Experience Design
My design practice has always focused on creating solutions, but this semester challenged me to consider the deeper impact of those solutions. Are we, as designers, simply creating new problems with each innovation? This question sparked a journey of exploring design consciousness – the awareness of a design's broader implications. My focus shifted to the everyday products and services we consume for convenience. Often, these actions become habitual, performed with minimal awareness of their environmental, social, or personal impact. As an experience designer, I delved into the diverse perspectives within communities regarding their level of consciousness towards design. This exploration revealed a fascinating spectrum of behaviors and awareness around the very same products. This diversity led me to a crucial realization: As a designer, my responsibility extends beyond problem-solving. I must be mindful of the resources consumed, the environmental impact generated, and the potential influence on user wellbeing with each creation. This newfound design consciousness will guide my future practice, ensuring that solutions are not only effective but also responsible and sustainable.
An activity that is common and routine, is no longer mindful. It happens subconsciously with minimal awareness about its impact in the broader scheme of things. Both the projects, “Carton to Consciousness” and “Exploring Minimalism in Technology” bring out exactly this perspective from our daily lives. As E-Commerce brings everything to our doorstep and devices promise to solve our problems, we shift focus on bringing convenience to our lives but lose focus on the costs that we pay in the form of health, environment and wellbeing. As we grapple with the invisible impact of our choices, the research studies bring out the need to make these impacts explicitly visible. Just as we have a choice with respect to “what” we are consuming, we need to create choices with respect to “how” we are consuming.
