ES 115

Design, Innovation and prototyping

1 Introduction

Manasi Kanetkar
August 2024
Introductions
Google classroom code: n6cbqgo
Schedule of sessions

*Holidays: Lectures will be shared as recordings

Schedule of submissions
Sessions missed due to holidays
- Lectures will be recorded and shared
- Lab sessions will be compensated on Saturdays with
prior notice

Communication
es115dip@gmail.com (Attendance / submission) (Manasi Kanetkar)
nirav.bhatt@iitgn.ac.in (trade related issues) (Nirav Bhatt)
tarun.s@iitgn.ac.in (trade related issues) (Tarun Sharma)
Mode of communication
- Google Classroom (GC) will be used for sharing documents, important
slides from lectures
- Submissions for design projects and assignments will happen via GC
- Updates or changes in classes/ will be shared on the GC and/or via student
representatives and TAs as well.
- Practice and test of trades will happen in workshops; staff members will
be in-charge of the same
Visual notes
Submit at the end

Images:
https://in.pinterest.com/search/pins/?q=visual%20notes&r
s=typed

Watch: https://youtu.be/eZQ7ILUAsek?feature=shared
Materials – for low fidelity mock-ups
- Cardboard boxes, papers (printing paper, card sheets)
- Plastic containers, bottles, bottle caps, old pens
- Tins/ cans, tetra-packs / glass bottles (washed)
- Broken hardware, clips, pins, wires and cords etc.
- Wooden skewers, plant twigs
- Old pieces of cloth /old leather belts, rope
- Adhesive, rubber bands, cello-tape
- Paper cutter, a pair of scissors, steel scale
- Acrylic paints
 What to expect?
- Basics of design thinking

- Process of good design

- Multidisciplinary

- Expecting you to be active and alert!

- Needs you switch between topics (quite often)

YES

- Intensive; yet a lot of fun!!

 What to expect?
- Make you an expert in design / innovation
- Be theory heavy
- Be very smooth, there will be phases of uncertainty
NO
Design will help..
- In studies for UPSC/ MPSC
- Management studies
- How to work in functional teams?
Skills that you will develop
- Communication skills
- Concept representation skills
- Prototyping skills
- Troubleshooting (problem solving)
- Developing individuality
A pledge
- To observe.. (like a detective)
- To ask questions… lots of them
- To articulate… (good/bad)
- To be ready to fail and retry (multiple times)
- Not everything is about myself and my views!
What is design ?
Through the course:
Multiple meanings of design
General perception about design / designers
- Decoration
- Whimsical
- Abstract art
What is डिज़ाइन ??

Anything that is not by accident ..

...is by design
What is design

“Design is not just what it looks like and feels like.

Design
Design is how itis a goal
works.”oriented, creative,
problem solving process
–Steve Jobs
I want it this way!!
Just a creative expression
What is design : how it works
- Creative problem solving

- Helps develop a vision/ out of the box ideas

- Inclusivity

- Systemic thinking
Why this course?
Objectives
- Introduction to design process and avenues of innovation

- Introduction to various prototyping trades and skill development

- Introduction to workshop/ shop floor practices and safety standards

- Understanding the journey of an idea to a feasible product,

opportunities for innovation by engineering and design
Objectives
- Understanding material properties; introduction to design and
engineering detailing for prototyping

- Application of design process as an iterative and creative problem

solving.
- Using design tools and methods to offer value added solutions for
specific needs
Background for innovation
Skills displayed by animals/ birds
- Using tools

- Communication

- Building / Storage of food

- Making new materials (paper / composites)

- Controlling environments (weather/ defence)

- Interior design
Natural evolution

Beaver dams

Capuchins using tools

A dog named bunny communicates

In words (using buttons)
Human nature (innovation)
- A want for a better quality of life

- Improving the environment around

- Increasing efficiency and effective use of resources

- Desire for improved social life

Discoveries/ Inventions
Hunter gatherers
Hunter gatherers' tools
Agrarian era: society
Agrarian era - products
Products, culture

https://exclusivecoins.blogspot.com/20
17/02/445-headgears-of-india-set-of-
16.html
Products and social structure
Products keep evolving
Crafts
Crafts
Crafts
Crafts
19th and early 20th Century
Industrial revolution
19th and early 20th Century
Socio-economic changes
 Socio-economic changes
Early 20th Century

'Rosie the Riveter'

Urban development

https://twitter.com/mumbaiheritage/status/1090261551427117057
Mumbai around 1945
https://architexturez.net/pst/az-cf-172426-1444709415
Products - early modern industries
Products in the early industries
Professions
Markets
Need or want?

Note: read about consumerism

Roles of various professions
Number of stakeholders
- Industrialist / capitalist

- Engineer/ technology expert

- Marketing agency

- Supply and sales network

- Consumer

- After sales agencies (service + support)

Design as a profession
Developing products for mass
- Disconnect between user and manufacturer

- Lost craftsmanship

- Changing needs of the society

- Awareness about ergonomics and new aesthetics

- Need of a ‘bridge’
Role of an engineer
- To ensure manufacturability and assembly
- To design transfer of energies
- Technical simulations and testing
Role of a designer
- To develop usability and aesthetics
- To ensure manufacturability of new ideas
- To ensure the marketability
- Visualizing new concepts/ applications of technology
Peter Behrens
Raymond Loewy
New tech/material in consumer market

LC4 Chaise Longue Plywood chair

Le Courbusier Charles Eames

Wassily chair
Marcel Breuer FRP chair
Charles Eames
The scope of
Design and innovation…
Developing a vision

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2020/mar/27/ive-never-seen-
metropolis-fritz-lang-film

Metropolis, 1927
 Developing a vision

Ref: https://tinyurl.com/3wrxwx5u

Life on Mars
Design for engineers
- Framing: Perceiving reality from a certain standpoint or angle.

- Analogical reasoning: Identifying and transferring relevant

knowledge

- Abductive reasoning: Proposing hypotheses to explain certain unusual

phenomena based on limited observations and data.
- Mental simulation: Predicting the outcome of a certain strategic
choice
Design in India

.
 Image credit:
https://www.mygov.in/
Definition of industrial design
"Industrial Design is a strategic problem-solving process that drives
innovation, builds business success and leads to a better quality of life
through innovative products, systems, services and experiences.”

Professional Practice Committee, 2015

29th General Assembly in Gwangju (South Korea)
Summary
- Course details
- Need of innovation
- Birth of design as a profession
- Scope of design and innovation (together and separate)
Is this a product?

To be continued in the next lecture...

Discussion: What is a product?

To be continued in the next lecture...

Lab this week: Design activity (AB 1 – 101)

- Each student brings a simple product (with minimum 2 and

maximum 3 parts)
- Try to bring unique products...
Lecture next week (26th August):
- Will be shared as recording
- A quiz will be conducted in class on 2nd September
ES 115
Design, Innovation and prototyping

1 What is design?

That’s introduction to
Design and Innovation…

Next time… ‘Drivers of innovation’ + understanding a product’