Need To Look At Bigger Picture: Manasi Kanetkar

Meha Mathur Sep 16, 2022

Manasi Kanetkar did her B. Arch from Pune University in 2002 and followed it up with MDesign from Industrial Design Centre, IIT-Bombay in 2006. Teaching engineering students at IIT-Gandhinagar, Kanetkar is also part of several projects being conducted by the institute, lending her design expertise. In an interview with BW Education, she shares the role that designers are playing in several areas, and what is required of designers. Excerpts:

What are the new advances in design, and how has this field expanded?

I did my master's from IDC IIT Bombay in 2006. And at that time user experience design was not much known. Only two-three out of a batch of 30 joined user experience design. Whereas the scenario is different and most of the students are going for it. The definition of the design itself has changed. Until the 90s, it was thought about as making things look pretty. The designers were not very involved initially in the conceptual stages. Establishing the need for the product was stepped aside.

Nowadays the role of designers has become more encompassing and not limited to how a thing looks but how it works. And they are looking at not just the product but beyond. A product is part of a bigger system, and you have to see how that product links to those systems and how we can improvise on these interactions between people, social elements, government schemes, etc. You have to respond to all those needs – ecological, social and political. And so, there are multiple opportunities here, instead of sticking to the old definition of design.

Also, with the number of graduates coming out every year, there is a need for design to take new directions. It doesn’t have to be new branches. But, for example, currently, we are working on wearable biomedical devices along with one of the professors, which we are helping in the research itself. We sit and brainstorm on how to do value addition and how to give more parameters to check data. We test if it is comfortable, is it easy to transport. So it could involve the weight, material, hygiene, ease of wearing it and so on.

We have also worked with some teams to take the product to market. We help assess, whether is the idea correct to take to the funding agency, taking an overview of how the project is going through, representing the data through proper visual aids and giving it a form that looks like a saleable product. At IIT-Gandhinagar, there is no design programme as such. I am teaching design to engineering students for the last four years. I am understanding their needs, and what would they benefit from. I am creating those possibilities from which students would benefit.

You mentioned the political and environmental dimensions of design. How are these various aspects taken care of?

We are trying to incorporate it as a teaching discourse. All the courses have sustainability components and how they translate to design per se. And we provoke the students to think in that direction. The campus itself promotes sustainability to a great extent. Like there is no disposable material allowed.

What aptitude is needed for a person to be a great designer?

You have to be a team player for sure. You have to appreciate what each stakeholder would want. Unfortunately, how the design was taught till a few years back in multiple institutions was that a designer would sit in one room and would make a sketch and pass on the design. But things are changing and so are design schools, which are now promoting a multidisciplinary approach. You have to come together, be versatile in terms of outlook and need to look at the bigger picture. And you have to go to the tiniest detail at the same time. The detailing matters. Then again you have to come out and look at the bigger picture.

You have to be aware of the story of the elephant and blind men. The designer needs to be aware that this could be the reality.

What is the kind of infrastructure available in design, especially in terms of the availability of faculty? And what is needed to make the awareness of design more widespread?

At IIT Gandhinagar we already have a ‘tinkering lab’ where one can experiment. And the awareness is already widespread, and whether you are a trained designer or not, there are many people engaged in problem-solving. It’s just a question of making it more human and more aesthetic. That is where designers are adding value. There is also a Maker Bhavan to foster experiential learning. There is very sophisticated equipment available there and they are expanding it.