Life, Design, Action!!!

We get up in the morning and start our day. Throughout the day we are doing number of ‘actions’. Each of this action has some purpose and how we do these actions becomes an experience. ‘Design’ always tries to make this experience an enjoyable one!

If it is not an experience that we like or enjoy we kind of start avoiding it. While reading this your mind must have listed at least 3-4 such examples. For example, if you don’t like writing using a particular pen, you stop using that pen. If you are travelling and find some flaws in the transport system you just hate taking it next time. If you have no choice but to take it, that surely becomes a miserable experience. Whereas there might be few restaurants where food is like any other place but still there is something in the ambience that you like visiting that place often. The point I am trying to make here is that an effective design can make your life experiences really enjoyable and a failure in design can make it miserable too!

Since ‘Design’ is associated with ‘actions’ that we do, it has application almost everywhere. If we start listing down few actions we can get an idea about different design disciplines. Some of the actions could be living, eating, playing, travelling, reading, shopping etc.

Let’s start with action ‘Living’. What are the different design disciplines that can help in designing the space we are living in and make our ‘living’ action an enjoyable experience? Architects design the spaces for the purpose it is meant for. They are responsible for how the spaces will be externally and internally. Interior space designer further furnishes how interior spaces should be. Furniture designed by furniture designers, lighting elements by lighting designer make action of ‘Living’ even more meaningful. Textile designers offer different textures, patterns on the fabrics to be used in furniture, bed linen, curtains etc.

In case of ‘Eating’ action, design plays role in designing the cookware, plates, cutlery, and various appliances. Thus ceramic designer and product designer contribute there. Confectionery designers design attractive food items.

‘Playing action’- If it’s a sport, the accessories required are designed by product designers. Toy and game designers come up with new creative, engaging, educative toys and games. Animation design is used in digital games and entertainment industry. Interface designers and user experience (UX) designers contribute in the digital and virtual reality games.

In case of, ‘travelling action’, vehicles are designed by automotive designers; transport system is designed by transport designers/ planners, system designers. The signage used to guide the way is designed by communication designer.

Let’s see ‘reading action’,Visual designers work on designing the print media, graphics and illustrations. Story telling is also part of visual design.

When we are doing ‘Shopping action’, the retail display is designed by retail designers or in case of online shopping the application is designed by the team of user interface, user experience designers. We shop clothes and accessories designed by apparel, accessory designers.

The list is never ending. Thus ‘Design’ is contributing in all different spheres of our lives and it has wide applications.

Let's take a tour through these different design disciplines in my future posts.

Below are links that might interest you. 

https://www.dezeen.com/tag/toys/

https://www.designboom.com/ 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=58kfFYrj-L0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q_tcAp25zCU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cu1kMVkUjFA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TwHENrvfEXw

Designer WHO?

Back in 2001, when I got into the top design school in India, Industrial Design Centre (IDC) IIT BOMBAY for my masters course in product design, people around me hardly understood what exactly I will be doing there and afterwards. I used to enthusiastically explain them role of a product designer. Now in 2017 when I tell people that I am a product designer, I can still notice a BIG question mark on their face 
'What exactly is product design ???'. 
Some of them care to ask more while some just say okay.

One more incident I would like to share. Few years ago when I was visiting my Sister, her domestic help asked me, “Didi aap kya karate ho?” (What do you do?) When I replied that I am a product designer. She said, “Oh, Kapda banate ho?”(Oh, you make clothes) Design is so much synonymous with Fashion. In our society design is either Fashion or graphic or architecture.

I think, we product designers deal with designing wide range of products used in our day to day life, but we have failed to create awareness in the society about what is our role. What do we do when we say that we design products?

My First Design in Market 12 years
ago (Godrej Washing Machine)

But I am glad that our young generation is keeping pace with the world. I receive many calls from parents, whose children want to pursue career in different design streams like product, user interface, automotive, toy, furniture, interior, accessories. 
They are concerned about what would be the scope in future?

Better late than never, here I am using this platform to connect with more people in our society sharing some of my experiences about my profession and ‘Design’ in general. I will be happy to answer your queries regarding ‘Design’. I feel Design is making changes in things around to make world a better place. Like an architect designs a building as per need of the client, available construction technology, climate of the site, budget etc; product designer designs the product keeping in mind the end user, ease of use and maintenance, available manufacturing processes and materials, budget etc. The design process is almost similar. The most important tool that designers use is ‘Visualisation’.

Concept Sketching basic of Visualisation technique

While architecture firms design different spaces like residential, commercial or public spaces; product design consultancy can offer services for wide variety of products right from consumer products to huge industrial equipments. During my industry experience I got opportunity to work on small products like soaps, packaging for shampoo, medicines to medical equipments like patient monitor, dental x ray machine. Many companies have their in-house design department, where a team of designers is dedicated to constantly improve user experience of their product range.

The design team is involved since inception of the product like deciding requirements of the product till the actual manufacturing of the product begins. There are many stages involved during the whole process which I would be talking about in detail later on. During the whole process the design team needs to interact with many other teams like end user, marketing team, engineering team, model making team, manufacturing team etc.

I hope that now you get some idea about what product design is… 
Please post your comments and queries.