[Music]
[Applause]
design is all around us from
toothbrushes to soup cans from Aircraft
Interiors to this very beautiful
auditorium it is a part of our everyday
life today I’m going to be talking about
how design has evolved and how the role
of designers is evolving with it now
there are many kinds of designers this
architects industrial designers interior
designers fashion designers I am an
industrial designer now we are called
that not because we design industries
but because we design every day must
produce goods that you can find around
you things like shoes phones cars and so
on now because design can mean so many
things to so many people it can be quite
confusing and I too was in a state of
confusion in the beginning of my career
about 15 years ago I was an
international student from India
studying in Australia and I was enrolled
in my first year of the industrial
design program and I remember that
semester we had studied art history
which studied CAD modeling and we had a
studio class we had we had to make a
chair completely out of cardboard but I
wasn’t sure the curriculum was for me I
wasn’t sure it was taking me where I
wanted to go so I walked into my
professors office and expressed my
doubts so he said My dear man what do
you think you would like to be designing
and with all the passion and sincerity
of an 18 year old I said I want to be
making time machines
I still remember the expression of
disbelief on my professors face I did
however complete my industrial design
degree and while I have not designed a
time machine yet I would like to take us
back and forth through time during this
talk now the more I design and interact
with designers I find that we are all in
this career because we want to make our
dreams come true not just the dreams we
have for ourselves but the dreams we
have for others designers develop the
ability to empathize with someone else
to be able to put ourselves in someone
else’s shoes and look at life from their
perspective perhaps solve some of their
problems and when we come up with
solutions we in the industry like to put
our ideas through a couple of lenses to
make sure they really work these tend to
be the lenses of feasibility viability
and desirability with feasibility for
instance we check if it’s
technologically feasible it’s why will
the TV see if it’s viable from a
financial standpoint from an
organizational standpoint and the
desirability we check if people would
really love what we’ve made and that’s a
key aspect what of what designers bring
to the table designers make things
desirable now the artifacts that we have
around us are an expression of our
culture so much so that it seems even
the way we catalog time in our heads is
based on the kind of objects we find
around us consider for instance how
movies of a different period are
produced it’s the same actor right
change his clothes to give him different
objects to hold and now he represents a
character from a different era and
because we love our objects and tools
and shoes and utensils
I began to think what is it about
objects that is so desirable what is it
about the artifact that’s so alluring
and the more I pondered about this I
realized there’s the story of design and
tools and objects runs in parallel with
the story of human
consider for instance these crude old
stone tools
they helped us hunt they helped us fight
predators we designed pots and pans and
utensils that helped us cook share store
we design farming tools and farming
helped us put together a consistent
supply of food throughout the year we
built shelter and that helped us protect
ourselves from the forces of nature it
also helped us build community so right
from the very beginning we have been
designing our way out of our problems
we’ve harnessed the power of nature and
we’ve built civilization as we know it
today
now the civilization that we know of
today is also hooked on our smartphones
and computers and tablets so much so
that it seems they’re found in some of
the most unlikely places in our homes
but the coming of the digital era
changed a lot for the world of design we
now not only found ourselves designing
objects but also the information that
people could access through these
screens and now that got me thinking
what is it about information that is so
desirable
what makes information so seductive and
the more I researched and pondered about
this I realized that I’d stepped on a
story that’s much older and grander than
the story of human evolution it seems
the story of knowledge and information
runs in parallel with the story of the
evolution of life itself now from what
we know life developed from single-cell
organisms primitive single celled
organisms to more complex multicellular
systems leading up to animals like
ourselves now single-cell organisms such
as amoeba were only able to collect
information from just around their
surroundings through forces that acted
on it on their outer walls
a primitive version of touch if I may
say as time went by organisms developed
sense organs that gave them the ability
to collect information from a distance
using senses such as those of sight and
sound that gave them the crucial
advantage of time in being able to react
and adapt to change as evolution
proceeded organisms develop memory now
one experience could inform the next
experience this was a big leap the leap
of the ability to learn and as time went
by organs of communication developed
information could now be transferred
from one organism to another the
developing community
consider for example how birds chirped
when predators came close by warning
each other and many millennia later we
humans came about and then we develop
language and scripts and writing
information could now not only be
transferred from one generation to the
next but across civilizations across
time this helped us develop culture as
well and now we live in the era of the
internet where we each have access to so
much information all at our fingertips
information that has been accrued over
thousands of years of evolution what a
transformation now who would have
thought that this grand tale of
evolution will lead to the development
of cat celebrities
but beyond our penchant for cuteness and
entertainment we are part of what is now
being called the service economy I’m
sure you’re all aware of services such
as Airbnb uber lyft and so on so the
coming of this service economy marked
the next big change for the world of
design the designers not only found
ourselves designing objects and
information but we were now designing
services that connect people and
experiences experiences that go across
digital and physical realms so what’s
next for design we are no longer in a
constant struggle against the forces of
nature
many of our struggles today are against
our own nature and the systems that we
have created consider for instance as a
society we are conflicted about taking
care of our self interest versus opening
our doors and minds and resources to
issues of ethics and morality as
individuals where each garaged with so
much choice and information but we are
not sure if each of that is meaningful
or even true businesses today find
themselves requiring to disrupt the
market or adapt to changes brought about
by others disruptions and the
environment are once have led us to
harness the power of nature but we find
ourselves on a trajectory that might
deplete the resources that are available
to us but in all this the humans have
grown very powerful so much so that
geologists refer to this error as
Anthropocene the age of humans where we
have become a force of nature ourselves
now that we are so powerful the quality
of our future depends on the kind of
choices we are able to make now there’s
an innate connection
between choices and aspirations if you
think about it the choices we create
today impact our aspirations of tomorrow
quite literally for most of us beyond
our passions and professions what we
want is based on what we see is
available it’s not every day that we
dream of a car make it build it and use
it the car of someone’s aspirations is
generally the one that’s available in
the market
that’s where businesses come in and they
either supplement or complement our
aspirations and guess what designers are
employed by businesses so V designers
are what the behavioral economist
Richard Taylor would refer to as choice
architects we are architects of choice
because we make the difference between
what is versus what could be now that
puts is in a position of power and with
great power comes great responsibility
at least that’s what Uncle Ben told
spider-man but every generation has set
certain standards and the generations
that have come after have built upon
them but the transference of standards
is so quick today that it’s not from one
generation to the next
but from one idea to another now it is
our turn to be developing standards that
are balanced in nature so far the kind
of solutions that we’ve been developing
are skewed more towards the needs of the
individual and businesses going forward
we need to be creating a balance between
the values and needs of the individual
and society of businesses and the
environment as we proceed not only are
we going to be designing things that
people would aspire to buy but the very
nature of our aspirations in doing so
human centered choice architects will
find ourselves not just grappling with
issues of technology and materials
but also those of morality human
psychology and business and systems in
the past we’ve evolved to adapt we now
stand at the cusp of being able to
redesign the next stage of our evolution
and in this I believe the role of design
is going to be in the conscious
reshaping of our collective aspirations
thank
you
[Applause]
design is all around us from
toothbrushes to soup cans from Aircraft
Interiors to this very beautiful
auditorium it is a part of our everyday
life today I’m going to be talking about
how design has evolved and how the role
of designers is evolving with it now
there are many kinds of designers this
architects industrial designers interior
designers fashion designers I am an
industrial designer now we are called
that not because we design industries
but because we design every day must
produce goods that you can find around
you things like shoes phones cars and so
on now because design can mean so many
things to so many people it can be quite
confusing and I too was in a state of
confusion in the beginning of my career
about 15 years ago I was an
international student from India
studying in Australia and I was enrolled
in my first year of the industrial
design program and I remember that
semester we had studied art history
which studied CAD modeling and we had a
studio class we had we had to make a
chair completely out of cardboard but I
wasn’t sure the curriculum was for me I
wasn’t sure it was taking me where I
wanted to go so I walked into my
professors office and expressed my
doubts so he said My dear man what do
you think you would like to be designing
and with all the passion and sincerity
of an 18 year old I said I want to be
making time machines
I still remember the expression of
disbelief on my professors face I did
however complete my industrial design
degree and while I have not designed a
time machine yet I would like to take us
back and forth through time during this
talk now the more I design and interact
with designers I find that we are all in
this career because we want to make our
dreams come true not just the dreams we
have for ourselves but the dreams we
have for others designers develop the
ability to empathize with someone else
to be able to put ourselves in someone
else’s shoes and look at life from their
perspective perhaps solve some of their
problems and when we come up with
solutions we in the industry like to put
our ideas through a couple of lenses to
make sure they really work these tend to
be the lenses of feasibility viability
and desirability with feasibility for
instance we check if it’s
technologically feasible it’s why will
the TV see if it’s viable from a
financial standpoint from an
organizational standpoint and the
desirability we check if people would
really love what we’ve made and that’s a
key aspect what of what designers bring
to the table designers make things
desirable now the artifacts that we have
around us are an expression of our
culture so much so that it seems even
the way we catalog time in our heads is
based on the kind of objects we find
around us consider for instance how
movies of a different period are
produced it’s the same actor right
change his clothes to give him different
objects to hold and now he represents a
character from a different era and
because we love our objects and tools
and shoes and utensils
I began to think what is it about
objects that is so desirable what is it
about the artifact that’s so alluring
and the more I pondered about this I
realized there’s the story of design and
tools and objects runs in parallel with
the story of human
consider for instance these crude old
stone tools
they helped us hunt they helped us fight
predators we designed pots and pans and
utensils that helped us cook share store
we design farming tools and farming
helped us put together a consistent
supply of food throughout the year we
built shelter and that helped us protect
ourselves from the forces of nature it
also helped us build community so right
from the very beginning we have been
designing our way out of our problems
we’ve harnessed the power of nature and
we’ve built civilization as we know it
today
now the civilization that we know of
today is also hooked on our smartphones
and computers and tablets so much so
that it seems they’re found in some of
the most unlikely places in our homes
but the coming of the digital era
changed a lot for the world of design we
now not only found ourselves designing
objects but also the information that
people could access through these
screens and now that got me thinking
what is it about information that is so
desirable
what makes information so seductive and
the more I researched and pondered about
this I realized that I’d stepped on a
story that’s much older and grander than
the story of human evolution it seems
the story of knowledge and information
runs in parallel with the story of the
evolution of life itself now from what
we know life developed from single-cell
organisms primitive single celled
organisms to more complex multicellular
systems leading up to animals like
ourselves now single-cell organisms such
as amoeba were only able to collect
information from just around their
surroundings through forces that acted
on it on their outer walls
a primitive version of touch if I may
say as time went by organisms developed
sense organs that gave them the ability
to collect information from a distance
using senses such as those of sight and
sound that gave them the crucial
advantage of time in being able to react
and adapt to change as evolution
proceeded organisms develop memory now
one experience could inform the next
experience this was a big leap the leap
of the ability to learn and as time went
by organs of communication developed
information could now be transferred
from one organism to another the
developing community
consider for example how birds chirped
when predators came close by warning
each other and many millennia later we
humans came about and then we develop
language and scripts and writing
information could now not only be
transferred from one generation to the
next but across civilizations across
time this helped us develop culture as
well and now we live in the era of the
internet where we each have access to so
much information all at our fingertips
information that has been accrued over
thousands of years of evolution what a
transformation now who would have
thought that this grand tale of
evolution will lead to the development
of cat celebrities
but beyond our penchant for cuteness and
entertainment we are part of what is now
being called the service economy I’m
sure you’re all aware of services such
as Airbnb uber lyft and so on so the
coming of this service economy marked
the next big change for the world of
design the designers not only found
ourselves designing objects and
information but we were now designing
services that connect people and
experiences experiences that go across
digital and physical realms so what’s
next for design we are no longer in a
constant struggle against the forces of
nature
many of our struggles today are against
our own nature and the systems that we
have created consider for instance as a
society we are conflicted about taking
care of our self interest versus opening
our doors and minds and resources to
issues of ethics and morality as
individuals where each garaged with so
much choice and information but we are
not sure if each of that is meaningful
or even true businesses today find
themselves requiring to disrupt the
market or adapt to changes brought about
by others disruptions and the
environment are once have led us to
harness the power of nature but we find
ourselves on a trajectory that might
deplete the resources that are available
to us but in all this the humans have
grown very powerful so much so that
geologists refer to this error as
Anthropocene the age of humans where we
have become a force of nature ourselves
now that we are so powerful the quality
of our future depends on the kind of
choices we are able to make now there’s
an innate connection
between choices and aspirations if you
think about it the choices we create
today impact our aspirations of tomorrow
quite literally for most of us beyond
our passions and professions what we
want is based on what we see is
available it’s not every day that we
dream of a car make it build it and use
it the car of someone’s aspirations is
generally the one that’s available in
the market
that’s where businesses come in and they
either supplement or complement our
aspirations and guess what designers are
employed by businesses so V designers
are what the behavioral economist
Richard Taylor would refer to as choice
architects we are architects of choice
because we make the difference between
what is versus what could be now that
puts is in a position of power and with
great power comes great responsibility
at least that’s what Uncle Ben told
spider-man but every generation has set
certain standards and the generations
that have come after have built upon
them but the transference of standards
is so quick today that it’s not from one
generation to the next
but from one idea to another now it is
our turn to be developing standards that
are balanced in nature so far the kind
of solutions that we’ve been developing
are skewed more towards the needs of the
individual and businesses going forward
we need to be creating a balance between
the values and needs of the individual
and society of businesses and the
environment as we proceed not only are
we going to be designing things that
people would aspire to buy but the very
nature of our aspirations in doing so
human centered choice architects will
find ourselves not just grappling with
issues of technology and materials
but also those of morality human
psychology and business and systems in
the past we’ve evolved to adapt we now
stand at the cusp of being able to
redesign the next stage of our evolution
and in this I believe the role of design
is going to be in the conscious
reshaping of our collective aspirations
thank
you
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