My essay to an interaction institute for admission

I have done my graduation in Psychology which gave me a better understanding of human behaviour. On exploring the subject I realized the wonders of human brain and the reasons behind the behaviour. I remember the debate with my professor regarding human behaviour and technology. The date of debate was much before of facebook and twitter age and virtual reality like Minority Report was just a Hollywood movie for me! Then Ted.com, youtube and social networking came into my life which was now more than movies, songs and gallery sharing platform. Then my design journey started and later I realized its not just the branding of companies that we do but its the branding of the people and the society. Its the life that we design by contributing in bits and pieces for the today and tomorrow.

Today distance has become so short that sometimes more than our surrounding we are much aware of galaxy! The technology has made us omnipresent. We have given a new pace and meaning to life through the technology. And interaction is the only key of the success of our story. I believe the good design brings more meaning

to our life. People centered design are always for the better tomorrow.

For the final project in my design school I chose wayfinding as topic. After two months of long user research I found the connection between human and its surrounding. How do they interact with roads, pathways, buildings, gates, colours, surfaces and much more to find their way. Then for solution of my design I started exploring the technology side. It was really fascinating for me to start again the debate I had with my Psychology professor on human behaviour and technology. But this time our perception has changed drastically. After lot of discussions and debates, my design mentor guided me to pursue my career as a user experience designer. And even I was excited after my post graduation to do something like that. So now its been two years I am working in industry as interaction designer.

I am really excited and happy about my work life since I have started. I want to continue this journey with better understanding so I can deliver my best to the society. I want to explore as much sides as I can of interaction design. It definitely making a world better place and I want to contribute for that. And later I would love to share the passion and knowledge so it can bring meaning and motive to others too.

I am expecting the curriculum will make my understanding of the subject better and deeper. The program will help me to understand the process and methodology of interaction design. It will allow my journey to be more fascinated about the bonding of human and technology. I would like to explore the side of interaction which happens beyond eyes and monitor. As we know its the age of data and medias are overflowing with data. So if I could understand the basic principle of data I can convert it to knowledge. The channeling of information is one of the thing I would love to understand.

As I have done my academics in Psychology and Visual Communication so I believe there will be lot more from my end to contribute. I have been working in industry for two years as an interaction designer so I understand the challenges of interaction from a perspective of business, users and designers. In my journey I have gathered a good knowledge of behaviour and design so I believe there will be good amount from my side to contribute on research and aesthetics.

My particular interest in the program is to absorb as much as I can about the technology and to interact through its medium so tangible user interface will be my key attraction. The other big thing I would be looking for is "Interactive Data Visualization". Would love to understand how does a data behave with respect to its energy and principles? As mentioned earlier I believe data is the biggest asset one can have at the age we are living so the key is to channelize it correctly so it can be converted into knowledge.

Thanks for your time and patience.

Cheers!

Negative

I am a visual designer and most of my layouts has much of negative space. The moment I realized this I started thinking, what is negative space and why its called negative. Then I related it to Shiva Linga which has a positive and negative form (in terms of physics). I was amazed on the thought, I always believe in reasoning if someone has given positive and negative name to it then he would have his reason. Understanding the symbol of Yin Yang which talks about the same positive and negative is also relate to male and female.

I perceive it as just the same of Physics funda, meaning male is positive and woman negative because of their form and not nature definitely. We have learned in Physics called male and female joint, one has positive form and other has negative for making it a complete system.

Our railway track has these male female side, one can notice it while walking with track, the letter M and F marked on either sides. If the same way our other journey has to be happy and balanced then it better has the both sides. One could relate it to male female approach or could relate it to positive and negative side too!

Now how I perceive is positive is not just an addition and negative a subtraction but possibly much more or could be a different story. To get a clearer and challenging picture I tried to think in terms of business. For example if I invest somewhere or I do charity it doesn't count on loss account or rather it should turn it into profit account later. Investment will give returns, charity will give people's support and no business can have success without people.

Black and White are not dark and light but two different paddles of same bicycle. One supporting the other from other side. For example if Ram is considered to be white and Ravan to be black then why Sita was untouched while with Ravan and still Ram (the white) asked for Agni Pariksha and even after that he left her. Because Ramayana is not about bad and good but about balance.

So I will conclude positive and negative is not about good or bad, profit or loss but being complete or being a system.

Simplicity

In my journey of design education I have learned that why is more important than what. We were always questioned for why we have done this more importantly than what we have done. And the question why from your design leads you to simplicity, simplicity of process and product.

“Simplicity is the direct result of profound thought.”

Abstract

The thought of simplicity has always excited and inspired me as a designer and as an individual. What I have learned in my design journey is that to solve any problem it’s very mandatory that we simplify the problem first. The thought of simplicity not only simplify the process of design but also making the today's lifestyle simple. So that it inspired me to take the thought as my colloquium subject. Here I will first study the thought from other designer’s perspective and then analyzing and concluding it on my own thoughts and experiences.

Simplicity

How I understand the thought is by first understanding the grammar of the word, then the philosophy behind the word and then following the designers and groups who are known for expert in this particular thought.

To understand the word properly we need to know its origin, meaning and grammar. The word simplicity is derived from the word simple. So first I will start with the word simple, the word simple stands for

1. easy to understand, deal with, use, etc.

2. not elaborate or artificial; plain.

3. not ornate or luxurious; unadorned.

4. unaffected; unassuming; modest.

5. not complicated.

6. not complex or compound; single

7. occurring or considered alone; mere; bare.

8. common or ordinary

9. not grand or sophisticated; unpretentious.

10. humble or lowly

11. inconsequential or rudimentary.

12. unlearned; ignorant

13. lacking mental acuteness or sense

14. unsophisticated; naive; credulous.

15. unmixed or uncompounded.

Synonyms for word simple,

Absolute | Perfect | Plain | Sheer | Unadulterated | Undiluted | Unmixed | Effortless |Facile |Smooth |Bald | Dry

Origin of the word is from word simplex, where “sim” stands for one or single.
The word simple is an adjective. While looking for meaning of word simple we can easily observe that the word has two sides. One the positive side and the other negative side of it, for example, the word simple means sophisticated and also unsophisticated while the both words are actually antonyms of each other. Understanding feeling aspect of the word we can express it to in two totally different ways,

1. He is a very simple guy. :)

2. He is a very simple guy. :(

Now learning the word simplicity, simplicity is a noun which means,

1. the state, quality or an instance of being simple or uncombined.

2. freedom from complexity, intricacy, or division into parts.

3. freedom from deceit or guile; sincerity; artlessness; naturalness.

4. absence of luxury, pretentiousness , ornament, etc.

1. Absence of luxury or showiness; plainness.

2. Absence of affectation or pretense.

3. (a) Lack of sophistication or subtlety.

(b) Lack of good sense or intelligence; foolishness.

4. (a) Clarity of expression.

(b) Austerity in embellishment.

Looking at the synonyms for the word simplicity,

Plainness | Simpleness | Unassumingness | Unpretentiousness | Candor | Clarity | Clearness | Ease | Easiness | Homogeneity | Directness | Honesty.

Now for understanding the thought I researched on designers like Dieter Rams, Jonathan and John Maeda. John Maeda is one of the well known name in the design community. He is entitled as one of the most important personalities of 21st century. He has done a very well research on the thought of simplicity. He keep his blogs and web links updated about his thought on simplicity and the book he has written on the same thought called, “The Laws of Simplicity”, which has become my major source of inspiration for this learning. He proposed ten laws of simplicity, which are as below,

(Immediately applicable)

1. Reduce - The simplest way to achieve simplicity is through thoughtful reduction.

The fundamental question is, where’s the balance between simplicity and complexity?

How simple can you make it? – How complex does it have to be?

2. Organize - Organization makes a system of many appear fewer. Using the law of Gestalt psychology, law of proximity, where a group of objects perceives as a single object. Too many things on their own looks very complex but if segregated in groups look a bit simple. For example control system for an Audio/Video player. The main operations like play, stop, reverse, forward and eject are in the audio player itself but other additional operations like menu, display, timer, audio effects, repeat, mute, jump to next folder, etc. And even some operation are required to be done through screen like jumping to a very later/earlier song/album, selecting an audio effect, video settings, brightness, contrast, sharpness and other output settings. So by organizing the distribution of control system we make it simple to operate the player.

3. Time – Simplicity of experience. Waiting for things are sometime subtle (usually when it’s expected) and sometime very frustrating (mostly when it’s unexpected), but mostly it’s a tense and annoying experience. When any interaction with products or service providers happens quickly, we attribute this efficiency to the perceived simplicity of experience.

(Intermediate and Subtle in meaning)

4. Learn – Knowledge makes everything simpler. A screw is a simple design, but you need to know which way to turn it or else it will lead to complexity. The problem with taking time to learn a task is that you often feel you are wasting time, a violation of the third Law of time. The more you know about the product more simple it becomes and the lesser you know the more complex it become.

5. Differences – Simplicity and complexity need each other. Without the counterpoint of complexity, we could not recognize simplicity when we see it. Our eyes and senses thrive, and sometimes recoil, whenever we experience differences. Acknowledging contrast helps to identify qualities that we desire—which are often subject to change. We know how to appreciate something better when we can compare it to something else.

6. Context – What lies in the periphery of simplicity is definitely not peripheral. A magician is the master of consciously shifting their audience’s unconscious context. The understanding of context is must but to surprise the consumer we should play at peripheral part of the problem. Because delivering the obvious will lead to a plain and boring simplicity while delivering an unexpected will increase its context to itself. Meaning getting something more than expected but by considering the law one, reduce.

(Deep Simplicity)

7. Emotion – More emotion are better than less. The more emotion we add to the product the more contextual it becomes. It adds a personalization value to the product which brings more contexts to it, sixth law, context. For example giving product name or tag line according to its target audience also bring more of emotional attachment to the product and which basically simplify the bonding between product and the consumer.

8. Trust – In simplicity we trust. I remember when my father went through his angioplasty operation he was really tensed and scared before the operation but as he met the doctor and had few minutes chat with him he really become confident and easy about the operation. And the outcome was he preferred to have walk rather than going on stretcher to the operation theatre. So the conclusion is if you really trust or have faith on the product then it simplify and strengthen your bonding with the product. Some time sense of humour or other emotional values also build a trust or bonding between the products which leads to simplicity.

A business without trust make the deal very complex while the same deal could turn it to simple if both parties have trust on each other.

9. Failure – Something can never be made simple. Defects are normally stamped out in a six-sigma world. If it ain’t perfect, throw it out. Perhaps as you get older, you are more tolerant of how the world presents its failure-s around you. And maybe it is then you can begin to see the beauty of that which could be dismissed as invalid or otherwise handicapped, to emerge as entirely more relevant than if it were 100.000% perfect. A product with many components and purposes are mostly leads to complexity. E.g. software like Maya which has n numbers of tool and purposes become very complex to be understood as a whole package by an individual.

(The Law)

10. The One – “Simplicity is about subtracting the obvious and adding the meaningful.”

In looking for someone to hire, you look for three qualities: integrity, intelligence, and energy. But the most important is integrity, because if they don’t have that, the other two qualities, intelligence and energy, are going to kill you.

An article in the book, “The Tao of Warren Buffet”, page 47.

One of Jim Collins’ points of philosophy is his “Hedgehog Concept.” According to Jim, hedgehogs understand that the essence of profound insight is simplicity. He elaborates further on these animals that — “They see what is essential, and ignore the rest.” — Which sounds an awfully lot like the tenth Law the one.

Contents of book, Good to Great by Jim Collins.

“If there was no praise or criticism in the world, then who would you be?” -Anonymous

Three Keys

1. Away – More appears like less by simply moving it far, far away. By prioritizing the information or need we can make a complex looking product also simple. E.g. I Pod has a minimum operation button which makes it look like a simple product.

2. Open – Openness simplifies complexity. The easier is the product to understand the more simple it becomes. Keeping the operations of product very clear and approachable to consumer lead to simplicity. The more you know about a person the better will be your relation.

3. Power – Use less gain more.­­ Try to use as minimum as possible because the more you add to it the more complex it become.

“Simplicity means the achievement of maximum effect with minimum means.”

- Koichi Kawana

“Good design is as little design as possible.” – Dieter Rams

Conclusion

I would like to conclude this learning by saying there are two types of simplicity, one which differs from situation to situation and other the ultimate which remains same for every human. Explaining the first which is contextual, differing from situation to situation.

If simplicity is related to requirement, so then requirements are our needs, and needs differ from people to people. Every individual, every group, every culture has their own needs and that also differs from situation to situation. Today need is a very vast and dynamic term. Gadgets and products like iPod, mac book, mobile phones, lip gloss, internet service etc are categorized as basic needs. May be because the needs like food, shelter, clothes etc are taken for granted with growth of human kind.

(References: www.answer.yahoo.com, www.indusladies.com, www.yelp.com)

Time, society and needs are directly related to each other. If time is changing then the other two can’t be untouched. For an example land line telephones few decades ago were the matter of proud or status symbol or rather luxury. But today having two handsets with two different services is become a basic need. Because today people handling the business of crores of rupees from overseas. Nowadays with the fastest communication technologies people’s reach have become really bizarre, so definitely it has its own course of needs and requirement on the society. So that when asked about the five things without which you can’t live people actually answers iPods, mobile phone, lip gloss etc.

Simplicity is directly a matter of its surrounding or the target group. For example I made a poster for a competition held in our institute, what is graphic design? My poster was a click of wall with heart shape and name Mena engraved on to it and I just added a headline Graphic Design. The poster was a second winning entry of the competition and was appreciated by most of faculties and design students. But if I put the same poster in an environment where people actually don’t know what is graphic design then the same winning entry poster could have been turn into a failure.

By knowing my environment I designed such poster which makes it simple for those who has the knowledge (law 4, learn) but not for everyone. The same poster could have entitled as a complex product if I would have designed it for a non design environment.

The other conclusion is simplicity doesn’t mean compromising the quality. In fact simplicity mean improving the quality and serving to its best but with minimum means. The discussion started when I asked people about simplicity and few of them argued, what is the requirement of new technologies? Why we need any innovation now?

What my learning in these few days say is technology comes with complexity and complexity brings the simplicity. Fifth law, differences – Simplicity and complexity need each other.

For instance I remember when Mr. Dhimant Panchal informed me about a new D-SLR which has Bluetooth device in it. I was a bit unhappy with that combination of technology and I asked him, does it really require? And he replied think of wild life photographer who actually spends their days and months just to get a click. How simple his life will be now!

So don’t be santhust. Wish karo Dish karo.

The ultimate simplicity. I questioned myself there must be a core of simplicity, which remains same for everyone. Then I thought why there is a thought of simplicity? Then I tried it to relate our daily life but couldn’t conclude something. Then Mr. Arvind Merchant asked me about have you given a thought to “sanyasi jeevan”. What actually it means? Then again I started with the question why? Why sanyas? I remember few books by a budhist monk Ram Tzu and Fr. Anthony de Mello which talks about spirituality and philosophy of life has mentioned many short stories on the thought of the ultimate truth. One of the story which I remember about attaining the ultimate truth was,

Monk: How it feels after attaining the truth?

Master: Still the bird sounds same, the earth smells the same, the wind feels like the same.

Most of such stories say that nirvana is actually about living the total present only. But to achieve that simplicity it takes its own course. From a perspective of our material life also if we observe we get retired in the age sixty from service. Why sixty only? And why in Hinduism also they have mentioned that the age after sixty is of spirituality. Most of people actually start becoming spiritual on their own by this age. Why?

What I believe that by this age we actually have experienced almost everything. Our experiences has grown up to our wisdom, we have build up a sufficient content with in ourselves. And after attaining that we start thinking of simplifying our life. So that we try to omit unnecessary activities, try to live more simple. In fact if we observe the society also behave the same way as society becomes from people only. Once it achieve its growth, the city becomes more simple, for example, go to an urban area or city we will find more of the shops, their billboards and kiosks will be simple and minimal while in a developing or underdeveloped areas the shops and their look and feel will be very crowded and louder. Just same like while we humans are in our young ages.

So one could say that simplicity comes with passage of time and after attaining the maturity. And simplicity comes where there is a progressive growth or improvement. A well informed or aware or an educated generation will automatically increase the simplicity in society. Educated and informed consumers already make the process and problem simpler for them so that the products on its own become simple.

But the one question which I couldn’t answer is, if we have already reached to this thought then what is next? What is after simplicity? Though I totally believe that no one could achieve it completely. As in it can’t be achieved 100% because even if one could then it will be complexity in itself. Because if everything will be simple then how will we decide what is simple as there is no complexity. And its human behaviour nothing lasts for long, no thought is entertained for a timeless period. Then what is next?

A taste for simplicity cannot last for long. - Eugene Delacroix

Seven Design Components

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Seven Design Components

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What will be your future today?

Ganesha says the positions of stars says that I would be sharing my take on them with you.

The post is about horoscope, neither mine nor yours but just horoscope. I really cant comment or take a stand on the subject. I don't know do I believe in it or not but for sure I do check my horoscope if I have given choice. I noticed one thing when you ask people about it they opt for very defensive conversations (like I did, "if I have given choice"), rarely seen people coming strongly for it. While most of us do check their horoscopes daily, sometime with each of option, like astrologers column then tarot card readers and may be numerologists too! Some of us just go through it while watching or reading news but some purposely looking for their today's future by visiting .com or by watching those animated and scary Babas on our "so called" news channels.

While I was giving thought to it few words came to my mind like, faith, trust and belief. Then I looked for their meaning, how does they differ among them? I am not going to write their dictionary meaning here but will write rather what I understood. Faith is something which is blind and immaterial, trust comes with experience and a very material in scale while belief is something which comes between those two, a very personal and individual thing. Its more of perceptual while could have gained with experiences or may be an intensified form of faith. Our faith on something could be so blind that we can belief on something which we don't believe! For having faith on something we need to have belief on it first and not vice versa. Belief could be impractical or unreasonable but trust have reasoning to it.

For me, I have faith on religions, trust on relationships and belief on me.

Now talking about future I "believe" there will be hardly any one who wont entertain the idea of knowing his/her future. I guess more than that we all love to know or hear about ourselves. So may be for most of us it could be just fun reading but eventually by constant repeat episodes of experiences we develop a believe or could be trust with it. I do read but not religiously but I doubt tarot cards and numerologists for sure. I really wonder how stars could be related to each of us but if they do, wow! It should be a very interesting system study of flow of energy, if it is.

I believe let future be a mystery for the excitement of today and enjoy the present. And finally the Ganesha says, ensure the karma and leave the phalam.

Journalism

I remember watching helplessly 2:00 PM evening news and 8:30 Doordarshan news with dad while sitting for meal. Though seemed monotonous but not dramatic and biased at all. Today it seems vulgar and meaningless sometime. Even newspapers, same like those scary and nonsense "Khabardaar, Sansanny" News Channel which are ready to fall to any limit for their viewership. There are few news websites on whom you are bound to find minimum one third of their homepage on nudity or sex, minimum. Its more of gossip than journalism. Market share has become not the primary objective but the only objective.

On 31st Dec '09 Times of India's first page main story has claimed that India is building her two war front strategy against her neighbours, China and Pakistan.I really cant digest the need of publishing such news, and the irony was on the next day, when the newspaper came with cover of campaign called, Aman ki asha! If you really hopped for peace then why have you published the "two front war" article, which was almost claiming that we are already in a war situation with our neighbours. I believe such sensitive news shouldn't be published until its really an emergency. Such news promote rumors and also build an unnecessarily feeling of insecurity in to the citizens. And publishing such news on the front page was too much of drama than a sensible journalism. Because once you published something so serious and scary at such a big platform, you really cant control its responses then. So forth the biggest strength of democracy becomes its biggest flaw, freedom of speech. We know how we response to just a cricket match results, sometimes it turns up into communal dialogues or even riot. I was really clueless to read that but the name TOI was much enough for me to judge its seriousness. Either you talk about war or the peace, dont confuse the citizens with an insensible marketing strategies.

I remember my friend who had a habit of saying something new and exciting to his parents. One day he said to his parents that I am shifting to his building, I was clueless to heard that, it was very unnecessary and stupid of him but then I realized his urge of seeking attention. He was never trusted and taken seriously in our friend circle.

Here I am not questioning the truth behind the news but the necessity of the news, at a given date.

Remake of 3 idiots

I really enjoyed the movie a lot especially the speech by Chatur and definition of book by Rencho. But there were few scenes where the movie seemed too unreal and direct. I felt the movie has theme of, chase excellence and success will follow. A great idea to build on but my curiosity was of just success. Not how to achieve it but what is it. And I perceive meaning of success is very subjective rather than objective.

So if I have the opportunity to remake the film, 3 idiots then would like to bring few changes. Like, not showing suicide as reality, though it is but still my idea of cinema is to inform to motivate. In Rang de Basanti also they shot the minister and then his dad, which was too much for me. I didnt like the movie at all. Especially the way they ended. I believe if one has opportunity to speak to mass then better it be motivational, simple or non ambiguous. Violence is not the solution to any problem, the movie also said the same at last but what was the point to be murderers than. I like the movie, Yuva. It has a message, practical and an unambiguous path to improve or betterment. Same with 3 idiots, we know students are committing suicide and even if some are not aware than also it would have been better that they would have just inform rather then showing some one attempting suicide. I agree it brings drama and seriousness, and also work as an eye opener to their targets, parents and teachers, but it was too naked. Because by showing suicide you may motivate parents to stop it but you may also end up motivating a depressed student to think of it as an option. Though it was unjustified in the movie later but a depressed student may get convinced with just suicide part, as he may not convince his parents like the movie stars did.

Another change as I said in my earlier post will be with definition of success. Winning a race doesn't mean to stood first always. Its the fun and experience thats what matter, if you have really enjoyed the race than thats much enough to survive in market. In my story Rencho wont stood first but the Swamy (from Uganda) will stood first. Let him have the best job and package, thats what success for him is. And let Rencho be just Chotu not a scientist Phunsuk Wangdu with 400 patents. Let him be happy with his thought of education passing to new generation with not comparison but being individually competent. Thats what success for him is. My definition of success could vary from yours. And if one perceive to stood always first is success then for them I remember a Sufi story whose moral is, a blind man whose wife is ugly, better remain blind forever. My English Professor also taught me this, either you wake early or you don't wake up at all. She meant its better to realize as early as one could or else it will be too late to realize at an old age. So its better to not realize late and cursing whole life, when you can't change anything. Else its better he remain blind to the rest of his life, and end up in peace.

If you play with an aim of being Sachin or captain of your team you will end up nowhere, but if you will play for that cracking sound and that touch of perfect contact and timing you might be ahead of Sachin Tendulkar. The way he did, earlier it was Don Bradman, now its him tomorrow it could be us.

3 idiots

Again a nice movie by Vidhu Vinod Chopra and very well acted by Aamir Khan. May call it sequence of Taare Zameen pe! A really nice and required social message to parents. I have seen the victims of such bringing and values, I am fortunate to have a wonderful father who always said its not everybody's job to be a doctor or an engineer, even pan walla do a job and he was ready to proudly accept a pan walla son also. He always allowed me make my own mistakes so that I can learn on own, guess thats what make me today what I am, thanks dad. Its really suffocating and sad that parents pass on their wish list as a duty to their kids.

Well about movie I would first like to talk about my choice of cinema. I generally prefer parallel cinema, which is practical and real over main stream or commercial cinema which is more of drama and fantasies. I really like the plot of movie and Vidhu V. Chopra who is great in mixing up the two, parallel and main stream cinema. What conflict with the movie is its definition of success. I perceive the movie in beginning has asked to compare success with happiness rather than statistics of account data or in movie language the race. They said we are racing to win rather than just enjoying the race. I remember my cricket coach who taught me, dont play to score, play to just enjoy and runs will come on own. Though I didnt won the race but I enjoyed. And thats what my success is. I really improved a lot with that thought, I didnt become Tendulkar but Kunal for sure. Even the movie has given the same thought but at end when Chotu (the real past of Rencho) again become a Phunsuk Wangdu (with 400 patents, and a statistically successful scientist) then guess it again calculated the success in the same meter of quantity rather than quality of being happy. I would have been much happy if the Chotu would have remain just a teacher with the pride of educating young ones with new, unbiased and non comparative education system. That itself is an success. But I guess thats what make it a main stream cinema and so a widely acceptable ending.

"If you focus on result you will never change, but if you focus on change you will get the result." -Jack Dixon.

Mumbai Local

Today after long time went for movie with two more idiots, 3 idiots. What a postural journey to reach the theater, honored by Mumbai local trains. Mumbai, what I like about this city is its pace, understanding, and functionality. I don't know about political definition of Mumbaikars, but what I felt in this span of few months is its very helpful and functional behaviour. Ask for help they will surely revert, many times coming out of their way to help. Nothing gets wasted here, space, advice, time, experience, anything.

I hardly traveled in the city but whenever did through local trains it was a fun ride. Sometime standing in such a funny postures that it can easily relate to any yoga assan or bharatnattyam dance posture, some times even the composition of patterns of mob around you seems very funny and exotic! I really can make out the difference between variety of cottons now with a rub in my face, can differentiate the smell between Ariel washed and Surf Excel ki dhulai, believe me such a close encounter even with women can also be suffocating! You can smell any Parachute, Bajaj Almond, Bhrinraj, Vatika or Lifebuoy, Lux, Cinthol, any damn FMCG, thankfully except the toothpastes! My friends said I m lucky to not traveled in summer, its breath choking sometime.

Other than that is those interesting and masala stories or episodes you heard while on move. Like, office politics, 30's filthy stories, whispering "me too" stories, the brief stories (vodafone ka chota recharge wali), ya.. hmmm... I know stories (rest is not allowed by the speaker), or just hmm.. stories (the rest is over ruled here, strictly but willingly, by both parties), then I wish stories (smiling with earphones on), Ekta's tortured 40's age group, occupied with either calculators or policies (neither willing to go home nor office), then the blank retirement plan policies stories about to or late 50's.

But today's story was away from it. It has a father and his young son (about 10 years), standing at door of train, grabbing a pole between door, father trying to cover him from all possible sides and watching him with a wet bird eye view. Trying to show him city through the door, explaining nature, people, city, government, and society with his own tone and values. The father said its a sin to pluck a leaf, if it wont be green then no more water will go inside land. I wish he keep the words with him. I was happy to heard those, wish the rest have heard too. I was smiling with him, he said he has two kids, this is elder, very innocent and soft but younger is exactly opposite, he said with a floating eyes the younger is such a crook that can sell this whole compartment before we could realize. Then he talked about his visit to his relatives, who had a fight with their neighbour over an affair between young ones. Respecting the presence of his son he doesn't spoke much with his words but expressive enough through his eyes. He said many things few with frustrations and few with realizations, I choose to keep the rest with me and his young son.

One of those special friend. I cant even said bye to them, at Kurla station they got thrown away with mob and I was pushed inside.

Mumbai meri jaan!

Punishment

Was following Ruchika's case from last few days. Some opinion demands that Mr. Rathore, the cop, should be punished as hard as possible, and even the school who expelled her. A very disgusting and shameful episodes of act by those whoever supported that devil. Was also following the democratic drama of our law system who is struggling to punish a terrorist who had murdered number of innocents not in a four walls but under the blue sky after over a year. I was reading the comments below this news, must say our society still not cultured to be made public. People asking to murder him, shoot him, burn him and what not ways of being nothing else but being a terrorist in ourselves too!

Why do we punish? Do we punish to take revenge or do we punish to create fear? I perceive we punish to reinforce. We punish to make sure that it shouldn't be repeated in future. When mother punish her child the objective is and should not be the wrong act in itself but the learning, that it is not accepted and shouldn't be repeated. And realization make the culprit guilty not the punishment, and if its punishment, then its harmful for both. Fear can only stop you, cant correct you. I believe the realization is much healthy than the fear of punishment. Because we always remember our realizations but not surely our punishments. Fear is a paracetamol which can cure your fever but not the disease in itself.

I am not at all saying that culprits and terrorists shouldn't be punished or hanged, they should be punished as per our judiciary system but we should make this as an example of realization rather making it an example of fear or threat. Its healthy sometime to cut our some part of body for a healthy life.

"If people are good only because they fear punishment, and hope for reward, then we are a sorry lot indeed." - Albert Einstein

To vote: a right or duty.

Gujarat assembly on this Saturday has passed a controversial bill which makes, for the first time in the country, voting mandatory in local body polls.

If I really have to take a stand on this decision, I am against it. I agree democracy comes with responsibilities but I guess its a matter of choice rather than duty. Its my expression, its such a power if one is forced to use it then he may hurt himself and so the society too. Today we really have to choose between dacoit and murderer. And if so then the age to vote has really need to be reconsidered. Having interest and knowledge on politics is not mandatory. Its by our choice not by force.Thats why constitution says by the age of 21 I am allowed to marry but not should be married. Its my right to talk when I talk not my duty, and thats what freedom stands for. In news paper or website' polls we see sometime a third option called, can't say, that's not there for no reason. It represent the people who can't take stand or not willing to take stand on the provided opinion. It is a group in itself, they can't be avoided or crushed in a healthy democratic system. Strength of democracy is that its always reasonable or questionable by the public itself. Democracy is not about right and wrong, its about opinions. To respect each opinion is the strength of democratic system.

And more to it the system need to think that what could be its later consequences. In India its really tough to get your ration card and if you lucky enough to get it then please do check the names. Mostly they are spelt wrong and not for once or twice may be after you third correction. They even argue with the spelling of your name. They will tell you have a wrong name! And add to it India is full of various cultural practices, like in Gujarat we have tradition of writing the surname first then your name with sub title "Bhai" or "Ben", compulsorily. No matter how you wrote on your birth date certificate or school leaving certificate. So transferring your identity document is not an easy job in our system.Then Students like me who are out to study for years cant even think of applying for new voter ID in their new locations and how can you force them to vote for such a place where they are not in touch for a long time. Or else it will become a family practice like it is now. Most of us vote for that party for which our father stands and then so mother. Its like a newspaper habit from years my dad is reading Times of India so do I. Tomorrow if the government cancels my registration to vote from one locality then it becomes its responsibility now to make sure that I get my registration from another locality also.

And if you really forcing us to vote then even government should be equal enough so that if it fails to provide us the opportunity then even they could be penalized for the same. But then for me its more of autocracy rather than democracy.

I believe the approach should be reverse, rather government make the polling so simple and easy that one on its own come to vote rather being dragged. A doctor can't force his patient to make him fit rather he should make the treatment so happy enough that he himself get on his own to fight with the disease. Forcing patient for medicine can cause an another severe disease too.

Sometimes, not taking a decision is the best decision.

Connected but still not in touch!

Just read an article from Pritish Nandy about technolgy. I agree to him with technology we keep on adding options to our life. I remember in my graduation I had ten chapters but our holy and kind university had given us option of five, meaning out of ten you can just read five chapters. But I aways respected a dialogue from Antonio Banderas, work smarter not harder. So I chose to read three chapters which are much enough to score 35 and to promote. But wait, I was not just smart but smarter so use to ask my seniors for VIP and MIP questions (that stands for Very Important Questions and Most Important Questions). Infact sometime our Professors were so practical that they use to give us the MIP questions, rather answers.

Moral of the story: I am graduate!

The same with our life too today. We have so much of options that we don't even hug our freinds today on their birthday but do greet them with facebook's free gifts, hugs n kisses, and a day in advance and that also suggested and reminded by facebook. And the irony is, we call them social sites! We call our girl before the midnight, or in advance to ensure we are the first to call. But is this advance? I confess my most of words are while no one is around, its either my phone or the screen. With a status, I am available. Am I?
We even keep reminders of maa's birthday. If you think, logical but if we at all can feel, disgusting and shameful.

Wow! Just got a call from Maa now! Long live old lady. She is in our home town Gadhwal, said we have 24 hrs water pipe line to our homes now! Might sound remote but was very own and connected to me. I still remember my tiny steps to the stream for water with my Mama and Mosies (Ihate calling them my maternal uncles and aunties, sounds very English and uncultured to my culture), to avoid studies. It was not a stream actually, in Gadhwali we call it Gadhera, a tiny chilled water fall with force of heaven, meaning a city kid was suggested to sit at twenty feet distance so that he dont get a cold. But the polluted city boy was excited enough to feel the chillness which was totally different from his city's fridge water and much forceful and whiter than his city's garden pipes. So he jumped finally and get thrown away with the force of heavenly water but he felt something which he never felt on the city's water fountains or bath tubs. So he had his best of ever, finally got pulled by Mosies for his asthma, and it took seven days, pair of warm blanket and the warmest oil massage from his Nani to stood up after that bath.

But today no one goes to the Gadhera, as 24 hours water pipe lines are inside our houses now. I feel sad for city kids. Can't stop missing it. :(

If I think logically, we got connected but emotionally I feel very aloof. Is that connectivity? Today my uncles keep asking my father about his possesions. They force him to buy houses and invest money in real estate. I hate to call my house a property or a possesion, its just my house. I hate people valuing their houses.

So its not just about graduating and move on but how do you graduate.

I don't know why we stay online while we are off to line!

Approach to THE System

As in my earlier post I have shared my understanding of system, now I am quite into the topic so would like to write more on to it. I perceive system as a never ending process because it does not grow linearly but circularly. For example our life, we born as a kid and die also as a kid, I still remember how my family has cared for my grandparents during their old days, just like my niece.

I assume that there is only a system which is the system, but it has many folds or loops to simplify it. For example you study any subject it will be some how related to an another subject. Don't want to talk about design because it has all the damn thing from commerce, arts to science. We take economics, it has maths, then geography, it has chemistry, physics and biology too, we take biology it has chemistry, history, and god and doctors knows what not. So the point is everything in system is interrelated. Either we perceive it as a set of different systems to simplify it or just as a component of THE System.

We "also" as a smart living beings divide our work so that it can be simplify and could be done in more productive manner. Same as animals, while some have job to chase the prey, the others have to target while the chaser trap them to bring it to the attacker, and the other has their job of taking care of the young ones at an unsafe jungle. So the whole system got divided into sections which make it more simpler and fruitful.

But my point here is to understand THE System, which is only one because its complete. It is something like the concepts of western religion which says there is only one god. Here please notice I am not questioning the eastern thought of religion. I believe they both have different approach. The western thought is more about how to live a life or how THE System should function while the eastern is about what is life or what is THE System. May be thats why to understand life or THE System Hinduism ask us to believe in many of its component and to respect it equally because in system nothing is VIP, everything has its own importance and if one get disturbed the whole system gets affected. So rather believing in one god or THE System we believe in many gods or the different components of THE System. While the western thought directly approach to THE System or the god. May be thats why they say god doesn't have form because as I said system is never ending, and something which is never ending cant be defined in a form, guess until we don't realize its not linear its circular (still an assumption of mine). They believe in messengers of god, which I perceive as components of THE System. Don't want to talk more on religion because of my limited knowledge.

System thinking

System: (dictionary meaning)

1. an assemblage or combination of things or parts forming a complex or unitary whole.

2. any assemblage or set of correlated members

When we read about design thinking, design policies, and in larger scale even government and then even our nature too, we somehow got connected to a word called system.

What is system?

How much I understood about this word is that it’s a perspective of whole by networking its each and every component to make it complete cycle and always in a circle. Nothing is waste and nothing has more importance than the other because it’s all linked, though there could be priorities. So if u disturb one the other will be affected and if he then the next too so the whole cycle. It’s always a cyclical process rather than linear. And why circle because its always uniformed, balanced, and never ending (so also has no start).

For example say our body, when do we get fever? Fever is not a disease it’s a symptom, if some function of body get disturbed, it’s in the response of that malfunctioning so that we can be alerted and repair that malfunctioning. But suppose if we do not get fever even during a malfunctioning of our body system then probably we will end up diagnosing our most of diseases in very later stages, which could be fatal sometime.

The same thing can be applied to our society system also like, riots, outbursts, strikes, pre -elections, frauds, wars, failure of law and order and many more such violent and destructive responses are nothing else but simply a failure of not diagnosing the fever earlier.

Same concept applies to our philosophy of life too! What is Yein Yang? It’s all about balance so it’s about system. What is the concept of Bramha, Vishnu and Mahesh? Again same the balance, one is to start life, the other to move life and the last to complete it so that it can start again!

Now if we go back to our daily office life, the marketing life, we will find this there too! What is marketing? It’s also a cycle, start from target audience then to processes, then manufacturers and finally to consumer, which is now a customer. And to make business again the customer again gets in trap of target audience. But in marketing the trick is to keep open the loop though the circle is complete, it’s actually same but in micro view it looks as the loop is open but it’s not. The trick is to overlap rather leaving open same as the other. As I said the system doesn't work on its own it works with each of its component and nothing is waste. Can say in system there are no start point and the end point. Like our mother nature!

Another thought to describe it, could be the number zero. What is zero? It’s a restart!

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31…

Now if you think1 as start then what is zero and if it’s zero then it has no value to itself! And if its zero then what about integers. Mathematically we denote infinity as n, and if n is a value then there will be n+1 too, and so n+n also, which will be n in itself!

Albert Einstein has said, “Mathematics is the way to nirvana.” Guess could be true! Till then let’s respect infinity!

Journey from 800 to 1,00,000.

Today is the proud day of Indian transportation history, 14 Dec. On 14^th Dec 1983 Smt. Indira Gandhi handed over the keys of the FIRST Maruti 800 to Shri Harpal Singh at the spanking new Maruti Udyog plant in Gurgaon. That little white car set a million hearts on fire. The Indian roads became cheerful, colourful and full of energy. The joy of motoring was finally here!

The journey of this common man* car began with many dreams, ideas, and thoughts. As far as I knew the idea of making a car was of Mr. Sanjay Gandhi. He had a team of handful engineers with whom he did his design processes and few prototyping. One can be seen below with Mr. Sanjay Gandhi and an engineer of his team.

Now after two and half decades of that pride moment Mr. Ratan Tata has launched his Tata Nano just worth Rs. One lakh. He says it was his dream to come up with such an affordable car. He really did his best to execute his dream into reality by providing such a low cost car to the Indian market, which was almost an impossible task for the western manufacturers. Few people even called it an innovation on its own. I must say a great example of engineering with a very Indian thought of low cost.

But do we really require it? The world is recognizing us as an economically most influential country. I know the ground reality quite look different but though it is not. We are moving and progressing with the same democratically corrupted system which is incredible. I remember a quote by our Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh in an international visit where he said he agrees we are not as fast as Chinese but surely we can’t adopt their value system for the sake of growth (Democracy Vs Communism). I really felt very proud of that statement, well said.

So I see this as we have a grown and huge market with a poor infrastructure system which makes us slow. I perceive we don’t have shortage of capital but an infrastructure surely. We as a growing economy aren’t and shouldn’t be asking for cost effective products rather we demand for quality life. In a growing economy our basic needs are taken for granted so that we can build for quality life and that’s what differentiate a developing economy from under developed economy. So I don’t agree to a concept of one lakh rupees car because it’s not a matter of affordance but of a poor infrastructure. We are already facing many other problems like space congestion, traffic, teenage driving, fuel prices etc. And introducing such a product will definitely made the infrastructure weaker while it should have been vice versa. Just as a thought, I will rather stand for a car costing much higher (may be 8 to 10 lakh+) so that we can promote public transport and can lessen the unnecessary ownerships of four wheelers in a family. This is a waste of resources and an unnecessary complexity to our system.

Would like to share a poster designed by me for the topic, be responsible to your environment. The third winning entry in India Design Festival.

Design

When we say the word design, the first reaction come to you is something uncommon, different, unique, out of box, out of blue, long hairs, beard, crazy, magical, not art but almost an art! For instance when the telephones came in our country it was almost an avtaar of Naraad Muni rather than an innovation! But today even a school going kid know how to fix it up that little avtaar and make him run! The wonders of Narad Muni don’t amuse us today, not even to kids. The cycle has moved to a state where everybody want to be well informed and knowledgeable rather than sitting beside and simply "just" amusing it.

I agree there was a life when people and cycle was looking for something new, dramatic, and creative or rather to an extent something magical! But now I believe the cycle has started demanding for something simple and transparent. Today consumer even want to look at inside the product, how it functions, how it is build, how it can be repaired, or checked. He wants to understand his product throughout inside to out. I guess design is becoming a mass language, or technology is getting transparent. Today most of us understand what is engineering, economics, psychology, and so the design. For example the new campaign of Onida which replaced the devil with a tagline "tumko dekha toh yeh design aya."

I feel even we as designer should start opening and sharing rather making it a miracle while it could be taught as a trick. When we know people have started learning tricks then why to showcase magic and become fool later. Why not stand and work as Mr. Mandela or Mr. Gandhi rather than fictious League of Extraordinary Gentlemen!

I must say here my idea of design by now could be very idealist as I hardly have experience of market but just a design education. So I would rather work with market and get brushed up for more confined and practical idea of design to conclude my pure idea of design rather ideal idea of design.

By now would like to conclude my post with a great thought of Tom Peters, "Almost all quality improvement comes via simplification of design, manufacturing, layout, processes, and procedures."

Ecstasy of science.

There are many things in our surroundings and daily life which seems simple and very obvious but if someone ask you to present it, the first response will be, OMG! For example let say wind, can any one think of how to draw it! And I am not talking about art, I am talking about science. Meaning drawing with logic and facts rather weed! Please don't misunderstood me I have complete respect for all the three streams, Science, Art and Weed. They all have their own fun and ecstasy! Yes even science have that! Don't believe me? Have a look then, http://www.dwbowen.com/portfolio.html

Please note: The purpose of this post is not to promote any form of ecstasy but to share it! :)

Information Architecture

While doing a wayfinding project I got better understanding of information architecture. Its about prioritizing an information and presenting it in a sequential structure for a simple and linear flow. A very rational and calculative process from both the ends, here not just designers has to be smart but some of it is also expected from its users. For instance if someone is leaving to Pune from Ahemdabad by his car then he better ask for the next nearest destination rather than asking for way to Pune at Ahemdabad highway. In such case it wont be a designers fault if he face any difficulty. Till Mumbai he can be easily guided by highway signboards and just before reaching Mumbai he can see a signboard showing way to Pune express highway directly. Or else he can opt for GPS system too, possibly smarter and quicker but though on same principles of navigation.

In information architecture we make a system as per classification in primary, secondary and tertiary levels. We classify the priority of information and then as per their need we put them to their hierarchy. Suppose if you want to meet a friend of yours who stay at Santa Cruise, first we need to know is their any direct local transport to their and if yes then which will be affordable and smarter. Then after reaching at nearest railway station or bus stop you need to know a famous and nearest landmark to your friend's house. After reaching their we inquire about his building then at entrance we look for his floor and then flat number. Ting tong!

Then I thought about our postal address system, as per info architecture in our addresses the country should come then state, city, lane, building, floor and flat number respectively but then it will be difficult for the sender (MANGO man) to write an address in a reverse order. So that the postal department have a concept of pin code. PIN stands for Postal Index Number and the code is 6 digits long. The first digit of the PIN code indicates the region in which a given post office falls in. The second digit indicates the sub-region, and the third digit indicates the sorting district within the region. The final three digits are assigned to individual post offices.
Then the other problem came to my mind was the date format. We follow the dd/mm/yy which also has to be in reverse order but after googling the date format I came to know that there is a format which is yy.mm.dd called Big endian form which is said to be followed followed in Asian countries, Hungary and Sweden. YYYY-MM-DD is an ISO 8601 international standard and DD.MM.YYYY using dot as separator with this sequence has been defined by ISO 8601. I really amazed when I saw a ISO certification of date format, obvious but still.

Maaru Junu Amdavaad (My Old Ahemdabad)

Would be the best start to welcome someone to my city, Ahemdabad, our Gandhi's land.

"My life is my message." ~Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi

An old woman of Rabbari community, known for their colourful attire.

The lines are loud enough for the story!

We still regret year 2002!

Still to open many folds.

A long call!

STD ISD PCO

I almost surrendered with the way she turned! Massakali.

If you smile when no one else is around, you really mean it. ~Andy Rooney

Very cutely she asked, "Bhaiya will you click us?"

Kaka sitting with many tales and a stick, to enjoy sun and his chaa.

Peace.

Absolutely NO.

Unlocked doors!

The switches I miss most. Many times maa scolded for playing with them.

Jama Masjid

"If you love someone, put there name in circle; because heart can be broken, but circle never ends."

Amazing typography, harmony, balance and humanized.

A woman with Quran.

A symbol of evolution.

My mood.

The Three Stooges, number 1 Vipin George

Number 2, Ajmal Fazal

Last but not the least, the visionary!

In Gujarati we say awjo, means come back soon.