Embracing Design Thinking in India
As a concept, design thinking was coined as early as the 60s, but it took off in the 90s with David M. Kelley, founder of the design consultancy IDEO playing a key role in spreading awareness about it. Now an oft-repeated word, there has been great advocacy for incorporating design thinking principles in tech products. Although, based on some of my observations, I’ve found that user interfaces are not often designed to be intuitive or consumer-friendly, and hard to perceive unless the user has an engineering mindset. Good design reduces friction and pits analytical insight against creative thinking. It introduces visualisation and empathy enabling superior products to be built which inspires great loyalty from customers.
Design Thinking in India
As we grow the Indian startup ecosystem with aspirations to build innovative products there are many critical elements beyond capital that need to come together. One such fundamental element is to develop and administer design-thinking at scale. To solve problems creatively, human-centered design is essential. If India has to continue to leapfrog existing solutions, we need to innovate and own design principles in everything we build. Business leaders and entrepreneurs would do well if they commit to reskill, embrace and nourish such a culture in their organizations. As a country, we produce about 1.5M engineers a year but a paltry 36,000 designers (Source: CII) with a majority of them in architectural design, which speaks volumes about the dearth of design institutions. Solving for design as a building block in our education system is seldom discussed, and this needs to change rapidly. It is important that we develop a large talent pool of design thinkers, and ensure that our technological & management institutions incorporate these concepts into their curriculums.
Such transformations take years to bear fruit, but I’m hopeful that if we as an ecosystem, welcome and emphasize the importance of design, we can create the right outcomes. Change begins at home, we must develop lateral thinking in children, and not stifle their intuitive creative capabilities on the altar of academic grades…
To learn more on design thinking, I recommend this Ted talk by Tim Brown, CEO of IDEO.
Disclaimer: Views represented in this post are personal and belong solely to the writer and do not represent the views of Kstart or Kalaari.
Executive at djs film production house
7 年connect with me amrita dwivedi
Applied AI Solution Sales
7 年I am not sure if the author understands what "Design Thinking" really is. by compartmentalizing engineers and designers, she is missing the whole point of DT
ECO-CULTURAL DESIGN ENTREPRENEUR, SUSTAINABILITY EVANGELIST AND ART EDUCATOR
7 年Great input Madam Vani , it's true that we need Design thinking more in India but the fact is that we have lots of designers here but we lose our battle to professionals who have a masters . Our country still prefers to hire a person with a masters degree ( any discipline ) over a design graduate. Design thinking as said has been in existence for many years , Bauhaus movement in Germany applied the Design thinking in every field possible but due to the World War most of it was lost. Anyone who understands design / design thinking can see the process there. If the company starts to hire a designer in their team things sure do change. A short term course in design thinking is just a scratch on the surface when compared to the in-depth knowledge a designer has.
libero Professionista
7 年Thinks !!! Designs the hygiene and self-care of surfaces to prevent viruses and bacteria. New concept.