Form Follows People

 

“Nothing is beautiful except man alone: On this piece of naivety rests all aesthetics. It is the first truth of aesthetics. Let us immediately add it’s second. Nothing is ugly except the degenerating man – the domain of aesthetic judgment is therewith defined”. Friedrich Nietzsche

I wish to explore here some of my views on the relationship between designing
And people, a relationship between the creative human action and the sole
object of such human action. My idea is to bring focus on humanism which so
often tends to get fuzzy in the glare of the more tangible outcomes of economy,
visibility and the ecstasy of the creation itself.
People, quite contrary to the convenient belief, are not a uniform,
homogeneous, standard entities. They come in a complex variety of shapes,
sizes, colors, textures and backgrounds.

1. Ending as the Beginning
The ending and beginning are important in any piece of creative work. Be it a story; a song; a dance or a design. The beginning only evokes and sets a tone but the ending sums up and draws conclusion. The end is what we take home. The way in which Indians end their performing arts reflects their attitude and marks the Indian identity as different from others.
Films from other lands end with “the end” but the tradition of Indian films is to end with “Shubham”. The classical dance, drama and music performances of India end with “Mangalam” or “Swasti”, the words which mean wishing all well. According to Indian tradition, well being of people is the ultimate goal of any human action. Design is one such human action which plays key role in shaping people’s mind and improving the quality of our environment.

2. People’s needs give identity:
The globalized today is no more sellers market but buyers market. There can be no doubt any more on how design is a powerful tool in increasing business, enhancing sales and thus affecting the whole economy of a country. There are enough cases to prove this point. The Coca-cola bottle, the apple i-pod and the Volks-wagon Beetle are legendary examples which caught the imagination of the people and made iconic business success. Design had played a vital role in not only influencing the prevailing markets but also in creating new markets.
When we use terms like markets, sales, industry, business, targets, etc there is a danger of making them sound as cold abstract entities. Markets are not abstract. Markets mean people; who are live and who contain intelligence, emotions, psychological make-ups and socio-cultural roots. Their patterns of thinking vary according to their cultures and change time to time.
A successful design is the one which is sensitive to these cultural variations and contemporary needs of the specific groups of people. The design which focuses on the needs of a specific group of people and culture automatically gets an identity. Indian needs honestly addressed, will naturally give design the Indian identity. Bollywood [Hindi] films are such examples.

3. Real Challenge and Fortune at B.O.P + S.O.P.
Designers are paid by the client or the industry but they work for a target group. The targets are people. Designers have to find out the real needs of people, understand the constraints, and come up with creative solutions. The real focus therefore is not the industry but the people whom the design is meant to benefit. In fact, it is the people who ultimately pay for designs. The designer’s responsibility is not only to bring profits to industry but essentially to improve the well being of the specific people. Profits are necessary but that should not be the sole motivation. This focus and this realization are very important. On some occasions, particularly in the majority world, most people are not able to pay for design service. They are at the bottom of the pyramid. They may not be aware of design or may not be able to voice their needs. But their needs are urgent and crucial.
It is important social responsibility for designers working in these countries to cater to their needs. The real challenge to creativity lies in finding innovative design solutions which are low cost/no cost to people. A doctor cannot neglect a sick child because she is not aware of the doctor, nor asked for help. It is the doctor’s duty to reach out to such people and give treatment which does not necessitate costly medicines, or costly diet and which is effective in spite of the user’s poor, unhygienic surroundings. There lies the real challenge.
According to Bonsiepe, “In the field of design humanism means to focus on the excluded, the discriminated, and economically less favored groups as they are called in economic jargon, which amounts to the majority of population of this planet”.
A nations progress is measured by the way it takes care of it’s under privileged which are the weakest links in the chain. This is not always philanthropic.
Business Guru C. K. Prahlad argued that the B.O.P. (Bottom of the Pyramid) makes great business sense due to its advantage of size. This business advantage is not recognized yet. I would like to add another huge category called S.O.P (Side of the pyramid), which represents the often neglected people with special needs. These are the elderly, the disabled, the anomalous, the pregnant and the XL/Xs. B.O.P. + S.O.P together make a huge untapped fortune for business. India has the world’s largest number of blind people and its huge elderly population of nearly 10% of total population is increasing. The main stream design usually overlooks these people and their needs. Global business is realizing the potential of rural markets but it is not yet done so with the S.O.P

4. People Foster Innovation
Users are not mute receivers of design. Often there are many levels of users. Good design process utilizes these many levels of users as catalysts of innovation. Take the case of Oxygenator design. The beneficiary is patient, but the users are – heart surgeons, medical assistants, nurses and maintenance staff. Many ideas came up in our interactions with them. Major innovation of combining the oxygenator and the craniotomy reservoir had come up in our intense discussions with Dr. Valiathan, the chief cardiac surgeon. It won national meritorious invention award.

5. Form Function Debate
Design is often considered as form giving activity (Form-Gebung). This form giving is materialized within the conditions of function, technology, Telesis and .socio-cultural contexts. If we look at the last many years of social history of Design, we witness various phrases popularized by renowned designers, each one emphasizing one of the above conditions. “Form follows function; Form follows fun; Form follows fashion, Form follows fusion, Form follows production” and so on. I am uncomfortable with all these phrases as I view this as the six blind man and elephant syndrome. Each of the phrases is valid but they make greater sense only when put together as a whole.
In a nut shell, Design is a multidisciplinary activity which originates by innovation, realized by production and utilized by the people. Design exists within a context in relation with content and matching technology. Its core purpose is to serve people in the best way. So if at all we need to have a phase it should be, “Form follows People” with all their diverse preferences and awesome differences.

6. Colonization of the Mind
Technology made long strides in the past few decades and India embraced it in its own way, blending past and future. Technological and cultural coexistence is a way of life in India. Here the bullock cart and the space ship coexist. Cartier Bresson’s photo of a space rocket being taken to its launching station on bicycle exemplifies this.
Globalization and revolutionary improvements in communications have positively affected design and brought foreign companies and huge incomes into India. There is outsourcing boom in the urban Indian. India is poised to be the world’s design outsourcing hub, while China is poised to be the world’s manufacturing hub. While BPO (Business Process Outsourcing) is a boon to populated countries such as India and China, the majority world (not the derogatory term developing world), extreme caution is necessary to understand clearly and critically what kind of design service Indians are giving.
Most work such as usability research; market surveys; graphic assistance, etc may be part of Design process but these are repetitive non-creative tasks. A craftsman who is not allowed to be innovative is reduced to a skilled laborer. Same is the case with designers who, irrespective of big pay; are being used for merely repetitive non creative work. This will lead to economic colonization which is detrimental to healthy growth. Unless India’s huge population excels by using its creative power, it will remain a mere sweat shop for others, a dumping ground for human ecological degradation.

7. Should Design reflect or reform society?

Design is brought into being only in response to a peoples need – perceived or projected; present or future. The true indicators of merit of a design are neither popularity nor commercial success nor longevity in the market place. These are the intensity of purpose and the universality which transcend the boundaries of culture, space and physique.
An eternal debate about films is this. Should they reflect society by giving what the masses want and be successful at box office; or should they influence the society by educating people through an attractive medium like film and be meaningful. This dilemma applies to design profession too.
Objects and messages influence people’s behavior and designers create those objects and messages. [One sees Indians spitting on the dirty road side but not in the spotless metro trains].
Zvonimir Radic says that “As a result of freedom in its quantity and space, the industrial Form has an enormously intense and decisive influence on the consciousness of our man, thus presenting the most powerful social factor in the form giving of his habits, life motivation, and philosophy”.
Design has the great power to change how people think and behave. With great power goes great responsibility. Should this power be used to control, should designing be politically subversive or should it serve the interests of the people most honestly? Should it serve the interests of the Designer (i.e. Monumentality) of the client (money mentality) or of the people out there, whom you don’t see (man mentality)?
Designers must realize that this great responsibility is the meaningful use of design power for the good of the society, in molding it in different forms- persuading, provoking and motivating- towards long term good of the future.

8. Craft is by the people for the people
The term mass production in India should be defined not as production in mass by the machine but production by the masses in mass. Craft is a living tradition in India and a major exporter. This is a very important production sector which is largest in the world. Craft is by the people for the people. Indian design is yet to make major impact with craft design on the world map.

9. User research
People are termed as users and their importance is increasingly realized by contemporary design profession. The new areas of design such as interaction design, interface design, human factors design, human computer interface and experience design are all manifestations of this trend.
User Research has become a major component in design process and many design schools are adjusting their program to include significant component of user research methodology in their curriculum. Design studios are incorporating user research as major component in the design process.
But the subject of UR remains confusing and disorganized. Most UR is wasted because the particular method employed is not appropriate to the question that needs to be answered or the results of UR not adequately integrated into design thinking.
Observation is the key method of user research in understanding people. Researchers are staying with, shopping with and traveling with the users for getting better grip of their real needs.
User participation is invaluable in design process. Design profession paid lip service to participatory design and it is yet to become essential ingredient in professional practice. More than two decades ago I proposed “Barefoot Designer” concept to serve Bharat, the rural India [the villagers will be trained in design in design camps and sent back to village to serve people there].

In time I hope we will overcome the practical hurdles and make these ideas into reality. For, making an idea into reality is the design profession.
It is said that a work of art can change the individual and through the individual,
the whole society.

I consider good design is a work of art which is working for people and ‘ designer is both artist and problem solver’.

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