Keywords: Experience Design, Design Thinking, Positive Deviance, design inspiration, UX Design, and Water

Abstract
In today’s modern world, the value of water and mindful design have become important aspects to understand their inherent vitality. Having said that, if we look around, ignorance towards water clearly highlights our unfortunate deed to not realize the fundamental nature of water. Remember playing in the rain when you were a child, you were clueless about the properties of rain but you could experience and feel the same, that’s what we’re forgetting as designers if we get inspired by water that could make us feel what we are, similarly, the product should give us the best experience possible and do justice without even knowing the technicalities of the product. This thought process should form the fundamentals of the Design approaches adopted by our system. As a part of the Design community, we should utilize our resources by using healthier approaches for the user and the ecosystem by respecting their time and attention. The propelling features of DESIGN APPROACHES, if consciously understood layer by layer and implemented thoroughly, the output would not be less than water. That’s what makes Design as godly as water.

Give yourself two mins and count how many times you came in contact with water, today? Now think of your emotional response or feelings experienced with each of that contact When you washed your hands, drank a glass of water, filled your water bottle, washed your face, your plate, your clothes, poured water in your plants, etc. When a hot sunny day drains your energy, water gives you life whether you drink it or splash it on your face, just works like a miracle!

When you dance on the beats of rain, it surrounds you with a soothing, calm, and warm feeling. It makes you feel relaxed. Listening, watching, and looking at any form of water, so to say sky makes you feel wonderful, doesn’t it? When you are on the beach, you feel that you’re present in that moment, you feel relaxed and you instantly feel the sensations in your body and feel happy, it puts you into a mind meditative state.

Design impacts the customer’s overall experience from a product or service. Every designer wishes their designs to be perfect and provide the consumer with the best experience. That’s when the thought came to me that I want my designs to have properties of WATER. Whenever people use any product, the experience should be comforting and satisfying as water makes you feel on a hot sunny day. The utility of a product motivates the customers to adopt it but the overall experience keeps the customer’s desirability and thrust.

Let’s talk about the properties of water

Totally inspired by such properties of water makes me think that why we as designers can’t bring the exact essence in our designed products and services? Why can’t our designs give the same sensations of satisfaction to users? Why our designs can’t put them in an ecstatic state. Equalizing the experience of design with that of experience of water should be the goal of a designer so that whenever people use any product, they find themselves comfortable and fulfilled, you remember the way how the water felt on a hot sunny day, exactly like that. The utility of a product motivates the customers to adopt it but the overall experience keeps the customer’s desirability and thrust intact.

Transparency
Such as water, all the products should be transparent. Transparent in the sense that they inform the consumers about what information is being collected and how it is being used according to a study by Harvard Business Review most of the users are aware that applications and websites are collecting their data but they are surprisingly unaware about the exact type of data being collected. According to a survey, users are willing to provide data if told beforehand about the purpose and informing them that it will be used to improve the product and safe cause.

Transformability
The magical property of water is it gets transformed from one state of matter and we humans have the power to understand that magic and apply that into our systems while designing any product. We should understand the significance of transformation between different devices as well as across demographics. The more a product is transformable across ages, cultures, consumers with different levels of economic background, and different literacy levels, the more it is accepted and adopted. It will be one of the most valuable factors in the success of any product. One of the most important examples of such a product is Uber. Today uber impacts the lives of millions of drivers and passengers. They all come from different backgrounds and completely different demographics. The ease of use, intuitive design, and fewer steps have all led to the desirability and trust in their services.

Agility and Adaptability

Just as flowing water is always fresh and clean and if it becomes stagnant, bacterias and algae start forming. Similarly, If you are stuck with the same processes and ideas, not checking each step, going only by tradition someday your product will be obsolete and will no longer be desirable by the users. So similar to water you need to be agile and keep moving ahead changing course according to the dynamic business environment. And just as a river adapts to the challenges in its way. Every designer should adapt to the new demands and changing trends of the emerging needs, concept cars, and concept phones is one such example.

Today the user is spoiled for choice and still keeps looking for the latest features. The competition is so fierce that every day is a new launch and even the lockdown proved to be another opportunity and new designs flourished. Hence adaptability becomes the most important aspect of your design, you have to be versatile enough to appease the changing choice of the consumers as well as keep up with the competition.

As we know out of all five elements water has the most participatory role in our lives, What significance water has in our day to day life? Water can create health, wellbeing, and agility. Similarly, experience plays the foremost role in any product, which is what makes it successful. The use of the right design process, data, and technology can make a stunning product, which might change peoples’ lives and the same product with the wrong usage of technology, false research data, no user empathy can lead to a substandard product which will ultimately fail to leave its mark in the same way.

In recent times we know that that human consciousness can affect the molecular structure of water. It has its own crystals that can change with even a small input of vibration and these vibrations can be of any form- touch, thought, sound, emotion, or just the presence. Likewise, Design is an iterative process and can be changed at any stage by putting any small input. To generate new ideas or improving existing designs we use different creative brainstorming and lateral thinking techniques such as Random input, Provocation, Reversal, Metaphorical thinking, and SCAMPER (Substitute, Combine, Adapt, Modify, Put to another use, Eliminate and Reverse), by the help of such techniques designers explore new possibilities. We can see one product can have different aspects/usages. A single input can change the entire product in the same way, as meditation can change the neuronal structure in the brain, and make it dance in a completely different way.

All the fundamental physical life that happens on our planet is actively engaged with water otherwise they cannot sustain but water as a standalone element is not enough, it needs other elements and chemicals to produce and sustain life. It means each element has its own value, similarly, the design is like the soul of any product, to have the best impression on the user it needs to have a similar level of hardware and support. In itself, it might be the best design around but for the user, only a wholesome experience counts. It’s like watching a movie with an amazing story but if the direction and acting are not up to the mark you will never enjoy the movie as much.

Conclusion

Collectively we humans are designers, we have always designed our own world. This basic nature of humans has made them evolve and change the face of the world. We have always been an observing species and many of our designs are based on what we have observed in the natural world.

For a long time, we have only designed based on the physical attributes of the natural elements we see, but what if we also inculcate the inherent qualities of those elements. And what is more unique to our planet than water. This thought led me to think about the properties of water that we experience but never really observe in our daily lives. What if, my product has those invisible yet inevitable properties. How unique and at the same time available would that make it? The basic properties of water that I felt could easily be the principal of any design.

A product that has the perfect blend of all these basic ingredients will lead to an overall experience.

References

https://hbr.org/2015/05/customer-data-designing-for-transparency-and-trust

https://www.interaction-design.org/literature/article/adaptive-vs-responsive-design

https://www.mfe.govt.nz/publications/towns-and-cities/summary-value-urban-design-economic-environmental-and-social-benefit-8

The most sustainable craft | Coconut Craft

Traditionally, crafting objects out of coconut shell to make household objects was practiced by coconut farmers. Coconut is one of the fruit that can grow in plenty in its climate. The edible part of the coconut is called flesh and when dried it is referred to as copra. Coconut milk and oil used for cooking, frying, soaps, cosmetics, hair oil and massage oil. Religious and cultural significance in society. Husks and shells are used as a source of charcoal. Marcel and the surrounding places in Goa supports the making of various types of products from the coconut shell.

Objective

The objective of the project is to create design intervention, so that the craft of coconut shells and state of art could be increased. Idealization and strategic designing was carried forward along with the artisans so as to achieve the goal of a mutual understanding of the urban market and the rural way of the making of the craft.

History of Goa

The first literary reference to Goa is in the Bhishma Parva of Mahabharata as Gomanta which translates as the region of cows. Moving on, in the 3rd century BC Goa formed part of the Mauryan empire. Later it was ruled by the Satavahanas , to the Chalukyas , the Muslims and then ruled under the Vijayanagar empire. Jesuit missionaries led by St Francis Xavier arrived in 1542 from whom the rule was passed on to the Marathas. It wasn’t until 1987 that Goa was officially declared India’s 25th state by Prime Minister Rajiv Ghandhi.

Demographics

Religion, culture and population

As per the 2012 statistics, there are 1.817 million people in Goa. The artisans who practice the craft are mostly Hindu with spoken language being Konkani and Hindi. Fish curry with rice is their staple diet. In addition to this, Goans also like pork as well as chicken. Feni is the most preferred and liked drink of the Goans.

Production of Coconut

Coconut is a popular fruit in Goa and consumed by them on a daily basis.

Production-

Area: 25.70 (000 Hectares)

Production: 138.58 (Million Nuts)

Productivity: 5394 (Nuts/ha)

Goa artisans produce decorative and utility items made out of coconut fiber.

Raw Material, Machines & Tools

Process

Conceptualization

Our concept was keeping both, utility, design and aesthetics in mind. The idea was to create a need for the product, create a market for it. The reason we thought of using coconut shells as utility items was because it is a sustainable and an organic product. The addition of natural, organic elements in our interiors can make us feel calm, at peace, and above all, welcomed. Natural materials are also a healthier choice for interiors as they are non-toxic with little to no VOCs, thus ensuring better indoor quality.

Design Development

Ideation

Rendered designs

Prototype Process

The coconuts are first collected, The external husk is then peeled out, Coconuts selected according to the size and design, A drill is punched, Dispenser is put in to check the fitting, Sanding is done, Vanish for glossy finish. Tentative marking, Checking the height with the bottle, Marking is rectified, Coconut is been cut according to the marking, The kernel is removed and shell is cleaned, Fitting of the top and bottom of the dispenser with coconut is checked, Checking the height and closure, Marking for the position of nozzle.

Following the same process a circular base for the dispenser was made

Final Products

Sustainability

The coconut tree is a type of a palm tree. All the parts of a coconut tree are sustainable as they are organic and natural products. Coconut shell, being hard and durable is used as a raw material for handicrafts. Coconut craft is one of the most sustainable craft, which has almost zero wastage of materials, almost all the materials derived from it can be used as something or the other. There are no artificial materials being used during the process. Coir and jute are also used for the craft, which are also sustainable.

SWOT Analysis

Strengths

Coconut being a natural product has a lot of scope of production.

With the introduction of various machines, working on a coconut has become easier than before.

As coconut is a natural product, it is sustainable.

It is also durable when it comes to decaying, as it does not decay easily even when it’s exposed to sunlight and water for a long time.

Though it isn’t completely shock proof, the hard shell gives it a durable feel and a long lifespan.

Weakness

Very often the machines prove to be harsher than expected on the coconut shell resulting in its shell breaking midway. The work that goes into making it goes to waste.

The costing is not too profitable as the work that goes into making it is more than the market it is supplied in. People prefer appreciating the product from afar but not buying it ultimately resulting in less sales.

The noise pollution while cutting the coconut is immense. Also the lack of safety measures taken while working on the coconut shell.

Since decayed coconuts are used, the decayed material smells making it difficult for the artisans to work on it easily.

Opportunities

Being a coastal product, it can be used as a representative product in restaurants, when it comes to utility products as well as decorative items.

It is a fairly new craft that is now upcoming with a great scope especially with the introduction of machines that can be used to hone it into various designs.

Since there are a lot of options when it comes to the design of cutlery made out of coconut shells, people opt to use the durable products made from it.

Threats

A major threat to the craft is the growing apprehension to climb up on trees to procure coconuts. Nowadays, it is found difficult to find somebody to climb up on trees because of which the cost of coconuts has increased significantly.

The sale of the selling coconut has gone down due to the labour required and involved in procuring it because of which tourists who were the main source of buying these coconuts refuse to buy a coconut for more than the costing.

Since there is limited profit, not a lot of artisans want to take up the craft or take it forward as only the bare minimum is covered.

Branding