My project focused on domestic appliances while understanding user perception of simplicity in the Indian kitchen.

I started by understanding what simplicity meant to the Indian user. The approach was redefined by deciphering the 3 brand pillars of simplicity - ‘designed around you’, ‘easy to experience’ and ‘advanced’. This led to the emergence of the design process – understanding values and changing attitudes, user behaviour and the changing context. This approach helped to gauge simplicity in the given Indian kitchen context and helped to align research findings with the brand message.

Research methods comprised in-depth interviews, metaphor elicitation, ethnographic and observational studies, and trend spotting in the local markets. Synthesis of the findings led to four value groups, each characterized by its set of dominant values and user needs. Desired product attributes were defined for each group along with the desired cooking processes. The insights from the project will enable Philips to understand cultural nuances and the changing Indian user, to design future products that distinguish themselves in a highly competitive consumer durables market.

‘People make an organization’ was reinforced in my workplace ideology. That’s what makes one get up and go to work everyday – the people and the non-stop humour. Listening to people and understanding their perspective and being able to link your perspective with theirs is important to the design process. Openness and a lot of persistence are definitely required to make a team work. This attitude also leads to creating holistic design solutions.