Transcript

What is Design?

Welcome to the course on ‘Design Thinking on Agricultural Implements’. Let us discuss this lecture on defining design. What is design? Is this all about aesthetics. Do we give more emphasis towards aesthetics only? And is that called design? So this product what is displayed here attracts user’s attention because of the sleekness in the design and the lustrous look. It is all more focused towards aesthetics. Is this the definition for design? This is a product. This is a machinery. This machinery is used for ploughing action and seed plantation. Do we call this as design? Do we call design as an experience? You would have felt this many a times when you use a service given by a taxi or given by a hotel. After you finish your service, you used to get a WhatsApp message or an sms message saying that how did you like the service. And there you have to put a star mark and then that gets recorded for further processing.

So here you look at it, it is more talking about experience. Is this design? We have given three different options. One is aesthetics focus, one was product focus, and the another was user experience focus. So there are three situations. And in the three situations we always get confused. And we always look at what is the definition for design. So let’s look into the definition.

• Design is a process. Please keep it in mind. It is a very important word to note. It is a process. So that means to say, there is nothing called unique solution. It is a process. And in a process, every time the solution gets iterated and improved. So that is why we say, it is a process of what. Of envisioning and planning the creation of objects, interactive systems, building vehicles etc etc. Envisioning means to have a feel. How do you visualize it? And planning is also part of design. So that is why design is called as a process.
• And this process is always user-centric. That means to say, you will try to develop a solution to a set of customers. And these customers are your users. So it is user-centric. When somebody asks you, can you define design. So then you have to say that it is a user-centric process. So what is user-centric. Users are at the heart of the design thinking approach. So user will be kept as a center stage, and you try to go around looking for a problem. Try to develop a solution for the problem. And developing such solution is nothing but design. It is about creating solutions for people.
• It is a very broad concept and its meaning can greatly vary from one field to the another. So when we talk about computer science we talk about architectural design. When you talk about agriculture, you talk about agricultural design. So the definition is not the same for all. But what is same for all is, it is a process and it is a user-centric process.

I have given you the words of Steve Jobs. So Steve Jobs says design is not just what it looks like and feels like. It is how it works. That is why you see Apple products are very successful. They always give more importance to how it works rather than giving importance to look and feel.

The goal of a design process is to guide you and organize your work, to turn ideas into product. So this is very important. The goal of a design process is to guide you and organize your work. Organize your work for what. To turn your ideas into a product. In our case this course is more focused towards agriculture. Because in agriculture there are a lot of drudgery problems. So human drudgery can be reduced by introducing technology. Okay, so here we go around the customer, note down the drudgery and come out with a technological solution. Giving absolute technological solution is not a very efficient way.

Today considering the socio-economics also in the technology is very important. For example if you try to come up with a technology and completely automate the field working. So then lot of people lose jobs. So now that should not be the solution. The solution should be; involve the people who are there, but improve their productivity. That is what is very important, rather than completely bringing technology. So the goal of a design process is to guide you and organize your work, to turn ideas into products.

A designer do research and collect information about the problem they are considering. For example in an agricultural field, who is facing this problem, whether male, female, animal. Why we need a solution? Suppose if the existing solution is very perfect. So then why at all we need to bring in a new product and the new solution. How are other people trying to solve it? Say for example if a similar problem exists in another country. How are they trying to solve the same problem in that country? And whether we can take that solution and implement it here.

I will share my own personal experience. There are bio-filters which are available today. So these filters work very well in South of India. When we tried to mimic the same thing, bringing it to North of India and trying to develop a same solution, the bio-filters failed miserably. So here what we did was we went to other place, took the solution, but does not mean that the solution will work. So here you should also look for what is the problem and where all are similar problems available. What are the solutions they have. And finally you have to tweak those solutions to meet out the customer demand here.

So the designer do research and collect information about the problem they are considering. Who is facing the problem, why do we need a solution to the problem. How are the other people trying to solve the same problem. It’s not you are the only person across the globe to solve. There will be many more people to solve and how are they approaching to solve the problem. From this research they make a general hypothesis first and identify the main features. That should be part of the solution. So there might be 100 different demands which is expected from a machine. So we have to find out the significant parameters and insignificant parameters. Give more weightages to the significant parameters and identify those things as main features. That should be part of the solution.

Keeping these key aspects in mind, it’s time to experiment with different solutions and iterate. Iterate means it is several times revising the idea to go towards the solution. So keeping these key aspects in mind. What are the key aspects? What are the main features? And who are going to be the beneficiary. And then try to develop multiple solutions, and convert the multiple solutions into one or two feasible solutions. For this you undergo several iterations to go towards the closure.

This is a typical product design cycle, which influenced from design process. So you will have ideas. And these ideas, you will get multiple solutions. And once you have multiple solutions, you will have to go and identify, what is the definition of the problem. So you have multiple solutions. Ten solutions. All these 10 solutions will not be able to give the perfect results. So you now try to look at weightages and then try to define your problem. After defining the problem, you will try to test the solution, whatever you have developed. Then you will try to reiterate the design. Then you come up with a branding to the solution. Then you look for funding. Then you try to make it in bulk. And then you launch it in the market. So this is the typical product design cycle, which is influenced from design process. So now that we have understood the design process, we will discuss an example which is agricultural based in the next lecture.

Thank You.