After thinking, reading, discussing, experimenting and contemplating this “graduation project” for almost 5months, I finally decided to put things together. In this post, I am sharing a few inferences from my journey so far. I am not the sole proprietor of the following thoughts, many of you have guided, mentored and influenced me. I am thankful to everyone who has contributed directly or indirectly in this.
7 General advices
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- For our graduation project (self), we should do something in which we believe. As it may form a good base for our future practice.
- To start with, we should try to make furniture for ourself and people like us, it will be a small niche but still, the number will be big. Something serving even 0.1% public is an industry, considering the population of India.
- We need to understand that most people do things to achieve their aspirations.
- Good aesthetics and good design need not be expensive. Moreover, affordability of a product is subjective but it has to be efficient.
- We need to stop all types of stereotypes. Try, test, experiment and then make opinions.
- We need to be on par with humanity, ergonomics and social values. We should design relations rather than things. A project should be started by thinking about people and the focus should always remain on people.
- If we wish to do something which has a big impact, then the government of India is the best client. It will have the biggest impact because of its reachability and scale.
13 key inferences
- Emotional and aspirational value in a product:
A product should have some meaning for the user, not be just functional. It should for a connect, a bond emotional bond with the user. It should satisfy the user by fulfilment of their aspirations.
It could empower the user to do some customization, even if very small. This will help the user in making it more personal and will form a connection with it. - Emerging needs & latent needs:
We should work on the emerging needs of the future and latent needs of the user which are still not addressed. Something which people still don’t think of as a need but which will become a necessity in the coming times. Moreover, with the rapid adoption of technology needs are and will be continuously changing.
We should learn to reframe the needs so that we can focus on the true need.
Like: we don’t need a chair, instead, we need some physical assistance to support our body in performing a specific task. - Body-conscious design:
A product should not only be comfortable or ergonomic but it should facilitate multiple postures and it could also nudge the user to keep changing their posture. As being in the same posture for a long time (approx. 20mins) can harm our body in multiple ways.
So, the product should assist our body to perform the specific tasks in a healthier way. - Multi sensorial:
A product should also appeal to all our senses. Touch and sight being most obvious but we should also consider smell and hearing. The CMF (colour, material & finish) should address all five senses.
We should start working on CMF parallelly with the research and ideation phase. - Easy to maintain:
Considering our Indian context, which has a lot of dust in the air and our homes which are not efficiently sealed, products should be really easy to clean and maintain.
If there is any part/portion which needs to change after a certain time, the whole process should be as seamless as possible. - Transportation friendly:
It is one of the most important factor and generally it’s not considered much at the student level. The journey of any product from the factory to someone’s drawing-room or office needs to be smooth. Its packaging should be small enough to be delivered by small(preferably personal cars) vehicles and also small enough to pass through narrow lift doors or small stairwells. The weight should also be light enough to be carried by 1 or 2 persons.
While designing the product don’t only take care of user but of all the stakeholders. - Industry-made + handmade:
India is a land of hugely skilled craftspersons and therefore we have tremendous opportunities to collaborate industry-made with handmade. The major part of the product could be industry-made and a small portion could be handmade. Consider this as a very basic example: we could have a table in which the legs structure of top is industry-made and top finishing is handmade, that could range from wood carving to textiles. This will also help in making products more contextual. It will be a nice mix of high scale machine-made manufacturing with small scale hand made customization. A mix of standardization system-level thing with local craftsmanship skills - Incremental furniture system:
Product preferably should not only be modular but also incremental. Incremental in the sense that it should fulfil the immediate needs and look complete but it should empower the user, to add more in the same product and its form & function will grow. By this, the user won’t be wasting their old furniture and will get an upgrade at a low cost. It will also make the product more dynamic, modular & customizable to address specific needs. - Second life:
In case if we are not able to make products incremental then, we should try to make products which offer a second life by doing some alterations.
This repurposing will help our products to play a vital role in the circular economy. - Current situation of Indian homes:
There is a lack of well-designed products for the middle and lower-middle class. They either rely on local carpenters, who nowadays make products mindlessly copied from the internet or they buy badly designed products from small scale manufacturers. In both cases, the products are not meant to address contextual needs. For the same price or cost, the user can enjoy well-designed products specifically designed for their contextual needs, manufactured through streamlined industry processes. - Current situation of design:
User-centric design holds a very small position in the current mass-producing Indian furniture industry. Major roles are played by marketing and easy manufacturing processes. - Smart choices for cost-cutting:
In order to decrease the cost of furniture we need fallback on the surroundings, in which it will be used. Other major cost-cutting can be done by designing a product which involves fewer manufacturing processes.
Simplicity in all aspects, from the manufacturing processes to the usage of material, is key to good design. - Accessories are also important:
“If you are making any changes in bed, make sure you also get a bed cover for that.”
Furniture doesn’t exist in isolation. There is a whole ecosystem of various accessories/products required with that furniture, like a set of textile materials or any other form of coverings etc. These accessories exist because they lead to more comfort, ease of maintenance and social norms.
Image Credits: http://benwiseman.com
Holding Space 