Work Collections
UX innovation in Consumer Products
The Adonia geyser solved a universal UX problem for water heaters - how to indicate the temperature of the water. For this and for its pathbreaking design, it won the coveted India Design Mark in 2017.
Geysers the world over use Green/Red lights for this purpose, which can confuse users because of their loaded semantic messages - Go/Stop or Safe/Danger being used to indicate Cold/Hot.
My UX innovation was to use a ring of LED lights on the product fascia to show a colour transition from cool blue to deep red, intuitively indicating the gradual heating of the water within. This principle is a world first for water heaters and has been patented by the client.
The Adonia water heater went on to become hugely successful and continues to be a market leader 7 years on.
Rocking stool for kids with Autism Spectrum Disorder and for adults as active seating
The Jolly Rocker is a very special type of rocking stool that won the prestigious Godrej Design Lab competition in 2017. It was exhibited by Godrej at India's biggest design event - India Design ID, held in New Delhi in February 2017.
It was also a Finalist at the inaugural Lexus Design India Award 2018.
Design Innovation Policy
I took a 6 month sabbatical in 2012 to work with the National Innovation Council at the Planning Commission, Government of India. I created an operational strategy and implementation plan for my proposal on new organizational structures for promoting the spread of design education and practice towards the creation of an Innovation Ecosystem in India.
This proposal was adopted into policy in December 2012, it is now called the National Initiative on Design Innovation.
Impact
20 Design Innovation Centers have been established with 64 spoke institutions since 2013. DIC Hubs include 10 Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT), 9 Central/State Government Universities and a School of Planning and Architecture.
A few of the DICs and their target areas:
Delhi University - acts as the hub to three spoke universities in the National Capital Region
Pune University - works in the research areas of chemical, physical, life sciences, social sciences, humanities and art.
Banaras Hindu University and IIT BHU - looks into Agriculture, Environment, Art & Culture, Health, Energy, Science & Technology, and Language & Computing.
IIT Roorkee - focuses on issues in the Himalayan region.
Hundreds of projects and patents, and dozens of startups have already come out of these DICs, and there are dozens of applications every month to the Ministry of Human Resource Development from Universities across the country vying to make the selection to host DICs in their educational domain or geographical region.
ODS and NDIN have been established in IIT Bombay and Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore respectively. The Open Design School model was adopted by the National Institute of Design (NID), Ahmedabad - India’s premier design institution, albeit in a paid online learning resource - NODE (NID’s Online Design Education). https://node.nid.edu/
Sahapedia: An online encyclopedia on Indian culture and heritage
Sahapedia is an open online resource on the arts, cultures and heritage of India.
I designed a Research and Education Platform for Sahapedia, where people (experts and lay users alike) exchange ideas, information and experiences, and contribute their knowledge of Indian cultural forms through multiple media formats.
Gaia Planter - serious gardening at home
With up to 5 stackable levels, the Gaia planter lets you grow up to 50 edible or ornamental plants within a small footprint of 3X3 feet.
A serious planter that everybody can use
The Gaia planter offers the functionality of serious gardening equipment in a beautiful design that is a pleasure to use. It can be used at home, in an office or in other urban spaces.
Modular design
Intuitive, tool-free assembly
Add modules to grow more plants
Ease in storage, packaging and transport
