Navigate through the hurdles on the way to an insightful user research — There are n number of reasons to not do user research. The designers slowly die inside when they fail to express the significance of user research to decision-makers. Here are the most common hurdles faced by researchers/designers in their journey to conducting user research. 1. We know what the problems are The very first step towards bad…

Emotional red flags while conducting user research in the social sector — Design for social innovation is growing incredibly. Design practitioners are exploring the unknowns of society and trying to solve social problems. This also means that the research requires the same rigor that we have for businesses and technology. The user experience research in the social sector is a different ball…

Learning design from a design school is an overwhelming experience. There are too many things to grasp and everything is equally exciting. It is so fulfilling to let oneself grow into a design practitioner and channel the passion to drive impact through the work. As I complete my postgraduate program…

Why is it practically impossible to stick to a single standard design process? — We have all been fans of evergreen double diamond and humble iteration loops of design thinking. These are undoubtedly great frameworks to follow but they’re often too broad to lead us towards the right solution. There are a plethora of books and articles telling us about different design processes. It…

Why service design in the social sector is beyond user-centered design? — Service design offers a wide range of opportunities to understand the complete ecosystem and bring transformation. For this very reason, it can do wonders when it comes to resolving social issues using design. Problems in the social sector never exist in isolation. There is always a complex web of issues…

I have been spending most of my time in front of the screen now and I couldn’t help but remember the good old days of craft research in Longpi, Manipur. I am probably writing this to my future self to cherish the memories and lessons from the research visit. It…

Form and Culture are very well understood by us as separate words but putting them together opens a completely new doorway of design. We see various objects around us. Each one has a defined form and a plethora of reasons to prove why it is the way it is. Making…