You cannot think like others but you can think with them

when

car airbag systems were first introduced

it was found that it protected tall and

heavy passengers

while women and children were at severe

risk

a recent study from university of

virginia

showed that for a female occupant

the odds of getting injured in frontal

cash

is 73 percent greater than for a male

occupant

the reason behind this is that the

dummies

used in automotive crash tests were

designed

to represent an average man

this crash this bias is an example of

how a faulty conclusion made by the

manufacturer

to understand its users had deadly

consequences

design is a domain that goes far beyond

just what a product looks like

everything around us

is designed from the roads that we drive

in

to the app that delivers us food

to the user testing guide that ensures

safety

as a designer my everyday job

deals with how to make people’s life

easy

and how to build tools for their

empowerment

most often i find myself

designing for people who are completely

unlike me

they have different belief systems

capabilities lifestyle

and routines to design for them

i have to understand their needs and

aspirations

how to achieve that

as humans we see the world around us

through our experiences i have a set of

experiences

through which i perceive the world

around me

similarly the people who i design for

have have their own set of experiences

and feelings

now how do i connect with their

experiences and empathize with them

when i was a design student at the

national institute of design

i had the wonderful opportunity to work

with people who were diagnosed with

parkinson’s

tremors

during one of my research visits

to a parkinson’s club in ahmedabad

i came across a retired professor

who loved to draw and make art

he was diagnosed with parkinsonism five

years back

and now had to completely cease from

what he loved to do the most

drawing similarly

i met a poet who had to leave his

passion

because of the tremors

this hit me and inspired me

to develop a writing and drawing aid for

parkinson’s tremor

so listening to their stories help me to

discover

opportunities that i would not have come

across otherwise

these stories were a powerful medium

through which

i could associate with them

we all make errors in describing our

experiences

and there can be a lot of difference

between what we

say we do and what we actually do

sometimes we only see the symptoms

and think of it as the actual problem

during a task analysis exercise that i

did

to observe people while they were

writing

i noted that different people have

different ways to comfortably grip a pen

to get maximum support this was

interesting

because they were rejecting some ideas

saying that they didn’t like them

without actually being able to describe

the real cause

that here was the grip so our

observations

are fundamental when we infer

and create judgments in our minds

we all have a lot of preconceptions

about things

that we don’t know of and our brain

takes several mental shortcuts to create

these

these are often wrong and can create a

lot of misunderstanding

it is crucial to break them down when we

are designing for others

and sometimes asking questions

is the most primary and natural way

to deal with these assumptions

from initial opportunity mapping

to the final prototyping stage of flow’s

development

i kept asking questions to myself

and to the people i was designing for

these conversations were essential

in clarifying the real needs

and it helped me to paint a clear

picture

of their feelings

the only way we can know if something

works or not

is through testing it in the actual

environment

testing the ideas early on with the

users can enrich the process

also it is easier to evaluate our

understandings

when we have something tangible to test

with

throughout the development process of

leo

several mockups were made and many

stages of user testing were conducted

moving through these user tests helped

me

to discover more layers to the

experience of writing with tremors

it also validated if my learnings and

understandings

were translated properly into a product

so i listened to their stories

observe them deeply

ask questions to clear my assumption

and finally tested and evaluated my

learnings

to know if it honored their feelings

and this was done multiple times

i think this process has application

far beyond design

it has definitely helped me to better

understand others

and i believe if we can train ourselves

to consciously follow this we ca

we can be kinder and more understanding

towards others

so even if

i’m unable to feel and experience

what a person with parkinson’s tremor

goes through

i still can try and understand their

aspiration

by actively involving and interacting

with them

throughout the product development

process

through this we can build something

that empowers and enhances life

so even if

you can’t think exactly like others

you can definitely think with them

thank you