Progress in any sector is largely dependent on the type of education, the Thinking, the desire to bring about change, and ultimately the actions. For a product to be effective, efficient, fun and easy to use design thinking is of core importance. Strategic design thinking allows us to unfold the complexities of ambiguous and challenging problems and offer effective solutions.

Over and above creativity, Culture and its outlook play a significant role in bringing about innovation. India is a country of diversity. As the pandemic has highlighted the importance of creative thinking, let us understand what it holds ahead in terms of design culture and its future.

To answer the questions on India’s Design culture and what holds in the future, we have our panel of experts which includes, Prof. Pradyumana Vyas. He is the chief advisor of ARCH College of Design and Business and the former director of NID and has immense experience in academics related to design thinking. Another key person is Mrs. Archana Sarana. She is Director and Founder of ARCH, committee member of a center for excellence, and a rotary foundation member.

Highlighting India’s Design theme of the event, our expert, Mr. Pradyumana Vyas has shared some points from his vast expanse of experience. The session was hosted by Mr. Manan Surana.

Design Thinking and Design Culture: The Importance  
Today, design education has been globally acclaimed as the field of opportunity. Whether you want to create a textile, accomplish a project, or devise a product, design thinking is the basis of the process. Formulating a solution without a known starting point is the aim of design thinking.
Each problem in any industry requires an individual to devise solutions based on need and demand basis.

There is a deep bond that relates design thinking with the culture. India has been inhabited by people of diverse cultures, traditions, and languages. Various civilizations have left their imprints on the various areas of design and development. India is greatly indebted to its culture for the progressive craft industry. Our nation’s social economy is largely dependent on the creative culture industry.

As highlighted by Prof. Vyas, Culture is the canvas for us to design using creative thinking. It has influenced almost every sector, bringing changes in technology, manufacturing processes, and future strategies. The advancements such as automation through IoT and E-commerce are some such outcomes.
Design Thinking involves not only the technical aspects but also brings emotions into the picture. This is the major benefit of this tool.

Impact of Pandemic on Design Thinking In India 
For every chaos, there is an order. This statement by Prof. Pradyumana Vyas tells about the impact that pandemic has had on the design industry. Before the pandemic, there was a situation where skilled craftspeople did not find satisfaction in their jobs. A large number of people began migrating to urban areas for jobs of survival rather than satisfaction.

Due to the pandemic, the same people were put in a situation to design and create something innovative that could help sustain them. It was the ambiguity that brought a shift in thinking styles and hence the idea of co-creation came into effect. Thinking independently during adversities has helped evolve the creative levels. Further, it has also made more and more people aware of the field.

Another aspect where the pandemic has helped the design sector is by putting more focus on recreating and reforming. The strain of resources such as healthcare services, food, and livelihood have alerted us as a society. It has led to the concept of sustainable development, which greatly involves the use of design thinking. At this point, the role of designers comes into the picture. Devising solutions to problems of daily waste and continuous changes are possible by creative thinkers through reforming.

Design Thinking, Technology, and The Future 

There is an immense role of opportunity for design thinkers in the future. Today Design thinking enables the use of technology to solve problems of manifolds. However, it is also argued that it would lead to loss of livelihoods as Artificial intelligence takes over. To counter this problem, one of the most essential aspects of humans is their capability to deal with the unknown. It is what design thinking empowers us to do.

No AI could learn how to deal with changes over time and design solutions with an emotional outlook. It is where design thinkers will play a major role in the paradigm shift due to design thinking.

Moving into the new education policy now, we see that the future will largely require design thinking as the basic criteria to be in any field. Whether a doctor, manager, or sports person it will empower a generation of thinkers.

Conclusion 

The scope of design thinking to bring solutions and create career opportunities is immense. In the world today, the need to bring better innovations in every sector is a necessity. Every brand and commercial organization is now looking for thinkers rather than just traditional professionals. In such times, design education universities hold the highest acclaim to a bright future. Design education gives a holistic approach to solve the problems of the modern world. Unsustainable development, resource shortages, and lack of thinking human-power could be easily solved by it. The challenge is to recognize this sooner and increase the acceptability levels of the design careers. At ARCH College of Design and Business, we have understood the same and tried to implement the same through our culture and curriculum.

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