Lopez Design and BITS School of Design organised a scintillating discussion on “Now- Design-First Policy for Nation-Building” on 30 September 2024 at India Habitat Centre. UX Design Legend, Don Norman was the main speaker along with Amitabh Kant, G20 Sherpa, and a full house to listen and learn.
Lopez Anthony, CEO and principal designer of Lopez Design (private) initiated the proceedings, highlighting that design for change, is the basic motto of the discussion. He alluded to the Swachh Bharat campaign design, which required behavioural changes and infrastructural improvements. He also spoke about the need for a professional design approach to all public health matters, with special reference to Ayushman Bharat, where 1.5 lakh local health centres were designed with visual crafts. JaipurFoot is another example, where the 1975 designed foot, duly calibrated, has helped 1.8 million people in 34 countries, enabling them to sit cross-legged for the first time and do barefoot walking.
The areas where design is paramount today are urban planning, education, health and infrastructure, according to him. There is no gainsaying that design will usher in a better future for both India, and the world.” Design consciousness has grown, and now the challenge is how design can add meaning to India, and the rest of the world” he concluded.
Don Norman with a reputation for creating designs for a more humane and better world, enthralled the audience with his ideas. For him pretty products are not design, but only art. “Design is a way of thinking and a way of approaching a problem”. But a problem may be a symptom alone and hence, examining the causes is necessary to focus on improvement in life quality and making a unique solution. As a giant of design, his perspective was, that a professional designer has to cull out the knowledge of specialists, and then use that knowledge to apply to a problem through a customised design.
According to him, there are two types of design- the mass product design is meant to work for everyone, although differentiation is required in such cases also. For example, the use of automobiles varies differently in different countries, having different driving rules and customs, determining the required design for the automobile. Design for societal issues is a completely different ball game, as you have to work with people, understand their requirements, and then design for their customized needs. Citing an example, he spoke about activity or problem-based learning through simple projects for grades one to three in education, to excite the infant minds, rather than make them learn by rote.
The same approach is required globally in all schools, colleges and universities of activity-based education in all disciplines. The need for liberal education is being felt in all fields of study because it is amenable to policy and problem-based learning. He shared his experience in the United Kingdom, where designers are an integral part of policymaking, and this should be replicated in all countries.
Amitabh Kant relied on various facts and figures to drive home the point that design is essential for public policy. 500 million people in India are likely to be urbanized in the next 50 years and hence, good design for urbanised infrastructure is imperative. Without repeating mistakes made by other countries during their urbanization process, he felt India needed to adopt a citizen-centric design approach as the critical element of their strategy. Secondly, with a target of USD 30 trillion in GDP by 2047, India has to design its cities for people rather than cars, ensuring space allotments for walking, cycling, and mass transport. Sustainability has to be at the core of this policy because 2023 turned out to be the hottest year worldwide. The necessity for designing long-term solutions for solid waste, sewage disposal, and sustainable habitats is essential if India has to leapfrog as a developed nation, by the 100th year of its independent existence.
Kant then extolled the design innovations made by India in open source, DPI and its interoperability, Adhaar card and its use in opening 550 million bank accounts enabling a share of 50 per cent of quick payments globally, happening in India. Startup stock brokers like Zerodha have become unicorns by providing facilities to tier 2 and tier 3 cities which never existed. Similar is the situation with the expansion of insurance facilities in tier 2 and tier 3 cities. While this has been achieved, design capabilities in education, health and nutrition, and other social indicators are the next challenge.
For children between the ages of 2 and 5, who study in Anganwadis (pre-school), the design component is extremely important because the fertile minds need to be taught innovation at this age. From classes two to ten, Niti NITI Aayog has created 10,000 Atal Tinkering Labs, allowing children to play with 3D printing and AI technology to shed their fear of learning by innovation. India is lively and vibrant with an average age of 29, which may rise to 35 by 2047, while most other countries are ageing rapidly. Hence, India is creating its soft skills in Yoga, Ayurveda, and meditation in a contemporary format and design, which is amenable to learning from home. His clear conclusion was that design changes are embedded in India’s development and growth strategy.
Don discussed faulty design of buildings which overuse, the two billion air conditioners existing in the world. Ultimately, the energy for these ACs is coming from fossil fuels, creating more carbon dioxide, and more heat in the atmosphere. He also outlined the importance of public transport, which is a simple solution to the complex problem of sustainable transportation.
Don highlighted the most important point about scaling a design, to meet the needs of large populated countries like India. Scaling has to be large and nimble, and hence, the challenge. Given the example of TedEx which started in California among the elite, it was easily scaled when the rules were calibrated to allow anyone to arrange TedEx talks, within a framework of certain guidelines. The stupendous result is that TedEx is replicated all over the world today.
A country like India has to have the design impact in such a manner that it is agile and flexible. This requires it to follow a strategy of not having gigantic projects, but a thousand small ones which are agile to create and implement.
Dwelling on the role of design in schools, he felt the play factor in design is very important because you have to understand the behaviour of children and then design pedagogical techniques.
A similar approach is required even for organisations where ultimate design effectiveness will happen only if people’s behaviour is understood, along with all vertical functions like marketing, finance, and politics as each determines the efficiency and efficacy of the final design. Citing a beautiful example, he talked about the fashion industry where 30 to 40 per cent of clothes could not be reused as the dyes were permanent and poisonous, and hence could not be removed. By designing biodegradable dyes, a huge change has happened in reuse, showing the acumen of the designer in understanding finance, sustainability, and total impact.
Amitabh Kant gave the example of design capability in India of LED bulbs, where cost has been reduced by 85 per cent, to reach the number of 400 million. EV is another successful example where cost has been reduced by over 12 per cent, to scale up the use of 5,700 buses in 7 cities. The critical factor therefore in scaling up is setting standards so that mass production becomes easier and cheaper.
In the Q&A session, a question was raised about creating a separate ministry of design in India, seeing its grave importance. Kant felt otherwise, saying design requires a multi-disciplinary approach which a single ministry cannot deliver. Hence the real need is of design entrepreneurs to create consumer-friendly products. To another question, he agreed that ten lady designers can be hired by each ministry, to inject an important design component in every scheme of the department, catering to citizen-centric needs.
Norman spoke conclusively when he said that design is more than creativity; it is care for human beings and the environment, and hence, the focus on care is very important. Every product needs to be designed today, keeping sustainability uppermost in our minds.
Enthralled by this stimulating discussion, my question to Norman was why seven National Institutes of Design in India, have hardly made any impact on its citizens, despite a few being 50 years old. What changes in curriculum are essential to ensure a big impact through their design intervention? Don turned the question back to these institutes who were represented there, and their unconvincing answers were that design demand is feeble in India and that the National Institutes of Design have a total intake of only 500 now, and therefore their impact will be visible in future.
My question to Amitabh Kant was that in daily life if we take four essential examples, the design component is conspicuously missing. There are hardly any comfortable chairs in any meeting including the present one. What about comfortable kitchens for ladies, where at arm's length they can get whatever is required for cooking? Similarly, shoes are required by everyone, but the number of tries one has to make to make do with a reasonable shoe, which is not necessarily comfortable, is exasperating. On a larger scale, I highlighted that out of 7,000 railway stations in the country, none of them is customer-friendly.
Kant smiled and said that design is not the government's job, and we need trained design entrepreneurs to cater to the multifarious requirements of 1.4 billion people.
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