Insightful notes
It began when helping proofread a dear friend’s paper. One thing led to another and I found myself preparing to present a paper of my own at Insight, a Design Research Symposium at the National Institute of Design (NID), Ahmedabad, India. The kind of conference after my own heart! I cannot think of a better first article for my blog than to share a little insight and perspective from the last two days that I would like to carry with me.
Design, conceived as a problem solving activity and profession has evolved into a strategic thought process currently influencing most domains of knowledge and practice. While knowledge domains related to the arts, science, technology and management have a structured and established framework for research, design by virtue of its nature and purpose has been evolving its approaches contextually.
- Insight 2018
Documented history of design research goes back at least seven decades beginning with Bruce Archer’s work and efforts at the Royal College of Art, and then at the Design Research Society. While formal efforts in Indian design began with early correspondence between Bauhaus and Shantiniketan, research emerged through self-introspections at NID alongside collaborative social impact projects with IIM-A in rural Rajasthan with Ravi Matthai.
The more recent overlaps of research and design aim at empowering prisoners in Ahmedabad and in London with monetising their expertise, rickshaw drivers in Bengaluru with financing, investigation of the dying Kaithi script in Bihar with film, revival of the Meetei Mayek script in Manipur with typeface design, participatory ethnography in Kutch with animation, accessibility of experiences on the web with free online resources, accessibility to legal content in India with communication design, indigenous peoples of the world with tools for inclusive futures, Indian FMCG with speedy and effective packaging design timelines, candidates through hiring processes with designerly care, designers with the first principles method of thinking, designers again with framework of design and research overlaps, fashion photography with a framework to understand the shifting audience, and elderly in india first with novel research methodologies.
My own contribution aimed to introduce agent based modelling as a tool to explore complex system-level behaviours from surprisingly simple individual-level interactions. I demonstrated the effectiveness of the tool using Blockchain’s consensus mechanism as an example.
While these were the paper presentations, deliberations revolved around the awareness of political nature of design, the need to approach research of future in an inclusive, collaborative and humble manner, and the need to work together towards the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
I have immense gratitude and regard for the Insight Team and Shilpa Das for the lovely goodies, patient email clarifications, and the humbling experience brought together. Sharing space and presenting among legends and peers alike, has boosted my courage to continue research effort in design with even more rigour, perspective and support. I eagerly look forward to more such events in the future, and the publication of the conference proceedings.
