Design concerns itself with envisioning, planning and creating objects, spaces or interactive systems to address a need or a problem. It attempts to meet the needs of a variety of users with responses that are aligned with their specific contexts. It aims to understand situations and create holistic, appropriate solutions. 

While design is a large discipline with many domains, this Occupational Track will look at the design of products, the practical use of technology in various enterprises and the design of spaces for accessibility and interaction. It includes the process of ideating, developing and refining products that meet specific market needs, and addresses problems faced by users. Examples of this could include making a system which could ​‘intelligently’ water a crop based on environmental factors — the intelligence coming from a microcontroller getting its inputs from various sensors; designing an outdoor seating space based on the needs of the people using them; designing and 3D printing a customized gear unit.

Design is often looked at as ​“making things look pretty”. The functional aspects come first while engaging with design — i.e. the object should be able to fulfil the intended use for which it was designed for. However, in the process of arriving at a design, aspects such as the use of appropriate materials, supporting the interaction between users and delightful elements that allow a user to create an emotional connect are as important as the usability of the product. The aesthetics of an object would make it more acceptable for people to use it — hence it cannot be ignored.

In the Indian context it becomes imperative to consider design in real and local contexts; to leverage the tools, techniques, mediums and processes to look for low-resource solutions in various contexts. Many issues that face us are what are known as ​‘wicked’ problems (for example, access to clean water, adequate nutrition for children or segregating plastics for recycling) — with interdependent factors that seem impossible to solve. Engaging with these requires a design process which is iterative and works by making incremental changes in a collaborative manner with collective inputs needing expertise from different fields. This is something we hope this OT will expose students to.

Given the social commitment and orientation of the Foundation and the University, design seems like a natural fit to equip our students to engage in a wide range of relevant fields from working with artisan communities on enhancing livelihoods to developing products and technology to improve aspects of people’s lives.