EASY HOLD -
DESIGN BRIEF : Understanding the daily activity of tea vendors in Indian railway and designing a simple solution to aid the business of tea vendors
COLLEGE PROJECT : Simple Product Design
DURATION : 3 Weeks
MY ROLE : Learning the basics of the design process, Implementing each element of design process and coming up with a simple yet effective solution
DESIGN PROCESS
Start of the project
GROUP PROJECT BRIEF
The whole class of students were divided into 5 groups and were given various topics to explore further. Our group was allotted the topic “People on the Move”. We as a group had to initially brainstorm and list the people whose way of living and earning fall under this topic and further understand and analyse their lifestyle. We wrote down our observations on sheets of paper and grouped them together into several categories
Our Group were given the topic - People on the Move
Brainstorming on the topic and listing down people who make a living by moving around
Detailing the activities of each person falling under the umbrella of “ people on the move ”
GROUP ACTIVITY - INTERVIEWS AND OBSERVATIONS
Start of Individual project
INDIVIDUAL PROJECT BRIEF
Out of all the people that we interviewed as a group, I selected “tea vendor selling tea in the train” as my individual project topic. I now had to further observe and understand the lifestyle of a tea vendor in the Indian railway.
I visited the Pune railway station many times to observe and talk to the tea vendors on the station and in the train. I even got permission from the station inspector to visit the Pantry Car of Jhelum Express train ( It had a 1 hr halt at the station )
INTERVIEWS AND OBSERVATION
I interviewed around 12 tea vendors ( chai wala) on the Pune railway station as well as in the train. Below images represent the questionnaire designed and Interview points from some of the interviews.
INSIGHTS
I got many insights by observing tea vendors and interviewing them. I also interviewed some of the travelers who purchased tea in the train to get their point of view on how they viewed the tea vendors.
PROBLEM AREAS FACED BY TEA VENDORS IN THE TRAIN
CONSUMER’S POINT OF VIEW ON TEA VENDORS
REQUIREMENT ANALYSIS
IDEATION
The relation between tea-vendor and the customer was understood. Instead of focusing on only tea-vendors, the consumer’s point of view was also taken into consideration.
There were 4 main problem areas that were taken into consideration. Ideation was done on solving all these issues.
- Final Design Brief -
Solve tea-cup handling issues faced by tea vendors
The design brief was narrowed down to only one of the problem areas and finding a solution to that. Tea-cup handling issue was chosen as the design brief. Further observation and research was done
FACTORS TO CONSIDER WHILE DESIGNING THE TEA-CUP HOLDER
Design
Concept
Conclusion
LEARNING
This project was the first design project that I worked on in college. From this project, I learned the design process and the way design methodology works. To find solutions to a problem is necessary but to understand the user and seeing the problem from macro-level as well as micro-level is also very important. I even learned to look at parallel systems and get insights from them. The learning from this project acted as stepping stones for future projects.
