Design Lota

We talk to Pooja Saxena - A typeface designer who has worked with all kinds of scripts, and also works on collaborative type projects in public spaces. Pooja talks about what brought her back to India after finishing her Master's in Typeface Design in the UK and why she enjoys working in India and working from home. She takes us behind the scenes into the depths of the Type Design Process. Having worked on Indic scripts like the Ol Chiki project, Farsan (A Gujarati Typeface), and Devanagari, as well as English fonts, she gives us a perspective of how a type designer looks at and works with type. In particular we talk about her projects like Typerventions and Type Walks which help both designers and non-designers engage with type and even language and history in a meaningful, collaborative way. More details at Designlota.com

In this episode we talk to Ripul Kumar, Head of UX at Tally and Ex-founder of a design research firm, Kern. Ripul talks about how he discovered User Research to be his forte and what led to him opening his own research firm. We discuss how research techniques must be creatively adapted to the cultural context to get meaningful insights. Ripul gives us some ideas on what to do when there is not enough budget or priority given for research in a corporate setting, and how to bring in a culture of research in different ways. We ponder about 'best practices' in the research process and when to use them. Ripul shares his experience watching and being part of the changing design scene in India over the last couple of decades. We talk about Design Leadership and what it takes to lead design in our contexts. Ripul talks about his learnings in the journey from Research Consultant to Head of UX and also a course in Management at MIT Sloan.

In this episode, Sushi and Angie chat about designers and the tools of their trade. We attempt to define what design tools are, and what qualifies as a design tool. We reminisce about a time when design was more about thinking with your hands. We question if tools beginning to define the designer, and does knowing or owning tools ensure a superior quality of design work? We discuss the importance of a foundation of intangible and valuable design tools in a world where tools come and go so often.

Mydhili talks about her journey from a psychology major to an edtech entrepreneur and what caused the shift. She tells us about her interesting work with the Harvard Graduate School of Education, where she did her Master's in the Technology in Education course. She also did a project with MIT Media Lab during this time, which she walks us through. We learn about qualitative user research techniques especially when you're working with children and young adults. She brings out the importance of building trust and having genuine curiosity about children's lives to glean useful insights that can help designers come up with better educational products for them. She walks us through what sparked the creation of Young Current and what it takes to build a child-safe news reading experience while also keeping it interesting. She also gives us her take on where edtech is headed next and how budding edtechpreneurs and designers can find their way into this interesting field.

In this episode, we speak to Nitasha Sarangi, who is an experienced graphic designer and an Art Therapy researcher.

Nitasha talks about what sparked her interest in Art Therapy and how art can empower people to deal with issues like stress, grief, personal tragedy and more.

She talks about the variety of art activities like drawing, pottery, music and movement that she uses in her workshops. She also elaborates on the science of Art Therapy and why it works.

She also enlightens us on how she points her clients to clinical therapy where that may be more beneficial.

We discuss the importance of teaching art as a core subject in school education.

She shares how conducting Art Therapy workshops has made her a more empathetic designer.

She shares her views about making art accessible and how natural it is to us as human beings.

References:

Nitasha’s Art Babblers initiative:

www.artbabblers.com

https://www.instagram.com/artbabblers

https://www.facebook.com/artbabblers/