design director who is a part of the core founding team at Razorpay, a FinTech company that enables money movement for businesses in India. Over the last six years, he has set up the design team at Razorpay right from scratch and scaled it to a 40+ strong design team with multiple disciplines. He also mentors a few budding designers and product managers outside work to help them in their journey. LinkedIn: Arun Chetty

MIT Group of Institutions | July 2021

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Reconstructing Finance while Enabling Businesses From WatchOut! News agency, to becoming the Director of Design at Razorpay, how has your journey been, and what crucial things have you learnt along the way? Razorpay feels less of a job and more like a few friends getting together to solve a problem. So, while I had some hurdles in this journey, I also had enough support from the initial team at Razorpay. Speaking of what I have learned, an essential thing that helped me was asking many questions. And now that I am responsible for a team, I have to move away from having the right answers to asking the right questions to the team. I need to push the team to challenge the status quo. And this practice of asking tough questions has always helped me move away from my comfort zone. It is already challenging to get designers a prominent position in

companies; what is your opinion on providing tools that designers learn and refine over several years to everyone and facilitating its usage? Here we need to understand the meaning of ‘Design’. For the better part of the last decade, in the Indian startup community, design has just been about knowing a tool. But design is not just about understanding tools and software; it is about giving a solution to a problem. ‘Design’ has to answer why we should solve something and how we should solve it. Providing these tools to others will not help in democratizing design; designers will still be required to ask questions like ‘Why are we building something?’ and ‘How are we doing so?’. Tools like Photoshop, Sketch, Figma, etc., will come and go. Providing tools to everyone is not the right solution.

Razorpay being a Fintech company, how do you, via design and technology, give users power and a say? A big part of setting up a business is handling finances; How do you raise capital? How do you set up a business banking account? How do you give salaries to your employees? How do you accept payments? The moment all these questions arise, one will think that they need to go to a physical bank, hire an accounting team, hire an engineering team

“Providing these tools to others will not help in democratizing design; designers will still be required to ask questions like ‘why are we challenging something?’ and ‘how are we doing so?” 24

for integration, and so much more. This is where Razorpay comes into the picture. We want businesses to focus on their business and leave these money movement problems to us. FinTech is complicated, yes, but it should be complicated for us and easy for you.

inside Razorpay called Razorpay Capital. With Capital, the intention is to simplify the entire process of taking a loan. Traditionally one would need to go to a bank and provide extensive documentation for months before a loan is sanctioned. With Capital, all these hassles go away. Does Razorpay We are trying to solve participate in any rural cash flow challenges financial assistance or that businesses face micro-funding? If so, how by financing their does Razorpay see these growth through instant avenues playing a part settlements and quick in global innovation and business loans. democratization? Speaking of Instant In our opinion, everyone Settlements, it takes can be an entrepreneur. around 3-4 days for a No matter what business to get their background you come hands on the accepted from, FinTech should payments. A business be accessible to you. If owner has to wait for someone from a tier III 3-4 days to get the city starts a business, payouts/settlements. finance should not be a And, that 3-4 days delay blocker for them in their becomes a large blocker entrepreneurial journey. for small businesses. It should be an enabler Here is where we assist instead. And, that will only our customers with our happen if we provide Instant Settlements. Once accessible services. It enabled, the business could be vernacular owner can get the money services, No-code in their account instantly. development, providing business loans, etc. What are some essential items and steps to In regards to funding, a remember when couple of years ago, we democratizing design? set up our lending unit 25

Should design even be democratized? Should design be such that you do not need designers anymore, where everything is standardized? The answer is no; there has to be a balance between the need for designers and standardization. Razorpay has been in this business for over six years; we have seen, accepted millions of payments every day, and understand the best UX to accept and handle payments. For example, the UX for taking credit card details from the end-user. Something like this can be standardised and shared with businesses who are into building their own payment flows. And, to take it up a notch, we can also standardise the ideal UX flows which give the best conversions. And, business owners can simply ‘plug and play’ these experiences on their mobile and web apps. However, following a ‘plug and play’ model for everything does not make sense either. For example, in a business in the insurance domain where every payment is north of Rs.50,000 -60,000,

how payments work for them will be drastically different from a FoodTech company where every payment averages around Rs.300 - 400. Also, your mentality will be different when paying Rs.50,000 vs Rs. 50 online. So you need designers to advocate for users. What are some effects of democratizing Finance and Design, or in general a fusion of the two domains, that we can expect in the present or future? I see India as a unique place. Nowhere money works as it does here; cash is still king. Moving forward, this will change, and I am already seeing a lot happening in this domain. As of 2021, there are about 700 million active internet users in India. People have started using the internet for their entertainment through YouTube and Facebook; they are and will gradually commence using the internet for commerce. Previously it was frustrating to start a business. One needed a large accounting team, a developer team

to integrate payment gateways and a team who can create a website and people to handle finances and much more. Now, anyone can start a business with just a mobile phone and an internet connection. We see many ‘Momand-Pop’ stores where a single person handles everything. Anyone can think of an idea and quickly set up an online business, create a bank account, accept payments, disburse payments, and much more. There are about 60 million small and micro businesses and just as many freelancers. None of them have to visit a physical bank anymore due to the large number of online solutions available to them. It is possible today because finance has more or less been democratized, and we are moving in that direction where finance is accessible to everyone. It will happen slowly but surely. How do you go about researching in trying to understand how your products are being used? There are two main methods of research:

Qualitative and Quantitative. Quantitative is when we have enough data from where people are using our products, how the market is functioning etc., and these numbers tell me how a particular feature is running when it comes to the health of that feature. For example, when I am designing for EMI payments through credit cards, I can tell you how much time it takes to complete that flow in a day. When I see fluctuations in that for some reason, I can pinpoint where the problem lies, and quantitatively, I can say which feature functions and which does not. When it comes to qualitative research,

“It is possible today because finance has more or less been democratized, and we are moving in that direction where finance is accessible to everyone. It will happen slowly but surely.” 26

there are various sources to collect feedback. We have active ways of reaching our users to understand their goals and pain points. And, we have passive ways of checking the user’s pulse on online forums, app store ratings, customer support interactions, and sales teams. There are multiple touchpoints where we talk to our users and understanding that data gives us good enough information to improve our experiences. FinTech is a sensitive space, and design decisions can change situations here. How do you make design decisions in your field such that it empowers users to trust online finances? There are a few design principles that need to be kept in mind and apply to every domain. For FinTech, a few principles like designing for trust, design for accessibility, design for assistance, designing for simplicity, etc., form the backbone of all decisions. If someone were shopping online and were trying to gauge if a 27

business is trustworthy or not, they would look for trust markers like testimonials and other major brands you can recognize. Another thing is accessibility. Why should language be a barrier for someone to set up an online business? Services can be vernacular; you should not need a large set-up with a desktop when invoices can be sent through a phone using WhatsApp and payments can be received. Designing for assistance is another fascinating topic. For example, if one were to go to a bank and set up a current account, it can easily take over a few weeks to happen and would be a tedious process. In the current state of FinTech, when these offline processes got converted to online experiences, many processes got converted directly without any changes. Little thought was given in terms of assisting the user. Finance is still complicated, but it does not have to be so. We are working towards making finance easy.

Is there something you would like to tell our readers? Challenging the status quo helped us at Razorpay to disrupt the FinTech space. And, people who ask tough and uncomfortable questions are always encouraged at Razorpay. In general, I do not see people asking tough questions; we live in our comfort zones, regardless of our domains. We usually do not question age-old practices; we simply make peace with them; We at Razorpay strongly feel challenging the status quo leads to innovation. Written by Suchira Biswas Interviewed by Ishaan Nakate & Suchira Biswas

“Tools come and go, ten years ago, it was Photoshop, and now it is Sketch and Figma; however, your fundamental principles of solving problems remain.”

How To

Sameer Bhiwani

UX Lead, Customer

Engagement at Google

Sameer is a UX leader at Google and has been in the field of design for twenty years. He has worked with companies like Oracle, Cisco, HP as well as startups like BlueJeans and Scripbox. Sameer brings to the table extensive experience with applying design principles to various problems along with a deep understanding of business and technology. He is also a coach and mentor at several endeavours. LinkedIn: Sameer Bhiwani

MIT Group of Institutions | July 2021

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How to Designeer How to Designeer How can UX designers and technology teams collaborate and successfully blend their skills for an excellent customer experience?

be intertwined in a way that they are not ‘handing over’ anything to each other. The artifacts shared are procedural, but there is no surprise or discovery involved when a designer looks at a PRD or an engineer looks at the The only way to work is together. As banal as that mocks. sounds, it is somehow In the spirit of not the norm. By and large, designers still ‘hand Designeering I would over’ design to engineers like to share some suggestions from what who then analyze the I have either practiced feasibility and revert. in the past or learned by Many teams continue in this format as this is what doing something else. These are by no means seems like the accepted exhaustive or definitive way to work. and certainly have scope to improve, evolve Instead, the time that and adapt to different designers, engineers, structures. and product managers spend together should

How to Designeer Start at the top - Start collaborating from the research and discovery process. Discovering the problems and imagining the solutions together significantly reduces friction later in the process and increases the pace of innovation. Own the frontend- For the longest time, designers have complained about how their pixel-perfect mocks never maintain shape when they are developed. This has improved over the last few years with frameworks and better ‘handover’ tools. Some

“Discovering the problems and imagining the solutions together significantly reduces friction later in the process and increases the pace of innovation.” 30

organizations also have dedicated front-end engineers, which means they focus only on the surface layer of the ‘stack’ and specialize in rendering the design intent to perfection. I have had the chance to work in 2 teams where designers and front-end engineers were in the same team. The engineers in these teams needed to have an eye for design details, work alongside the designers and respect the design intent and choices. The designers needed to understand the front-end technology, its possibilities, and its limitations. The advantage of proximity, time, focus, and alignment of intent was really powerful for us. Ebb and flow - As a design leader, avoid lining up deep-work projects for your designers. When a designer comes out of a deep/intense design project, enable them to spend some time on cross-functional collaboration and some on explorations, or reading or reflecting, or better yet, just unwinding time. Allocating time for collaboration means 31

that we do not need to avoid meetings - we use that time to have the discussions that need to be had, reducing assumptions, postfacto corrections, and other non-productive aspects of the production process. By being closely involved in the process, designers

and engineers become owners of the solution, and their collaboration becomes more impactful. Now that design leaders have a seat at the table, impacting the design process to be more cross-functionally collaborative is something I believe they need to be driving on a daily basis.

“By being closely involved in the process, designers and engineers become owners of the solution, and their collaboration becomes more impactful.”

Feature

Ed Massey

American painter and sculptor

Ed Massey is an American painter and sculptor who creates and/or conceives the ideas and concepts for major, large-scale, public artworks, many of which have visually transformed iconic symbols, settings, and cityscapes. Amongst Massey’s works are a series of public projects he conceptualized and designed that are connected to Portraits of Hope. Traditionally, these projects visually enliven sites and prominent assets that are in need of beautification and revitalization. Website: Ed Massey

MIT Group of Institutions | July 2021

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The Different Faces of Art with Ed Massey Inspiration From an early age, Ed Massey was raised to learn about and respect people from different walks of life regardless of their culture, socioeconomic status or financial background. “We were taught to get to know others and bring people into our lives”, he relates. Having been inspired as a young student to pursue a

“If you bring art out to the public and make it accessible 24 hours of the day, in a major thoroughfare in any major city of the world, you can confront the public and convey a message to hundreds of thousands or millions of people. It will make them think and discuss. That is the impact.”

degree in sociology, he quickly realized that visual impact in communication would be much more compelling to people generally, including those having an eye for design and aesthetics; so he selected art as his medium. He informed us that initially his works were social commentaries and critical analyses of everyday issues such as ethnic, racial, and gender inequalities and tensions, violence and crime, and business and political ethics. “I am a student of my environment. When I am exposed to an issue and feel compelled by it, I will try to tackle the issue,” he told us. Due to high housing costs and insufficient supply in Los Angeles, even veterans are often forced into the streets. Ed went on to create a statue, “In the Image,” a 7-feet-tall saint-like figure of a homeless man showing the dichotomy of a colossal and robust

physical stature of a man relegated to living on the streets. He does his work in solitude, and Ed Massey’s works are often controversial. Interest in Public art & Democratization Rather than visiting rarefied art galleries and exhibitions, Ed grew up viewing murals and street art including the legendary Mexican muralists in Mexico city. “If you bring art out to the public and make it accessible 24 hours of the day, in a major thoroughfare in any major city of the world, you can confront the public and convey a message to hundreds of thousands or millions of people. It will make them think and discuss. That is the impact”, he stated. Public art can be essential and powerful, especially when dealing with social issues. With so many choices and options, we can choose to ignore pressing 34

Image Coutsey: http://edmassey.com/ issues when we spend time online deciding what to read, see or hear. However, being constantly exposed to a powerful piece of art in public and literally in your face forces us to confront life issues; “The visual impact to me is greater than any other”, he commented. Street art and public art can provide the general public with a visual representation of complex issues and trigger critical thinking that may lead to action.

patented special brushes and painting methods for persons with physical or health challenges to make sure all can participate. When he was a student, Ed decided to not engage much with art galleries as he believes that his art should belong to the public. He believes that if anyone wants to display art, they should have a way to do so -- social media and other digital platforms have helped facilitate the idea. There are numerous gatekeepers in Ed Massey is so his domain: government passionate about the officials, politicians, and public nature of his work financiers. Some of his that he often includes the projects take years to get public in the making of his approved because of this. artwork. He often tries to include as many persons It is essential to as possible in his largeremember that art does scale public projects and not always have to be has even developed and permanent; Ed stressed 35

the importance for art to exist rather than become a permanent fixture. His public works are often time-limited which adds to their allure as they are time-sensitive and viewers know that. At times, he donates sections of his public works to charities or social service programs after exhibitions so they can be easily revived in new locations and settings. Portraits of Hope & Inclusivity Soon after writing his first children’s book, “Milton,” Ed visited pediatric hospitals to give book readings to children dealing with serious illnesses. He observed that the common thread was that ‘children were children.’ and when they could, they would draw universal symbols regardless of background. He thought about what could be possible to engage children who were set apart from the general public, and several months later, through a lengthy government approval process, he was able to garner support from elected officials

along with the public, to permit children in hospitals and otherwise, to beautify an old oil tower in Beverly Hills, this would later come to be known as the ‘Tower of Hope’.

mops and any materials available. Although anyone can join Portraits of Hope, there is a method behind the magic. Portraits of Hope attracts experts from many fields, including engineers, who offer Along with his brother, their expertise in how Bernie, Ed established to approach some of a multi-faceted the large-scale projects community-based which can involve more program, known as than 10,000 people Portraits of Hope, to and massive painting beautify structures and surfaces. Portraits of public settings and Hope projects have that merges public art, culminated throughout creative therapy, and the United States, Japan social issues education and Mexico. Portraits for children and adults; of Hope is known for its the program exists to give vibrant colour palette. hope. Hope to the injured, the tired, the sick, the “There must be a wall isolated and everybody somewhere, a structure in between. The beauty or something that needs of this program lies in its some love and where the ability to unite people; community can come seniors work alongside together. It does not youngsters, with multiple matter if they have ever cultures joining in to painted before, does not beautify the streets. Ed matter if they can see or joked that he often sees not, or can move or not, senior volunteers who everyone is included if are decades older than they have the interest to him who are more active do so.” than even teenagers in their group. He paints a Technology & Traditional picture of a united cause art through Portraits of Hope, where he has worked “The accessibility of with communities who the visual is, of course, do not own brushes or amazing, and you paints or where they used can get it out there

instantaneously through technology, but I think it is equally gratifying to take a spray can of art.” “I am a very old school and back to the basics kind of person,” he said. Ed believes that traditional public art can bring people together into a social setting through its physical nature. Although his work is traditional with mixing paints and plaster, he also uses technology to maximize the benefits of large-scale projects. Previously, he would work in his studio with associates and discuss ideas, and now does the same through digital mediums like video conferencing where he can also direct design work. “I much prefer being in close proximity with an individual, helping to guide them if needed and facilitate the physical movement of painting. Interpersonal relationships are essential to me. But I use technology, and it is also crucial”, he said. He reported to us that his large public projects are in frenetic and kinetic environments coming together where they have open studios, 24hour painting sessions, 36

musicians playing cultural music, cashing in on the diversity available in his home of Los Angeles.

over their work, and along with that, it allows for a global audience to view art. He also told us that a negative point of NFTs was that they are NFTs are also very currently for the most intriguing to him because tech-savvy and that he has been digitizing his limits full accessibility works and components and democratization of his works from the very until more people can beginning of his career, become conversant with long before NFTs. NFTs the technology and have also help democratize the access to it. He candidly visual arts arena and can told us that he was not bring the broader public sure at this time how directly in contact with these new developments artwork and an artist. That would reflect on the endis a critical breakthrough user who buys a piece of in an often insular art art and has on-screen world. Accessibility is ownership of it. revolutionary. Community, Art & the “The beautiful thing about World exposing art through technology, social “My mission is for people media, or NFTs is that it on a global level to be can remove traditional able to beautify areas of gatekeepers, anything need, be it an alleyway goes with technology, and it is accessible.”

or a forgotten structure, but can be brought to life by the people of the community,” he said. The power of a community is enormous, and when combined with art, it can not only beautify old forgotten structures and provide therapy, but it can also get people to discuss pressing matters of society. It can encourage people throughout the world to come together, benefitting the world, not just a select few. He concluded by saying, “If we can combine all the good energy of people and work collectively as a team, something magnificent can happen.” Written by Suchira Biswas Interviewed by Jigyasa Dixit & Suchira Biswas

Ed believes that this could have high benefits for visual artists and buyers, and it can also allow the general public to own pieces of art. NFTs enable artists to have their copyright which is essential to an artist in his opinion. He thinks this will allow for artists to take complete control Image Coutsey: http://edmassey.com/ 37

“The beautiful thing about exposing art through technology, social media, or NFTs is that it can remove traditional gatekeepers, anything goes with technology, and it is accessible.”

InFocus

Parag K Vyas Founder

Grau Bar Design

With the task of making the industry future-ready, Dr. Parag K Vyas has been working towards the development of the industry by imparting knowledge that upgrades artisans in the areas of tools and technology. An IITian and a pioneer in the field of jewelry designing and technology with years of training experience in companies like Titan, and numerous workshops under his belt, Dr. Vyas shares his views on the democratization of design and mass customization. LinkedIn: Parag K Vyas

MIT Group of Institutions | July 2021

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Fine Jewellery: a Model for Democratization of Design Introduction

possibility was taken up for further development India is culturally and resulting in detailed traditionally rich in insights in the form of diverse practices for a thesis. Divided across the manufacturing and seven detailed chapters, designing of jewellery. the thesis expounds on Kundan is a type of customer preferences, traditional Indian form clusters, semantic jewellery that uses units, the potential a framework of gold application of research in crafted in intricate details other types of jewellery, to set chips of gemstones grid structures, and driven by form. considerably more categories on the subject “Many minds, Many matter. ideas,” a good indicator of the reason for variation The Need for Mass in customer preferences. Customization While there ought to arise certain problems Earlier, the Jewellery of manufacturability market catered to a and affordability, when the market moves from typical variations in preexisting designs to mass customization, rarely anything is impossible. To arrive at the desired outcome of creating the most preferred jewellery, there arises a need to study factors that influence customer preferences.

very specific set of customer segments. Articles were designed and manufactured with reference to a handful of famous designs that had limited variational possibilities. Finite probabilities existed for the manufacturer to design variations from its restricted set of elements. Customers desired uniqueness and the ability to customize as per their preferences back then; leaving the manufacturer in a fix. Not to mention every individual has a sense of connection towards

In 2006, at IIT the 40

have been identified over the course of research. Talking about semantic units in detail, it is the fundamental building block of Kundan Jewellery, usually represented by a certain name. Form Clusters are created by arranging semantic units in a particular fashion. The form clusters in turn by repetition create an article. These semantic Benefits and a specific taste and units can then be Affordability style. The connection arranged in a multitude is reinforced with the of permutations and Changing times knowledge of purchased combinations to jewellery being as unique have brought to light achieve unique designs. tremendous opportunities Additional methods as the wearer; one of a in customization. The kind. This continued till like repetition, rotation, undertaken study the market hit a point of scaling up, scaling saturation. Subsequently, suggests ways and down, offsetting, and methods to achieve the trends shifted from set many more, expand the beauty of unique designs possibilities of available conventional designs in cost-effective and and processes, to options for the customers design efficient ways. newer ways of adapting to decide on and customizations that cater customize from. to a larger audience. Thus Inspired by nature and satisfying mass customer understanding nature in For a Jewellery its grandeur, everything needs. manufacturer, the cost we look at has a is a crucial decision particular geometry and At present, every making factor. Hefty systematic arrangement customer can opt for costs are associated fully customized designs of fundamental elements. when it comes to pertaining to their unique Similarity exists without holding inventories the loss of uniqueness. taste. They can choose for manufacturing from multiple alternatives The study suggests gold jewellery. These similar elements, for to generate a piece inventories when creating unique and conforming to their held over a certain imagination and style. customizable Jewellery period comprise the This is possible with Mass designs. Over 92 such cost incurred by the unique semantic units customization. manufacturer for 41

creating a particular piece of article. With mass customization, maximum customer needs can be satisfied by incurring minimum costs on inventories. Apart from being an exciting chance for the customers to visualize and obtain custom pieces of jewellery, it is an excellent opportunity for the manufacturers to optimize and increase their profits too. To summarize, This approach makes sure that the design becomes available to a large number

of people and is not restricted only to highend customer segments, thus benefiting Industry and Academia alike, not to mention it being first form based research and it’s implementation by notable names like Titan. GanaJewelz is yet another manifestation of the ideology and approach in real-time. The images showcase hand-crafted and exclusive Jewellery articles from the brand’s collection. Crafted from delicate sea-shells the designs adhere to the approaches mentioned earlier.

Thought Leadership

Mayank Bhardwaj

Co-Founder at Kinner Jobs

With the childhood dream to help the third gender to achieve equal opportunity, Mayank set up the job portal - Kinner Jobs for the transgender and intersex community. The portal acts as a mediator between employers and job seekers of the community. LinkedIn: Mayank Bhardwaj

MIT Group of Institutions | July 2021

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From the space of silence: Kinner Jobs One’s life can turn into a blissful boon given the blessings that they get - Mayank Bhardwaj, the founder of Kinner Jobs, believes that the transgender community of India is still forsaken from such a blissful boon. His efforts towards uplifting the transgender community have taken quite some years, but he is determined to run this long marathon along with its members. Mayank Bhardwaj established Kinner Jobs in 2018, where he wanted to bring about inclusion for the transgender community. Kinner recognizes the third gender in India, which includes individuals who are categorized either by themselves or by society; neither as a man nor as

“One’s life can turn into a blissful boon given the blessings that they get.”

a woman. Unfortunately, society views them with a lot of prejudice, due to which their survival in terms of emotional wellbeing or even leading a normal harmless life is still in an erratic state. Kinner Jobs is an online portal that includes skill development, a platform to apply for jobs via a registration process. The onboarding of the platform also allows them to generate a CV if they do not have one.

door-to-door surveys. He realized that it was not easy to get people acquainted with a web portal since it requires basic knowledge of the internet.

Creating awareness was a significant part of Kinner Jobs. He has raised concerns about corporate companies not even considering hiring from the transgender community. There is another scenario in which individuals belonging to Being from a software the trans community do development not have proper access background, creating to education and means a portal might have for building skill sets for seemed an easy that matter. This leaves journey, but everything them with begging bowls, comes with its own set pushing them further into of challenges. For him, the clutches of poverty the biggest hurdle was and hunger. Even basic dealing with the mindset survival is at stake for of the people; since the them. According to ecosystem also requires Mayank, schemes can the involvement of people be laid out to employ the from various companies. transgender community Initially, when Mayank did after proper training. not receive the response Taking into consideration he expected, he went the fact that it is very out there conducting difficult for them to 44

pursue higher education, the minimum qualification can be reduced to the 12th standard. Mayank is optimistic that inclusive workspaces have begun to take shape in India, where transgenders need not hide their identity and would be proud of who they are. Corporate companies are successfully working towards bridging the gap, although few issues like sexual harassment and security concerns come to pass and need to be addressed. “In one day, we cannot win the world,” says Mayank, “We should talk

with each other; not in whispers but in a frank manner. Slowly we can change the mindset.” Social media channels like Facebook and LinkedIn have worked for Mayank. He can put up his job requirement and make people aware. The crux of Kinner Jobs lies in supporting better self-esteem and respect to the transgender community. They need to be proud of their identity and be given the opportunity to succeed. Sharing his learnings, Mayank says that you should always be polite. Some people may purposely aggravate you and create a poor

temperament but maintaining your calm is a must. Trying to understand the mindset of the person sitting in front of you and having a conversation around it hoping for a change is the way to go about making these subtle differences. By Nikita Vikrant Sharma and Esha Mehra

“The crux of Kinner Jobs lies in bringing self-esteem and self-respect to the transgender community.”

“In one day, we cannot win the world. We should talk with each other; not in whispers but in a frank manner. Slowly we can change the mindset.”

Thought Leadership

Shraddha Sabnis

B.des student at Avantika University

Shraddha Sabnis, a fourth-year B.des student currently pursuing a bachelors in Industrial Design. In her school days, she took part in sports competitions. Then started developing an interest in sketching, exploring different art forms and mediums like portrait sketches, watercolours and acrylic paintings. LinkedIn: Shraddha Sabnis

MIT Group of Institutions | July 2021

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Motivation through failure: My life experience My journey to becoming a Designer started in the year 2016, after my tenth board exam. Back then, l was more interested in fine arts until l got to know about designing. After researching design and talking to people from the design industry, in 2018, l decided to study Industrial Design. The fact how a product can make human life easier and simpler caught my interest.

sports competitions, where I was able to secure the Best Player Award.

Last year, I had participated in the Hero Motocorp competition T-shirt design. I was required to design a sporty-looking T-shirt for the Hero Motocorp team. I was able to secure just the participation certificate. So I tried again in 2021. This time the participants had to During my college, I design a sporty-looking participated in many jersey for Hero Motocorp’s design competitions readers. I got selected and sprints. In 2018, l among the top 15 across took part in the Ujjain the globe. I was the Municipal Corporation 2nd runner up and won Scrap art competition the 100 million edition where we had to make an motorbike as a prize. installation out of scrap material. It was a group These competitions project, and we were able have always inspired to secure second place me to work harder, be in that competition. I also positive, and dream big. participated in a C4X Whatever we want to (type of stone) sculpture- achieve will always come making competition, to us no matter what; where l won the first prize. never lose hope and In 2020, I was presented keep growing. I want to with the opportunity to thank all my professors take part in inter-college and Mr Sukanta Kundu sir,

who always encouraged me to learn and explore different things. For my Hero Motocorp journey, I would especially like to thank my professor Raghav Pandya. I am currently doing my third-year internship in Nurture India. It is a startup company mainly focused on sustainable wood lifestyle products. After my graduation, I want to pursue my postgraduate degree in Design from abroad. My goal in life is to make such products that will make people’s lifestyles easier and sustainable.

“Whatever we want to achieve will always come to us no matter what; never lose hope and keep growing.”

How To

Fatema Ranpura

VP, Product Design at Dream11

With over eleven years of industry experience, Fatema’s User Experience career has been heavily backed with User Research. She has product design and consulting experience for clients in the fantasy sports, banking, finance, travel and social media domains. She has also designed end to end experiences from research to product development incorporating the entire User Centered Design framework. LinkedIn: Fatema Ranpura

MIT Group of Institutions | July 2021

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Democratising User Research to Build Empathetic Products Once the value of the User Research practice, in a fast-paced production environment, is established, it translates into an ever-expanding backlog of research requirements for all the product increments built. These lean research teams need to figure out ways in which the onus of incorporating the Voice of the Customer does not just rely on the research team but becomes the prerogative of all stakeholders, namely designers, product managers and the tech team.

“Education about how to sieve correct insights from data gathered is crucial. Going beyond the superficial crust, as research is not asking users what they want, but understanding what they need by analysing behaviour and performance.”

This democratisation of the research practice, wherein non-research team members are enabled to not only internalise and participate in the research but at times even conduct it, becomes the cornerstone of creating a User First culture. It also avoids the cathedral syndrome; lets the research team become mentors and tutors and be available to guide and help team members in participating in research activities while they do the heavy lifting. Research then does not become the sole responsibility of researchers, but democratisation helps in gathering additional support for increased and matured output. A three-step strategy can be advocated for taking a step in this direction. The first two steps lay the foundation before the actual Democratisation happens in the last step through Participation.

Step 1: Education The first step is setting the frame for the right research. Maybe conduct Training Sessions to establish fundamentals; what are the right research questions to ask, the need for qualitative or quantitative data, depending on which aspects of the user behaviour are being studied. Generally, there is a tendency to jump straight to surveys to find answers to research questions, due to the efficiency and the perceived confidence it offers. However, teams need to be educated on the pros and cons of different methods, that would get one an answer about user behaviour, mental models or preferences, to name a few. Education about how to sieve correct insights from data gathered is crucial. Especially going beyond the superficial crust, as research is not asking users what they want, but understanding what they need - by 50

analysing behaviour and performance. Conducting optimal debriefing sessions with the team to peel away insights, and unearth different perspectives from research sessions without getting personal biases in the way. This would set the stage to progress to step 2, leading to smoother acceptance of the research outcomes. Step 2: Dissemination Dissemination is about communicating the research outcomes within the organisation to showcase impact. Sharing insights from a research study is equally essential to sharing learnings post a feature launch, helping build user empathy across teams. Insights lying in notes and files tucked away are of no use, as dissemination is instrumental in bringing about critical Change Management. It triggers ideation and conversations to make products more usercentred. When teams see the impact of the insights, more so being translated into product increments, it builds a research clout, increasing influence and thus advocating the cause of why all 51

teams need to dirty their hands in this activity. The dissemination process would involve activities like conducting research readout sessions formally or informally, with different teams akin to a ‘Brown Bag session,’ showing actual user video reels, using consumable formats to publish, which increases the stickiness of the insights.

by the research team.

Step 3: Participation This is when the democratisation of research would actually happen, in order to get wider participation from designers and product managers. The idea is different stakeholders should be able to contribute to research. For this, the team needs to have a plan to enable participation. The first step is about giving thought about which activities can be democratised, and which cannot. Maybe an Explorative Study needs the research team to be involved from planning to execution end to end, whereas a Usability Test may be conducted by a designer or a product manager as well with appropriate supervision

Creation of Toolkits, empowering teams to participate in actual execution. Toolkits assist to maintain the standard quality of the outcomes, removing dependencies on each step from the research teams. Toolkits also lay down step-by-step guidelines of expected tasks and outcomes for each research method. It should have templates for writing down research briefs, protocols, data log, analysis and presentation formats.

Next could be to think about storing this research information in an Intuitive Folder Structure. Making it accessible for teams to quickly refer to so it increases the chances of insights being actioned upon while designing or prioritising. Any insight locked in volts is easily forgotten and of no use.

Another powerful democratising tool would be creating a Single Space where all insights can be documented and viewed together. This space enables crosspollination of ideas,

brainstorming sessions, and allows teams to see the value of one research insight applied across different projects. Research is an area of expertise, and democratising research is in no way about trivialising the craft or taking away the role of researcher. This is just to help research teams in Building Efficiencies for delivering increased research output, challenging each other in raising the bar; enabling research teams to focus on higher-impact projects. Not to forget, the democratisation of research cannot happen overnight, but it is a systemic change in the organisation and would take continuous effort by the management and all teams over a period of time, to see its complete fruition.

“Research is an expert’s field of activity, and democratising research is in no way about trivialising the craft or taking away the role of researchers.” 52

Thought Leadership

Nagaraju Mundrai

Chief Design Officer at Liquidspace Studio

With over 17 years of experience in the field of delivering efficient and creative workplace interior design solutions, Nagaraju Mundrai has an exemplary eye for detail and a passion for photography and travel. Nagaraju enjoys mentoring other designers from the fraternity, alongside working with creatives from other disciplines. LinkedIn: Nagaraju Mundrai

MIT Group of Institutions | July 2021

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Democratizing Interior Design As architects and interior designers, our job is to design a space and deliver solutions that cater to the aesthetic and functional needs of an individual or group. The end product will look good only if every aspect leading to it is carefully thought of and implemented in sequential steps that lead to its completion. I believe design is a step-by-step process that builds an idea into reality.

cost more leading one to live with it for life. It is a simple process to facilitate design thinking, asking the right questions and providing solutions.

Designs are never created using software, they are ideated out of identifying and creatively solving problems on paper first; this happens when every aspect of the user needs are taken into account like a user group, functional and aesthetic needs, budgets, timelines, The end user of the space technical requirements and more. This cannot needs to be educated be done by one person about design, the way alone. It requires a we think of design as group of professionals any poor decision made collaborating, adding during the process will value, offering a different perspective towards “Perhaps this problem-solving.

democratization threatens the ones who stand still & is a growing process for those who keep reinventing and moving forward.”

Today some tools and apps use AI and VR as a medium to experience the look of space even before it is built, enabling us to make better decisions. Tools like BIM helps understand the technical aspects

of design offering an informed view of the overall technical requirements for a project. Software plays an important role today to express the intent of the designer more realistically and gives them the power to control design specific to an area or the whole space. Design has to be considered more as a way of thinking, and solving problems by inculcating a design process in every aspect helps us make the whole process seamless. Design is truly democratized in every aspect of Architecture and Interior design The approach towards design has changed for good. It is no longer a skill of an individual but has become more strategic in order to accomplish something more substantial. Several other skills are embraced in the process 54

growing process for those who keep reinventing and moving forward.

like research, business model and psychology of the users, colour theory and sustainability. This democratic approach towards design is making things simpler and more user-centric than a holistic design. Design is expected in every aspect of our lives now, which was a differentiator at one point. Design thinking has brought a process into every phase of interior design. Today a welldesigned space is a rudimentary expectation because we have raised our standards for aesthetics; apps like Pinterest introduced a sense of aesthetics for every non-designer. Everyone, be it an engineer, manager, 55

technician, or doctor, has come to value design, having accessibility to designs across the globe at their fingertips. However this is a doubleedged sword. While the bar for design has been set high we have lowered the value of it by democratizing it way beyond. But like every profession has two sides, even democratizing offers an advantage to co-exist in the design ecosystem as the number of designers coming into the stream every year is enormous, and everyone seems to be taking a decent share. Perhaps this democratization threatens the ones who stand still and is a

Design is not just the aesthetics and functionality, but it is a process that goes into it. Ignoring any step of the design stage causes more damage. Hence, I believe design should be practiced by professionals who can persevere in the field. Pushing the limits of design than being practiced by nondesigners. I feel it is high time designers and architects, Interior designers are treated like a profession rather than a business.

“Software plays an important role today to express the intent of the designer more realistically and gives them the power to control design specific to an area or the whole space.”

“Design has to be considered more as a way of thinking, and solving problems by inculcating a design process in every aspect helps us make the whole process seamless.”

Objective: In the pursuit to position India as a global design hub, and stimulate India to invest in design as a key component for increasing competitiveness, the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) has been actively championing design in the past two decades. In partnership with numerous national and international organisations, it has been instrumental in inculcating design as a key business strategy through the CII National Design Committee. The committee’s focus has been primarily to work on policy recommendations and raise awareness on the impact of design and its value in the current industrial ecosystem. Initiatives & Activities: CII iDesign PG Program on “Innovation by Design” A twelve-month, PG program “Innovation by Design,” that aimed at improving the competitiveness of Indian industry by means of strategic design interventions. The program has been designed to enable engineers, managers, and designers and to learn new-age skills to lead value creation processes within organizations through innovation by design and design thinking. Design methodologies are the vital present-day skills required to improve competitiveness in general and benefit the Indian industry in particular. CII Design Excellence Awards: The CII Design Excellence Awards set the standard for good design in India. The entries every year establish new benchmarks of design excellence and show how the profession of design is rising to the challenge of new technological opportunities and business needs. For more details, please visit our website: CII Awards,

Design Excellence Awards (ciidesign.in) 57

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CII Young Designer Awards: CII will be launching its first ‘Young Designers Awards (YDA)’ in 2021 for the young professionals who will be the future champions. While discovering and nurturing the next generation of design talent, the award will help the design professionals develop their skills through cross-learning opportunities and networking with key industry players in the domain. CII India Design eBook: India Design Book is one of the landmark publications of CII, launched in 2013. Emphasizing the detailed process of product/service development, the India Design Book is an essential compilation of case studies of Indian success stories in design. CII India Design Summit & Expo: The CII Design Summit over the past 20 years has been the platform that brings together a platform that brings together Government, Industry & Academia to create an enduring partnership. The summit has been instrumental in promoting design in India and featuring the best of the Indian and international design thinkers, practitioners, and design users. It is an international event that brings about new ideas, new initiatives, and new thinking needed to contribute to the larger picture of design in the knowledge economy. Design Talk Series: CII with the first of its initiative - “CII Design Talk Series.” had been planned to sensitize the Indian stakeholders, with the benefits of investing in design and follow good design practices. Global stalwarts from different parts of the world shared their journey and experiences with the audience about insights into design. 58

How To

Harsh Kapoor

Chief Design Officer 1GEN

As a leader and social entrepreneur, Harsh’s work is focused on solving the planet’s most complex challenges. He has previously worked with organizations like the United Nations, UNICEF, and MIT, to create a positive impact in the world. His goal is to bring in a social revolution to achieve sustainability on all fronts. LinkedIn: Harsh Kapoor

MIT Group of Institutions | July 2021

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Democratizing Design to Create a more Inclusive and Sustainable World “Design is everywhere. From the dress you are wearing to the smartphone you are holding, it’s design.”— Samadara Ginige Design is not limited to the digital world, but instead, everything we use in our daily life is designed for human ease and comfort. Designing is a very comprehensive term, playing a very consequential role in our day-to-day lives. It makes our lives simpler and saves valuable time by bridging gaps more effectively. Design is not just what you see while using a laptop or mobile. Design also defines how you build something so that when you use it, you feel comfortable and appreciative. It is a process to solve problems, reduce complexities and offer comfort and convenience

whilst satisfying aesthetic needs. This is humancentric designing which allows designers or creators to make things easier for human use. The design process that you use to build digital apps also works well for designing other objects. Lately, the mindset of democratization has permeated every facet of life: MIT researchers strive to democratize data science with a tool for nonprogrammers; image-led platforms like Instagram democratize the visual arts for nonphotographers; Apple makes coding accessible to laymen with their revolutionary app called Swift Playground; the Robinhood investing app claims to democratize finance for all. Quoting Tim Brown, the chair of IDEO, “When you only have a single, central point of control, as the

designer or architect, you will inevitably get a linear top-down design solution. But if you put the tools of design into the hands of many more people, then you will get something that is emergent and bottomup,” Such egalitarian rhetoric, as well as the callback to the legend of Robin Hood, are not a fluke: democratization implies expropriating the privilege of knowledge from small, elite groups of professionals, and distributing it amongst

“Democratization implies expropriating the privilege of knowledge from small, elite groups of professionals, and distributing it amongst the general public, or ‘nonexperts’.” 60

“As designers, we are most successful when we are smoothing and strengthening the design process—not when we are trying to own it.” the general public, or “non-experts”; design thinking is an instrument for the democratization of design, innovation, empathy, and creativity and corresponding ethical issues. As designers, we are most successful when we are smoothing and strengthening the design process — not when we are trying to own it. We spend just a little too long trying to get designers a more prominent position in the companies. If we can show developers, PMs, CEOs, and other contributors how to be great design thinkers, they will not make poor design decisions we have to live with. So how do we do this? First, we have to redefine design, not as something performed in Adobe or Photoshop, 61

but rather as a way of thinking — a process that emphasizes solving problems creatively. This type of design should be user-oriented and takes into account user needs and preferences and goals, technological constraints, and things like speed, aesthetics, layout, flow, etc. They follow a multi-disciplinary approach, requiring a predetermined set of procedures and objectives, a proactive approach, and everlasting team spirit. This definition of design is one that many people already hold as true. IDEO popularized the term design thinking decades ago. But, it has become just a mainstream process nowadays rather than being a mental exercise wherein people come up with innovative, peculiar, and modern design solutions. We should start involving “non-designers” early on in the design process so they can see and adapt to it. Design sprints, hackathons, and brainstorming sessions can be conducted with them so they can see the thinking behind

major design decisions. Designing is a team game requiring collective creative collaboration from all members of the process: starting from the research team to the developers who implement the design into different platforms. If we can change our ideologies and focus on how we can make other more successful designers, our entire organizations will be more successful; not just our design teams. If every member of an organization is a good design thinker, productivity, competitiveness, efficiency, and effectiveness would grow exponentially. This would also lead to the holistic growth of every member as they would be more inclined towards comprehensive design thinking under different designing scenarios. If everyone in the world is a design thinker, we have a high chance to solve the most complex problems of the world like poverty, inequality, climate change, and many more. Following a more holistic approach

for solving modern problems identified by the UNDP, namely: The Sustainable Development Goals(SDGs) can be the key, we just need to keep our eyes open. Sustainable design has the power to impact many lives and bring positive change to the world whilst complying with mainstream design paradigms. We at 1GEN follow an integrated design approach wherein we create web and mobile platforms addressing these complex problems and initiating corrective action. We collaborate with mission-driven organizations and individuals committed to doing GOOD in the world. 1GEN envisions playing the role of a catalyst and accelerator in making positive change possible. Everything we do is a small step towards solving some of the most complex and critical challenges facing our planet and we believe that design holds the power to do so. Do you?

Image Courtesy : sdgs.un.org

Image Courtesy : sdgs.un.org 62

MIT Group of Institutions | July 2021

Infocus

Arjun Vishwa

Digital Designer & Visual Artist

Arjun is a visual artist and digital designer based in Bangalore, with experience in Graphic Design, branding, UI/UX, and illustration. He aspires to create meaningful and engaging experiences with content driven visuals and is very keen on creating holistic visual solutions for clients across disciplines. LinkedIn: Arjun Vishwa

MIT Group of Institutions | July 2021

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Design thinking for Visual design Design thinking is a holistic approach to challenges in innovation and problem-solving. It provides a coherent structure and wellorganised processes to solve problems with a human-centred perspective and scientific reasoning. We know that a healthy collaboration between creativity and logic is integral for comprehensive thinking required to address the adversities presented by the new age. Primarily we are driven by visually appealing and aesthetically engaging content. Visual design is a significant part of the overall design process that aids in product engagement. It is the first impression the product will make on the user at a visceral level in less than one second. The consumer’s perception of the product is essentially dependent on how it looks and feels. These perceptual and analytical expectations

play a significant role in customer’s judgment on whether to give more attention to the product or not. This works similar to effective branding providing credibility to a company or service. Visual design helps communicate messages through elements like; meaningful imagery, compositions, layouts, compelling colour choices, distinctive typography, effective grid systems, shapes, and forms to enhance usability. They combine Principles of Design, laws, and rules of artistic harmony, the psychology of colour, and shape impact on human perception and emotions. It aims to improve a design and its experience, with aesthetic appeal and usability. Designers are now approaching design that is influenced by the principles of user experience. New advances made in design

tools and methods are opening up new avenues for designers to think more strategically. With digital platforms becoming an increasingly competitive marketplace and with an increasing number of visually appealing products, designers are now seeing beyond aesthetic appeal and realizing how their approaches ultimately dictate levels of user engagement. These developments have led visual designers to adapt experience

“The consumer’s perception of the product is essentially dependent on how it looks and feels. These perceptual and analytical expectations play a significant role in customer’s judgment on whether to give more attention to the product or not.” 68

design processes and methodology to a competitive advantage. The product’s conceptualizing and personality development should be in the works early on, even though visual design deliverables can wait for later. We can start working on tasks like collecting mood boards, finding attributes and adjectives to prompt visuals. Syncing with the brand guidelines to establish optical flow and define visual hierarchy is the foundation for the product’s visual design. Another thing that we should be mindful about is time and to not get 69

caught in the loop of iterations, unless we have the liberty to do so. Although we need to make variations, one may get caught in making too many in an attempt to pursue perfection. For it is good to explore, the combinations and permutations are unending. It would be wise to constrain oneself with a time limit or the number of variations in explorations. Build mockups where ever needed. Nevertheless, always make time for creating a sound design system, for it is paramount. Make a clear structure and help the clients and developers understand how they

work and guide them through how it should be executed on the product. Although the content and functions are essential in making a product an impressive user experience, when the visual design is purposefully conceived and thoughtfully applied

“The product’s conceptualizing and personality development should be in the works early on, even though visual design deliverables can wait for later.”

in the product, it efficiently enhances usability, strengthens branding, and provides a positive user experience. With user research, analysis, and thoughtful testing, visual design elements can boost positive user experience and enhance brand image and brand awareness. This is where aesthetics and functionality come together to create a wholesome experience for the user. Visual design is a vital part of a well-thoughtout product. Many misinterpret it for a step that merely adds an embellishment layer to the core UX, and this phase is often rushed to the last minute. Designers must be encouraged to apply design thinking in visual design along with product development. Custom graphic elements are an excellent tool for enhancing navigation and therefore boosting usability, providing an easy flow of journey through the product. Moreover, the positive influence is supported by the users’ aesthetic delight from harmonic composition and elegant visuals. 70

Thought Leadership

Prathamesh D.

Senior UX Design Lead, Dentsu International

With over 6+ years of experience, Prathamesh focuses on creating meaningful experiences through design, He can use the power to change the world, from imaginary to reality! He Works for 25+ stakeholder experiences from different industries for B2B and B2C digital products, with his Humancentered design understanding of users as an AI UX Designer. Accept every challenge as a contextual visionary creative concept an opportunity to make product experiences. LinkedIn: Prathamesh D.

MIT Group of Institutions | July 2021

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Designers as Facilitators in Democratizing Design As Steve Jobs stated, “Design is not just what it looks like and feels like. design is how it works.” But what is design? Many people think that design is about making things look pretty – a decoration, the creation of an experience. In short, design is not just “art,” it is part science, part process, and part practical set of solutions with a dash of aesthetics thrown in. We called the researcher scientist, a designer who used his imaginary world in reality.

“Designer.” Expert designers begin to rank up the concept of designing to “Digital Artisans,” who nowadays have become the backbone of every successful organization. The most valuable way to be successful is by trying to make these organizations that believe in design almost like how designers expect about design.

Design facilitation is the process of helping cross-functional teams capture, evaluate, and Design is not a magic merge disparate ideas wand, and designers are to create an overall not magicians wielding superior product. As their sorcerous wand. more organizations Design is limitless and fluid. It is a tool for logical adopted this approach, the planning industry systematic problemstruggled with its new solving. We cannot fit innovative attention. In design in one category, short, design considers only margined as an inventive awareness. The user needs, business goals, technological best designer excels at both areas: they plan and constraints, and things like speed, aesthetics, research logically while crafting visuals artistically. layout, flow, etc. Therefore, it demands a multidisciplinary methodology. We cannot imagine design without its

In our new world, we have both design philosophy and execution. We are both thinkers and creators. Planning brings a thoughtful process into every aspect of a business while design brings craft supported with technical implementation. The demand for design as a service has grown more than ever before. Perhaps this came from a deeper understanding of design thinking or just because we raised our standard for aesthetics. On the other hand, it is seen as an innovative design method, a scientific way for

“The most valuable way to be successful is by trying to make these organizations that believe in design almost like how designers expect about design.” 74

organizations to manage their ideas to impact. For Mumbai’s local train schedule, design is beneficial to groups of individuals as it enables them to plan their journey and decide routes to traverse.

Our modern design tools indicate this new reality, which incorporates many, a few are Adobe Creative cloud, Figma, and Sketch. These are different in creating more approachable plans, cheaper for those that may have considered Design is now everywhere. planning a luxury before. Planning is more approachable and The current approach affordable for nonto democratize design designers as well. is a paradigm shift to Nowadays, standardized public design, which is design with new systems more integrated with the educate non-designers necessities of society. who are involved within It is a chain of looking the design framework internally and getting geared towards building contextual visionary a deeper understanding. creative solutions outside. It is necessary to use Democratization of tools and techniques in design may be a doublea facilitator’s catalogue edged sword. to assist assembly going under the surface. Democratization of technology has Design is not to be changed how design perceived as something is practised, produced, performed in available made, accessed, traded, tools, but rather of taught, and learned. thinking — a process Crowdsourcing platforms that emphasizes solving tap into the creative problems creatively and domains of designers opens new marketing and have changed how doors. business is generated.

Collaborative practices result in the rise of the citizen designer shifting a designer’s role within the fabrication process. At the same time, the culture of design learning is changing. With significant changes challenging the usual design demographic and the way design is taught and learned, how can we educate subsequent generations of designers? Some insights are representing a worldwide view from both design

“Design is not to be perceived as something performed in available tools, but rather of thinking — a process that emphasizes solving problems creatively and opens new marketing doors.”

educators and program leaders of design education for the longer term.

process, they help their organizations become more effective in meeting their mission.

A designer’s design thinking approach helps democratize innovation by providing a common language and a problem-solving methodology that everyone can use to create better value for the stakeholders they serve. Moreover, in the

The design democratizing framework is geared towards building a deeper level of understanding. The democratization of design is threatening only to those who maintain the status quo. It is beautiful for the remainder who keep pushing forward.

“A designer’s design thinking approach helps democratize innovation by providing a common language and a problem-solving methodology that everyone can use to create better value for the stakeholders they serve.”

How To

Ananya Vetaal

Senior Manager, User Experience Havells India

Ananya is leading the user experience design group at Havells India. Formed in 2018 this group has been working to infuse design thinking into upcoming digital offerings from Havells. Leveraging on his previous experience from design studios at Samsung and Honeywell, Ananya is curating a culture of research, asking tough questions and creating taste when it comes to designing digital products. LinkedIn: Ananya Vetaal

MIT Group of Institutions | July 2021

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Smart(er) Products with Design Democratization I was asked to pen down my thoughts on design democratization, and I was about to dismiss it as a boring topic. But then it somehow stuck with me when I tried to relate it with my everyday work involving internet-enabled home appliances and to answer an important question. ‘Smart’ products - utility or amusement? With the internet of things seeping into our homes, many home appliances have become smart or intelligent.

flooding the market and very few meaningful use cases. What is ‘smart’ anyways? Is operating a fan through a mobile phone really smart? Not for an able person, while for someone in a wheelchair, it could be. Not for an agile kid, but for someone lying in a hospital bed, it might very well be. To crack the smart home market, UX designers need to go beyond the traditional ways of

working. Consumer IoT – tech amusement or utility? How to create real value for people? We are transitioning into an era where we need consumers (and other stakeholders) to co-design with us. Lives are getting complex; behaviours are changing fast. As a designer sitting in a fancy studio, we may not catch everything. We need to give more power to others to cocreate with us.

Or so they say. I think UX designers would agree with me on the fact that consumer IoT has struggled to see good use cases in India. Companies have been throwing a lot of ‘smart’ stuff at people with the hope to make quick bucks. The result is a lot of ‘tech amusement’

Co-creation sessions with consumers 78

These ‘others’ are endusers, retailers, internal stakeholders or some external partners. We need to create frameworks, toolkits, activities that help us delegate more ownership to others. To unleash real value of IoT, we need to empower others to co-create with us.

Ok, but is anybody else talking about it? It is going to happen eventually. We are in the age of free design kits and templates. AI is helping people create digital products by themselves without much skill set.

‘Material you,’ design language from Google is based on the premise of the consumer being a

“To unleash real value of IoT, we need to empower others to cocreate with us.”

The recently launched

But isn’t the consumer already involved in the process? The question is - to what extent? We need to be honest with ourselves. How much consumer interaction did we do last year? Was it real deep immersion or shallow interactions to tick a box?

Co-creation sessions with consumers

How big of a role are stakeholders like our retailers, sales team, or customer support playing in creating our products? Superficial involvement is not going to help. We need to move to a new way of working where we foster a culture of deeper engagement. Co-creation sessions with retailers 79

co-creator. It is a creator’s economy - as designers, we need to be brave, embrace this change and transition into a role where we become enablers and facilitators for the same.

the heart of any design activity at Havells.

We need to start somewhere

Design democratization can mean a lot of things. To me, it is also a shift in designers’ mindset. It is about letting consumers and others have a bigger stake.

At Havells, we place participatory design at the heart of any design activity that we do. To see how IoT can help enhance the quality of senior citizens’ lives, we co-created with them and asked them to come up with solutions. We are making retailer engagement a standard practice to refine our ideas. Partnering with design schools is another way we are getting more co-creators onboard.

The times they are a-changin’ It is a good Bob Dylan song to summarize.

Enable it. Empower others. The world as such is full

of bad and unnecessary products thrown at us by few people in power. Let people vote, participate, and engage. It is worth it and that is what I believe will definitely help deliver the value that we have been seeking to create as designers.

“Participatory design is at the heart of any design activity at Havells.”

In our home automation mobile app, we are trying to crowdsource stuff. Consumers can create and share their appliance schedules with other consumers - and get rewarded for it too! We are not there yet, but it is a start. Participatory design is at

Havells Sync smart home mobile app 80

Case Study

Naveen Puttagunta

Co-Founder & CEO of Divami Design Labs

With a keen analytical eye and over 25 years of experience in product management and engineering, Naveen aims to deliver measurable results to clients. A firm believer in the power of humanizing technology, he utilizes his design thinking approach in empowering businesses to be future-ready. LinkedIn: Naveen Puttagunta

MIT Group of Institutions | July 2021

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Democratizing UX in the 21st Century 1 in 4 people have access to the digital world. They spend a considerable amount of time on social media, and websites from which they expect a great experience.

digital solutions for everything. The focus has shifted to providing seamless experiences to the point where democratizing UX is being discussed globally.

Earlier, businesses focussed on enabling people with digital solutions, little importance was given to the users’ experience of these digital solutions. It was, after all, a huge step to go digital, and as long as the applications were functional, they were considered a breakthrough.

The obvious question is, what is stopping designers and businesses from providing great user experiences consistently? What are the limitations? Where do we stand on democratizing UX, and how far can we go?

Now, digital solutions are taken for granted with millennials expecting

“Considering the fundamentals of UX Democratization, UX should not just aim at the digital elite; it should deliver a great experience to the entire spectrum of users.”

of designers but the entire organization and work towards delivering integrated solutions. This can only happen when the organization considers UX a culture rather than a functional role. UX as Culture:

Digitalization has changed the way the services are offered; it has enabled people to work smartly. Especially with the smartphone First, let us define what revolution, solutions “Democratization” of reaching out to the UX means. Like a true common man have democracy, UX must increased dramatically. apply to all users and not Even traditional just a select few identified businesses are focussing by stakeholders as “ideal” on digitizing their services. customers. Moreover, However, not every people creating digital company is thriving, nor is platforms must consider every solution prominent. every type of user an equal and offer solutions In the current scenario, to the challenges every business posed by them. At an understands the value organizational level, it of user experience; they also means that the job understand that it is an of delivering a great essential differentiator user experience falls which makes or breaks not just to a small set their product. 82

Nonetheless, the onus of delivering the best user experience is limited to the designers working on the applications. However, to provide great user experiences, it is not just designers who need to understand and practice UX principles. The entire organization - developers, product/ project managers, and operations departments must also understand and practice the fundamentals of user experience. By using the top-down approach, stakeholders should be enabled to understand the importance of user experience; this will change the procedure of product building and service engagement.

not fit that mould, making it difficult to achieve unbiased results.

in marketing programs and more. This has revolutionized the spa industry by helping them optimize their processes, reduce costs, and improve customer retention.

Moreover, in this fastpaced world, spending time on user research is limited by several factors - budget, designer’s biased opinion, Designing a dashboard geographical limitations, for salons: and time pressure. One significant challenge Especially while designing for these spa business for under-developed and owners is to analyze the developing countries, current state and plan like India, it becomes their business growth, strenuous to include especially when they those on the other own spas across multiple side of information locations. To grow their literacy and the digital business, they must divide. Considering the focus on managing and fundamentals of UX motivating their staff, democratization, UX increasing their clientele, should not just aim for and retaining existing the digital elite; it should ones. deliver great experiences Importance of User to an entire spectrum of Even though Zenoti Research: users. wanted to showcase a lot of data on the Understanding user A Case Study: dashboard, keeping needs is very important. the fundamentals of But empathizing Zenoti, a unicorn SaaS democratizing UX in with them is vital platform, has been mind, they acknowledged understanding their instrumental in disrupting that their primary users limitations, behaviour, the wellness and spa are not data scientists. lifestyle, and factors that industry. It provides a Their ultimate goal influence their interaction cloud-based platform was to come up with a with the interface. to seamlessly manage dashboard designed To elaborate, while a business – from online to provide users with a conducting user research, appointment bookings, holistic picture of their researchers use a defined POS, CRM, employee entire business across all ideal persona and might management, inventory their branches without ignore people who do management to builtbeing data-heavy. 83

In the real-time dashboard design, it was vital to focus on the following factors: 1. What defines the health of the business? 2. Who are the target audiences? 3. What are major alerts and KPIs for the business? 4. How to present data simply and minimally? A customized dashboard, which provides contextual information and suggestions with an option to dive deep was created to achieve this. The dashboard design provided insights that were easy to understand through an upgraded visual style, utilizing a soothing colour palette, fonts, icon styles, and graphical representations.

Additionally, Zenoti wanted to simplify the feedback module to ensure salon owners were on top of their customer satisfaction and recommendation metrics. It was challenging with a paper-pen feedback collection model. We partnered with Zenoti to develop a role-based dashboard that not only collects but analyses customer feedback online. By focusing on the basic concepts of democratizing UX, the SaaS provider has tactically managed to cater to its user base. The path ahead: Democratization of UX is not a set process;

there is no formula to ensure it happens. For us and many similar service providers across the industry, it can be hard to find a middle ground balancing all the stakeholders to do the needful. However, it is essential to remember that UX is not only there to appeal to digital elitists or early adopters; it exists for the masses, driving them towards the business, and most importantly, making them stay. So, it is not just the role of a select few to understand user pain points. By democratizing UX, we are putting simple concepts and variables of designing the user experience process for everyone to see, so that in the end, we ensure improved user satisfaction.

Team Weave Editor Miral Zafar

Content Team Zeel Modi Samiksha Banka Jigyasa Dixit Suchira Biswas

Marketing Team Ananya Dey Anush Nadkarni Shubhankar Nandapurkar Sriram Ajith

Design Team Aayush Bidkar Saumya Kharkar Yashi Pareek Aditi Dhawale Ishan Nakate Jignesh Pradhan

Author Research Team Surabhi Bajaj Dharati Verma

Guided By Ayush Gupta Rohit Lalwani

Special Thanks Saurabh Joshi Arnav Agarwal Esha Mehta Manas Choubal Nikita Sharma Shreya Paliwal Ujjwal Pandya Digvijay Karad Mihir Srivastava Yugh Chaudhary

Democratizing Design and the Creator Economy