Department of Design

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Browsing Department of Design by Subject "DESIGN"

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    (A) study of User preference for the Visual domain of product form
    (2008) Mokashi Punekar, Ravi
    There are new opportunities in Design practice and research that are emerging in the Indian markets today as a result of the dramatic shift in government policy since the early Nineties. Liberalization of the Indian economy has led to major transformations in the economic environment of business and commerce. Competition is felt with global players entering Indian markets and Indian industries have had to remodel their approaches to meet these challenges. Foreign companies seeking opportunities in Indian markets are faced with challenges of understanding the diverse culture of India. What is obvious is an urgent need to understand the ethos and aspirations of the Indian customer and make changes in management strategies, including design and communication which meet these dynamic changes. This implicitly means understanding regional and cultural factors that influence taste. It becomes an important consideration to study this phenomenon in the context of its influence on design and its implication on business. Design researches that involve cultural responsiveness and its influence on business therefore need to be looked at with a fresh perspective. The study of the Indian user, the cultural values and taste in purchase decisions are increasingly being examined through surveys. While recent studies undertaken by marketing research focus on the Indian consumer, particular studies in methods that examine the preference pattern in the domain of ‘Visual aspects’ of product form are hardly in vogue. This aspect is of particular interest to the industrial designer and forms an important consideration in the creation and innovation of new products for the market. Consumer preference in visual aspects is the focus of design research in this thesis. The thesis presents a design method that attempts to find the users’ preference pattern for the visual aspects of a product.
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    (A) Study on Characteristic Design Element for Cartoon and Animation: in Indian Context
    (2020) Saha, Bhaskar
    The thesis looks into the acceptance of cartoon and animation as a medium of infotainment by Indian viewers – both children as well as their guardians and of Indian character elements are identified, user can add value in communicating the spirit of Indian ethos. Design of a character plays an important role for every story. A character gets implemented in various means of entertainment like film, series, gaming, movements, comics, books, etc. All these means helps the character to achieve the attention of the people and popularity. Cartoon character design is connected to media imaging and based on marketing strategies. Country isn't simply environmental or physical yet is, indeed, similar to a person, that is, a living element with a body, life, brain, soul and with a one of a kind of disposition and virtuoso. In this point of view to be on an Indian way, it is intentionally and eventually open to and tuned in to the spirit and psyche of India. In this thesis it has been focused on the creation of cartoon characters having the Indian back drop and to find out the unique elements prevalent in India. With the help of these unique elements create cartoon character design which signifies the Indian tradition culture, style with aesthetic attire. Indian states house specific cultural and language population. This thesis work has confined on Six culturally rich states to find out elements of cartoon characters which can be called easily Indian cartoon characters. Character configuration is regular to all fields in the visual media industry, regardless of whether in film, publicizing, games or print. Creator thinks of characters and visual arrangements that pass a message to a target audience which they would be able to relate to their entertainment needs and intellectual capability. The gesture poster of the character may differ from studio to studio but the basic principles remain common. While making the character, the designer is given an idea regarding the look, style and story of the character and then the designer concentrates on the works related to the given idea . It was hypothesized that identification of design elements revealing Indianness through cartoon characters and animation representing India in a socio culturally provincialized discourse would facilitate its communicative expression. The aim of the thesis is to look into the possibility of design elements from the prevailing practices at various art forms, ornamentation and decoration responsible for communicative expression of Indian-ness can be used as guidelines for cartoon characters and animation representing Indian ethos. First level of study was conducted on students and their guardians to know their liking about cartoon animation films or series. The outcome confirmed that students were mostly influenced by the foreign cartoons (as easy available to view in comparison of Indian made ones) and they use to copy their favorite cartoon characters in their daily lives. It led to think when kids behavioral changing look place after watching cartoon, series of e-learning sources material may be made available to make subject matter more attractive. Guardians showed interest towards Indian-ness and they want to give their children the flavour of Indian tradition, culture, aesthetic and ethnicity through the animated cartoon design. The question raised if a series of Indian identity cartoon character is developed and used in appropriate to infotainment using modern techniques be beneficial in today's context. From this first level of understanding a philosophical thinking led the main experimental work to design cartoon elements having Indianness flavour. The base of this main experiment was the unique elements of Six culturally enriched provincial characteristics by detailing the elements and define Indianness through it. The whole thesis work is presented in four chapters. Chapter I: INTRODUCTION: ANIMATION AND CARTOON CHARACTER DESIGN - SETTING GOAL OF BETTER COMMUNICATION The chapter presents a brief review on the animation cartoon character in the industry and prevailed practices abroad and in India, the possibility of a strategy to study in the context of expressing Indian ethos through specifying character ideology as a contributing factor in effective communication. Chapter II: PERCEPTION PREVAILED ON FOREIGN ANIMATION AND INDIAN KIDS This chapter experiments children's liking of animated cartoon characters and views of their guardians that motivates looking into the need for designing cartoon character in a new way with specific reference to Indian viewers. Chapter III: ELEMENTS OF CARTOON CHARACTER REFERENCE TO PERCEPTION OF INDIAN-NESS The third chapter is focused on unique design elements for cartoon character. This study works on potential design elements and unique features for Indian cartoon character design. 209 volunteers or participants who participated in the main experiment were taken from National level (Kendriya Vidyalaya) Schools going children. This experiment was conducted in two phases like such as first part was based on existing cartoon characters and the base of the second part was developed design cartoon character. After the completion of experiment, through statistical analysis the result of the main experiment was justified. Chapter IV: DISCUSSIONS AND CONCLUSION This chapter sums up the content of the study and discusses experimental results with the statistical points highlights the literature reviews. This chapter describes the detailing of the unique elements used to develop cartoon character having Indianness. This chapter also gives an overview of the limitation and recommendation. The research approach of this thesis was story telling through cartoon character putting interest in kids or children. Recognition of cartoon character elements through the assessment of these unique elements, influenced by socio-cultural and economic perspectives of Indianness. It engages the recognition as well as the development of the existing basic cartoon characters socio cultural and specific expression of human body components with specific reference to eye the most expressive.
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    (A) study on customized visual image representation from the target group for social awareness communication (In Indian Context)
    (2023) Das, Bappa
    The thesis is a qualitative attempt to investigate varied information components (emphasizing human image representation) and their layout patterns in social awareness campaign posters from an artist researcher’s understanding of visual communication point of view. Visual communication enriches through presentation in combination of visuals and text, and their varied combinations. Users’ acceptance relevance specifically concerns when a poster is supported by the visuals depict through photographs of human endorsement of a service theme and product for promotion, and thus a poster presentation of a message gets a desired acceptance. In this issue, the present work investigates if the human figures presented in some Government sponsored social awareness (India current context specific) campaign posters are providing a good sense of acceptance by the target users while decoding and accepting the message. An image creates more impact than written words, and we become more dependent upon visual media for coping today’s life of technology domination. The power of a visual image is proven to be essential for emotion creation and influencing our decision of accepting. The thesis key points are: • Celebrity image of an awareness campaign and relevance to local target group. • For national campaign, a single grid framework can be considered when in the cosmopolitan city area, celebrity images and others area bilingual campaign can be made with target group human figure representatives. • The human figure represents may be considered this specific field of expertise that link to the campaign content and context in long run. Further experimentations on a schematic composition for a national awareness campaign, to cater different people including urban and rural diversity, with the same campaign text in varied language and visual images can have a practical clarity where other relevant elements/ components having authoritative and endorsement value may follow the identical position.
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    (A) Study on Design intervention towards experiencing unexplored destinations: A case study of North Guwahati
    (2019) Saikia, Sukanya Bor
    With modernisation in transport and communication in the Globalised society travel is changing the motives of man, who used to do so initially for acquisition of food, water, shelter or trade in the past to a perception centric travel which consists of more leisure, pleasure, acquiring knowledge, recreational and explorative. The traveler builds his own perception in order to visit a place according to various push motive and following the push he/she is pulled towards the destination place. Scholars, travelers and traders from far west saw India as a place of immense potential in terms of trade, wealth, pilgrimages and natural beauty. The growth of society and development of urban forms started shaping the economy of a place and gave meaning to the place through the intrinsic characteristics it owned which is what turned into images that was projected to people. India is regarded as a land of mysticism and deities since time immemorial. But what the traveler misses out that there is lot other than just the few known parts of the country being branded as the image of India. To India, it expands beyond, such images to a more exotic yet historical and bestowed by natural charms, i.e. the North East region of India. Although Incredible India brands the region as a place to visit for tranquility and exposure to cultural vividness, the region is yet to face such immense changes in the tourism sectors compared to other places of the country. Assam the pioneering state of North East consists many such unexplored places waiting for it to be discovered by the modern day travelers. The population and the people of Assamese scattered around rural and semi urban settings. The economy is slowly rising but needs more support through projection of their practices various arts, crafts, musical instruments and Handloom in the form of tourism and find further potential. The unknown destinations and peripheral areas in major towns and cities are merely tapped despite its full potential of being converted into a major tourist spot, especially for nature lovers. Assam despite having potential to motivate people. Christaller, 1995 stated “tourism is a brand of economy which avoids central place and the agglomeration of economy”, which means as a sector of economy it has an inherent tendency to improve the conditions of otherwise backward peripheral areas. The present study reviews the status on the studies so far carried out on history of Cultural and sustainable tourism and tries to link them with Guwahati’s peripheral identities across Brahmaputra River on the north bank, for pragmatic theme based circuit tourism. The Thesis embarks with literature study to understand tourism and its aspects and a designer’s role in the context. Literature study is carried out in order to support the need of study associated to Identities which relates to countless places. Through the literature it is revealed that how various elements of place, their image and identities created through landscapes, branding of these place through identities and motivating people to visit them based on their intrinsic characteristics. Case studies were looked upon and studied in order to understand and get exposure of the subject matter based on tourism, tourist behaviour and along with beautification around riversides. Three studies and surveys were conducted related to the Location in two phases. Literature study, the possibility of socio-cultural ethnicity of cultural and heritage based landscapes were studied using methodology multi-staged sampling technique in two phases. In the first phase Study and Analysis of tourists and locals’ visits were studied on purposive basis. Their push and pull motives and components of places based studies were conducted through questionnaire and sample selection of 35 participants. Through the analysis of Phase 1 study, phase 2 was being formulated where design solutions and analysis of the solutions were carried via another 15 samples across various backgrounds and job profile. The thesis is divided into four parts Chapter 1 being the Introduction to the background, Need of the Study and the methodology thus followed to conduct the Study to fulfil the aim; chapter 2 is Possibility Exploration Study: socio-cultural ethnicity and Heritage Landscape Identities and it explores the possibility through conducting study in 4 phases; Chapter 3 is Possibilities explained in North Guwahati-Design Proposal where the possibilities to propose design solutions will be explained through the study and Chapter 4 includes the Design Decision and conclusion where a Micro-tourism concept is designed along with the proposed solutions and framework. In a very conceptual approach, this study scrutinize identity in place making as vital matters in achieving good public realm design for tourist seeking for leisure, variety and newness in their journey interacting with local people. The thesis work stands on the visitors of North East. Their use of Guwahati city as a gateway to other parts of North-eastern region and places are covered under the study. Through the study of tourism in north east, including Guwahati, it appears that it’s development and the facilities are created by corporates and government. Hence, the proposals and schemes are developed so that newer places may be inducted to facilitate Visitors and local’s interaction that would explore nearby areas of Guwahati where North Guwahati is taken as a case study. In the Design proposal, the original historical and mythological places and landscape identities are also considered viewing Micro-tourism aspects. The thesis looks into feasibility facets of showcasing North Guwahati distinctiveness of Guwahati on the north bank of Brahmaputra. The literature and work in support of the design proposal may be referred in the succeeding work.e.
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    (A) Study on Developing an Interactive Stepping Exercise Tool to Improve Physical Balance of Elderly Population in India
    (2021) Yein, Nilakshi
    Fall in the elderly population is a serious hazard to their livelihood. In India alone, aging people are increasing every year, and the elderly of our society deserve an independent and active life. In India, a fair sum of the elderly faced brain injury; and loss their independence due to falls. This makes the elderly fall into a significant worldwide health concern. Balance exercises have extensively assisted the aging population in avoiding falls. However, elderly people are unwilling to do traditional exercise due to negative self-worth, laziness, boredom, not motivated, negative physical worth, busyness in other works, etc. Exergames (gaming movements that required physical movements to finish the game task via an interface: computer/ screen/ mobile) are useful solutions to motivate the elderly to perform the exercise. As most of the research is based on the developed nations (e.g., Wii, Dance Dance Revolution (DDR), etc.), they are not appropriate for developing nations' context-specific conditions (language, real-life relevance, the relatability of the game- avatar, etc.). To our knowledge, no such extensive research has been done considering the Indian scenario. This research provides a new understanding into the field of elderly fall research in India by providing a more thorough insight into the use of exergames as a fall preventive measure for older adults, particularly concerning balance improvement. The research indicates that exergame influence the elderly’s motivation towards exercising. In designing the exergame, choosing exercise’s particular purposes, such as stepping abilities and balance, need to be selected and developed considering the context-specific issues. The design process precisely considered the preferences of the elderly in India, along with the stepping exercises’ movements aimed to mimic the players’ movements during gameplay. Exergaming has an excellent prospective to become an essential part of future tailored medical technology in elderly fall research. An exergame tailored is being introduced in this research for the elderly population of India. The investigation also addresses the perceptions and experiences of the elderly towards exergame. It also indicates the initial approach that included developing a stepping-exergame tailored for the elderly in India as a preventive measure to fall. The interface concept is developed using the Technology Acceptance Decision Tree (TADT). The design process includes Indian Anthropometric data for designing the prototype-mat with a computer interface. The designed exergame is specially tailored for the elderly in India, termed Therapeutic Stepping Exergame (TSE). The design process has carefully considered the minute details found in the literature survey, the ethnographic study, personal interview, and TADT. In the elderly exergame experience, self-paced game speed, avatar, and game theme related to the elderly in the Indian context come out as a desirable game aspect along with the usefulness of the exergame. The investigations employed in the thesis are a mixed methodology approach utilizing quantitative and qualitative methods of data collection and analysis. Qualitative aspects of these design-based experimental investigations helped us capture user experiences and inductively derive relations between various complex subjective parameters experienced by the elderly in the field. The thesis tested three hypothesis: H1. The use of TSE will improve balance in the elderly in India. H2. The use of TSE will improve balance confidence in the elderly in India. H3. The use of TSE will reduce the fear of falling in the elderly in India. A paired t-test is used to test the hypothesis. The results indicate a statistically significant (p≤.05) so, the null hypothesis is rejected. After the statistical analysis is done to test the validation of the research hypothesis, it is found that TSE has improved the balance and balance confidence in the Indian elderly. It has significantly reduced the fear of falling and has motivated the elderly to exercise. The descriptive statistics and subjective assessment indicate that the user has accepted the TSE, signifying the validation of the design heuristic proposed in the TSE design. The TSE acceptance and the essential constructs for its use by the elderly in India have been evaluated using UTAUT2 (Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology 2 exergame) and subjective assessment. In this thesis, based on the insight knowledge gathered from literature, field investigation, experimental investigation, and prototype development, design heuristics for the elderly are developed. This thesis recommends design heuristics for exergame, a game story, and game movements so that researchers can further study the exergame for the elderly while designing for Indian or similar contexts. However, to realize the full potential of exergames as a rehabilitation tool and fall preventive measures for the elderly, there is a need to introduce new exercise movements during gameplay further. It is necessary to gain knowledge and understand which technology to use for rehabilitation purposes or exercise. Establishing the results in achieving long-term adherence to the exergames is also indispensable. This thesis has presented numerous essential steps towards understanding the end-users’ (elderly in India in this research) need for the exercise measure in an exergame. In the future research path, EXG with exoskeleton specific for elderly users as a rehabilitation paradigm might be a breakthrough in the elderly fall research.
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    (A) Study on the Perception and Acceptance of Wrist- Worn Wearable Fitness Tracker and Development of Intervention Models for Enhancing the Acceptance and Prolonged Use of the Devices, Ensuring a Healthy Ageing
    (2022) Sarkar, Swati
    There is a significant societal change in the world with the growth in the ageing population. Older adults are likely to accumulate some health sternness with age, often leading to the functional disability with time. Assistive devices are an excellent resource in such cases, but independence is compromised to some extent. However, prevention is better than cure; if disabilities in older age can be prevented, assuring freedom, one can enhance the essence of living irrespective of any generation. With proper maintenance of physical fitness and psychological well-being, it is possible to eradicate the sufferings associated with older age. Also, adequate health care before even hitting the older age ensures healthy ageing. Physical activity has been considered an essential health factor. Monitoring and promoting physical activity in day-to-day life can tremendously improve health outcomes. There is a significant positive effect on physical and cognitive health in people irrespective of age. Studies have revealed that despite the age stereotypes, the benefits of exercise are brilliant even in very old age. Nowadays, young people are pretty conscious about health and fitness, but older adults often do not indulge in physical activity; a more considerable fraction of the more ageing adult population involves them in sedentary lifestyles with the negative stereotype of ageing. However, wearable fitness trackers play a significant role in motivating people to indulge in a healthy lifestyle. With the increase in health awareness among people, the use of fitness devices has significantly increased. Wearable Fitness Technology is an innovative technology that has already established its benchmark in the world market. There are various categories of people intending to avail of this facility. These devices positively motivate users to indulge in fitness regimes and derive health benefits. Also, these devices can provide basic information regarding the vital physiological changes in the body, which might require professional attention. These devices are already motivating the younger users to indulge in fitness regimes and hence derive health benefits; the ageing population is the most challenging group to be encouraged into the fitness regime. Although wearable fitness trackers’ sales are significant, it faces challenges in their sustainable usage. Reports say users tend to abandon wearable devices in less than six months. The market survey of these wearables reveals a gradual increase in their sales. However, the sustainable engagement and adherence to these products diminish with time. With the advancement in Wearable Technology, researchers have received opportunities with a new wave of research. However, most research has focused on establishing these devices' reliability and accuracy; very little research focuses on providing adoption and acceptance interventions. The existing technology acceptance models have been studied and analysed to understand the underlying cause of lack of adherence and unsustainability in their usage. It has been observed that there lie some gaps and missing links in the existing models while studying people’s perception towards the Wearable Fitness Trackers. In order to fill those voids, respective models have been developed which incorporates the micro-determinants that can assist in the development of a modified version of such devices to ensure sustainable engagement towards these devices. This study also includes the design development of the conceptualised model of Wearable Fitness Trackers that may include the exclusiveness within the scope of inclusiveness to ensure the customer engagement that too on a wide range of people.
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    (A) Study On Visual Characteristics Of Rural Mural Art Forms Of Eastern Jharkhand
    (2020) Rani, Pallavi
    Rural India is known for various folk and tribal art forms like floor art, wall art, textile, sculpture, pottery, and painting. These art forms are mainly made for rituals, superstition and decoration purpose before and during the festivals and ceremonies. In different parts of India, various communities like Saura from Uttar Pradesh, Pithora and Gond from Madhya Pradesh, Dusad and Brahmin from Bihar, Warli from Maharastra, Bhumij, and Kurmi from Jharkhand are involved in showcasing their artistic skill on their mud houses. In Jharkhand region, the villages of Hazaribagh district are internationally known for Sohrai and Khobar art. The rural communities (Bhumij and Kurmi) paint their mud houses with various motifs before the Sohrai and Diwali festivals. Following these art forms (Sohrai and Khobar), an investigation was done in the eastern part of Jharkhand in three administrative divisions; Santhal Pargana, North Chhotanagpur, and Kolhan. It is found that there are five kinds of mural art forms such as Likhan gadhan, Rong baha, Jaunra baha/phul, Jadopatia and Guruj baha are being practiced by the rural communities of eastern Jharkhand. These art forms have hardly been documented or got scholars attention for research investigation. To study in-depth of these art forms, field visit was conducted in 11 districts (Deoghar, Dumka, Godda, Jamtara, Pakur, Shahibganj, Bokaro, Dhanbad, Giridih, Saraikela-Kharsawan and Purbi Singbhum) of eastern Jharkhand and it was noticed that these art forms are parallel to the Sohrai and Khobar art but contain different styles, forms, and features. In eastern Jharkhand, Santhal, Lohra, Kurmi, Kumhar and Ho communities, paints various visual forms (e.g., Baha, Jan janwar, and Hor) on the external and internal wall of the houses. There are few relevant pieces of literature on rural mural art forms of Jharkhand in the form of inquiry into the painted mud houses by ethnographer Daniel J. Rycroft (2010), social activist Bulu Imam (2011) and architect & research scholar Gauri Bharat (2015). These relevant literatures provide information about the aesthetic, narration, material and methods of mural art forms of Jharkhand. However, not many resources or documentation is found on the rural mural art forms of eastern Jharkhand, and there is a need for a detailed investigation of physical or visual aspects of these art forms. This lacuna provides a tremendous scope and opportunity to do an in-depth study on the mural art forms of eastern Jharkhand. For the detailed understanding of the art form, this study aimed to identify its visual characteristics. The main objectives of this research work are, 1. To identify the visual characteristics of the rural mural art form of eastern Jharkhand. 2. To document the rural mural art forms of eastern Jharkhand. 3. To understand the rural lifestyle of eastern Jharkhand The study follows qualitative research techniques, and the methodology of this study devided in two phases; A. Data collection B. Visual analysis. Photo documentation and the ethnographic study was adopted to collect the data. In Photo documentation, Photography was used as a key visual method for documentation. In Ethnography, interview, observation, and photo-interview was adopted for the data collection. To analyse the physical characteristics of the art forms visualization, New formal analysis model was followed. The analysis was done in two steps; first was the analysis of the individual visual form and second was the analysis of visual form with the wall. Number of visual characteristics were identified after the visual analysis. To validate the extracted visual characteristics, expert reviews with artist and designers were conducted in different cities of India. Combining both visual characteristics (identified through visual analysis and through visual arts experts’ review), key visual characteristics of Likhan gadhan, Rong baha, Jaunara baha, Jadopatia and Guruj Baha art form were established.
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    Aesthetic continuum of contemporary folk paintings of india: case study of five traditional practices
    (2013) Thakurta Roy, Shatarupa
    Indian folk artistry is uniquely recognized all over the world not only for rich aesthetics but also as indicators of age-old habitual belief. They comprise of tacit knowledge that is protected by passing on through generations. Apart from the act of customary decorations on ephemeral foundations, Indian painters-storytellers cum singers perennially depict life and death, victory and defeat, good and evil, in the regional folk paintings. The roving minstrels for over two thousand years have disseminated moral values through their painted scrolls and performance to the rural society that has equally reached past the overseas audiences. By counting contemporary folk art only as a community practice that strictly adheres to a tradition, may undermine the folk artist as a creative individual who significantly contributes to the tradition to keep it alive. The present study shifts its focus from the conventional ethnographic approach and instead, probes into the responsiveness of present day folk artists who use their freedom of experimentation to move forward. The contemporary form of Indian folk art primarily focuses on a wide dispersion of the otherwise localized content and hence making it more significant and worthwhile of analytical studies. Regional folk paintings from five adjoining states in India have been selected for the field study. It shows the paintings distinctively vary in their styles in different regions but connect through the common literary sources. It gives a larger picture of how the country as a whole is integrated by a common cultural profile in spite of immense ethnographic diversity. The mainstream academic style of art synergized with the principle of vernacular folk and tribal art to boost nationalism and modernism in Indian art scene. Social reformers of pre and postcolonial era particularly realized the role and significance of folk art in the revival of indigenous culture. 20th Century technological empowerments lead to a notable change in Indian popular taste causing a temporary decline to Indian folk art and culture. The research traces how the tradition survived this crisis in spite of trivial patronage and reached its contemporary form. The realization hypothetically reformulates effective means of sustenance of a cultural practice, the practitioners and other stakeholders.
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    (An) Analysis of Textiles designs of the Tai-Phake and Tai-Khamiyang communities
    (2014) Ghoshdastidar, Jabeen Rahman
    The tradition of Ethnic textile design plays a pivotal role in modern contemporary fashion and fabric industry. The inventions and innovations involved in this industry, especially in the context of design, pattern and color are continuously evolving with the advancement of technology each and every day. Generally the traditional knowledge of any discipline is not organized, and therefore should be researched and converted into a science. The knowledge of traditional textiles specially needs to be leveraged and re-created with conversions, transformation and amalgamated for value added editions so as to remain imbibed within the realm of the upcoming generation. More so, to remain alive as a living tradition. Silk in Assam is not just a culture but a tradition, not just history but a way of life, that fits into the socio economic structure of the people, and woven around the society just like the thread around the cocoon, to be established as a legend in world history. The journey of the textile fabric in Assam and North East India is equally important and interesting, since Assam has been the innovator of many aspects related to this industry, especially the culture of (The Golden thread), white Mulberry silk, (commonly called the and , the thermal yarn. Textile designing is a technical and creative field that has the capability of bridging the gap between fashion design, home d़cor and furnishing. Without it, even the most contemporarily raved about Automobile industry, would not be complete because the upholstery is always of such fabricated material. Early transports, from the carriage, rickshaw, to zamindari Tonga all were directly related to the fulfillment of human contentment and a purposeful lifestyle. Fabrics (like plays an inevitable part in our daily life. Each morning we climb out of the bed sheets and blankets, and step into a robe and slippers. After a wash we dry ourselves with towels, and get properly dressed, with clothing of our choice. During the entire day we use and are dependent on varied woven materials, including the vehicle tyres that are reinforced with strong woven chords. Thus the importance of textile in our day to day life is multifaceted.
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    Automobile Design : Approaches to understanding visual form
    (2011) Jaafarnia, Mohsen
    Automobile Design: Approaches to understanding visual Form. by Mohsen Jaafarnia Doctor of Philosophy in Design Department of Design, Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati India Supervisor: Professor Ravi MokashiPunekar Today, body designs of vehicles such as personal cars differ from brand to brand. The challenges of globalization have led to situations wherein manufacturers are prone to introduce an already existing model into new markets, especially emerging ones in developing countries. When such new markets get crowded with competition, manufacturers start customizing the designs developed elsewhere, to suit local preferences. An understanding of visual form- an important aspect of design semantics is a critical factor for the designer to influence the user's aesthetic decision in the purchase of products. Human, animal and insect life forms in the creation of man-made product forms are increasingly inspiring designers. This research attempts to understand the processes and approaches to understanding visual form based on semantics framework of Ferdinand di Saussure.Considering the external form of the car as the focus of study, the research reports the results of the analysis of the users response to the emotion set for the front face and body of carDs derived from five approaches viz. Repertory Grid Technique, Semantic Differential technique, Co-relation Technique, Relation Technique and technique of visual analysis of form. Based on the insights drawn from these studies it has attempted to derive a set of Dvisual keyD that corresponds to different emotional expressions that can help designers to derive expressive styles for cars. Attempt is made to validate the findings by generating concept drawings for a desired expression of car forms for two car manufacturers. Two approaches to generation of car form has been attempted: One method is based on drawing upon the graphical keysD derived from the experiments conducted as part of this research and the other is based on a bio-design method, that were used to semantically transfer common expressions to a carDs face. Such studies with respect to form preferences for automobile design offer diverse challenges. Factors include studies in form preference, cultural preference, economic influences, technology literacy, gender and regional preferences This thesis uses an empirical methodology involving user response to two-dimensional images. The data assimilated, based on a semantic framework, has attempted to outline a methodology for deriving Dvisual keysD as guidelines for automobile designers to generate expressive forms for cars. It has evolved an approach that covers the wide domains of history of the evolution of car forms; visual approach for form analysis of car forms; and user response to car face based on a semantic framework. The research work aims at understanding visual preference in the design of external form of cars amongst two targeted user groups (India and Iran). These objectives are met through: 1. Tracing and mapping factors that influenced the development of aesthetics in automobile form from a historical perspective. 2. Understanding Design elements involved in the aesthetic preferences of car face and car body designs from amongst potential and existing car users. 3. Identifying the design elements that contribute to the evoked feelings through analysis of visual form by professional.
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    Cinema Is Missing: In Search of the Ontological Temperature of Being in Northeast India
    (2021) Madhukaillya, Mriganka
    The present investigation looks at cinematic forms from Northeast India in order to understand whether this specific geo-body has been the locus of the creation of an indigenous cybernetic modelling of the world. As the title indicates, my position is that the cinematic medium as such was not fully used as a modelling tool; the thesis attempts to understand this situation by addressing it from a variety of angles: coming from the history and philosophy of cinema; from indigenous conceptions of time in relation to Indian and western ones; from technology, both analogue and digital; from design and cybernetics. The core question that this research asks pertains to the cybernetic potential of cinema. In other words, this research sets out to explore the localised control feedback loop or rhythm structure in cinema and liberate it from the singular closed loop system. As a product of Western Modernity, created in order to respond to the industrialized time of the production line, cinema has made its way into the Northeast imaginary in complex ways. In the course of the thesis, I analyze both mainstream movies from Assam and avant-garde attempts from both Assam and Manipur, in order to understand how the medium was received and explored, and to what ends. Furthermore, I make a case for the non-western turn in contemporary cinema, by looking at innovative ways in which Asian filmmakers have exploded the conventions of montage-based cinema. By touching upon my own practice with the media collective Desire Machine Collective, I attempt to compare the translation of different concepts of time into technical conventions. The analysis will lead us to explore the possibility of developing conventions to create an ontological cinema. In that sense, the implied negative assessment in the title is but an opportunity to reflect upon further possibilities of a changing medium in a radically changing world.
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    Comparative study of users' Experiential Data collection Techniques for Human computer Interaction Design in cross cultural Setting
    (2009) Kumar, Jyoti
    User Centred Design (UCD) process employed in solving design problems in the area of Human Computer Interaction, has to rely on the data from the users to generate predictive usersD mental models of the interaction. These mental models become the basis of specifications and heuristics for the designers to conceptualize new interaction patterns and Graphic User Interfaces for software products. As computers become ubiquitous, the need for understanding usersD mental models from a deeper cognitive level, rather than the surface level as is currently being practiced, has become necessary. Designers need qualitatively rich data from the users about their experiences which often the users of a computing product are not capable of expressing. The difference between usersD and designersD mental models has increased due to cross cultural design situations where designers from one culture are designing interactive systems for users form another culture. This cross cultural design context requires data gathering techniques which are suitable to different cultures and are sensitive to cross cultural differences in users. Current practices of extracting data from the users are more concentrated on getting the functional and operational requirements of the users rather than experiential information. This requires search and validation of new data gathering techniques for use in experiential design process. This thesis recognises userDs experiences with interactive system as a conglomeration of instances of aesthetic, affective and intellectual experiences that the users undergo with the elements of interactive systems like, icons, menu items, error messages etc. An interaction designer has to make design decisions pertaining to theses different elements of the interaction design. Three categories of such design decisions have been identified, decisions pertaining to the DelementalD, DcompositionalD and DtransitionalD levels of interaction. At elemental level, designer takes decisions about the DelementsD of interaction, that is, the icons, buttons, images, graphic elements etc. At compositional level, it is the visual balance and the gestalt of composition of screen that the designer is concerned about and at transitional level, designer has to decide about the transition between the screens. Designers need suitable techniques to gather experiential data from users pertaining to the three levels of design decisions in order to take informed decisions. In this thesis four user data gathering techniques identified from literature, namely - Mind Tape, Think Aloud, Repertory Grid and Semantic Differential - have been investigated through experimentation involving over 290 users across three different cultures - Indian, Chinese and Danish for their ability to gather experiential data in cross cultural situations. The four techniques have been compared for their ability to mine data from the users at a deeper experiential level. Results indicate that though Mind Tape technique is resource demanding, it yields good experiential data at the Transitional level. Repertory Grid Technique on the other hand is more versatile and can be used to aid all levels of design decisions. Based on the empirical and qualitative analysis of the experimental results, this thesis proposes a new combinatorial use of the four techniques. HCI designing heuristics are proposed.
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    Crafting A Change - Service Design Perspective for Sustained Behaviour Change
    (2020) Mahamuni, Ravi
    Services and technologies are continuously evolving, and new solutions are continually being designed, tested and implemented. However, it is often that service users and stakeholders are either slow in adopting new service interventions or may not be using the services regularly or are even resistant to use them. Behavioural theories have been rejuvenated in recent years by economists looking for ways to explain numerous biases in economic choices. Taking into account the role of behaviour change early in the process of problem-solving can help understand and facilitate stakeholders’ behaviour and increase the chances of new solutions being adopted and becoming successful. It is especially true in the Service Design life cycle. However, Service Designers are not fully utilising behavioural knowledge due to a lack of coherent and actionable guidance. The CraftChange Framework is a simple, pragmatic integrated framework for combining Service Design with behaviour change. The CraftChange Framework enables designers to address the concerns of relevant stakeholders to increase the likelihood of a service getting implemented. It enables the Service Designer to be mindful about sustainability concerns and a human touchpoint’s soft concerns during the Service Design life cycle and design for the progression of service users’ long-lasting behaviour change.
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    Data Entry Errors in Rural Context : Evaluation and Design of Efficient Error Limiting Intelligent Interface for Rural and Semi-urban Indian Data Entry Operators
    (2016) Salve, Shrikant
    With the rise of Rural- Business Process Outsourcing (Rural-BPOs) in India, employment opportunities as data entry operators have increased greatly for the rural / village youth. However, it is a challenging task for rural-BPOs working in a developing country like India to maintain expected high quality during data entry. One of the reason of extra effort is lower usability factor of software employed for data entry. There is also lack of expertise in designing user interfaces for such data entry software, especially failing to address localized field constraints that can, if incorporated, ensure high quality of transcription with low rate of errors. There may be cultural issues / challenges like differences between local spoken language and input language (English) by data entry operators working at rural-BPOs. Therefore, to address the above challenges we have conceived, prototyped and developed ELIIDE - tool after studying existing literature, data collection and considering usability aspects of rural-BPOs. ELIIDE- tool is supported with intelligent features like- (i) display of autocomplete suggestion for text field by ranking strategy based on likelihood, (ii) predictive text entry widget, (iii) radio button with most likely options and (iv) dynamic drop-down split-menu. The interface uses local Marathi language to communicate with user / operator. The communication happens in terms of error and feedback messages. The experiments were conducted to compare two user interfaces, one of them newly designed interface (ELIIDE- tool) and second - the existing user interface used currently by the rural operators. The participants included 224 professionals (rural-BPO operators and polytechnic students training to become BPO operators) who volunteered for the study. Results highlight there is significant difference between intelligent user interface and existing user interface in terms of errors, speed and time. It has also been observed that ELIIDE tool can positively affect operators subjective experience. Therefore, we conclude that, intelligent user interface design features do affect the operator’s performance in terms of improved accuracy and speed with decrease in operators’ cognitive load which increases system usability and enhances user satisfaction. This is attributable to the intelligent features incorporated in ELIDIDE interface such as dynamic, predictive, and adaptive. It is also attributable to the incorporation of user specific features related to local language and error prompting capabilities specific to errors made by rural operators. Further it is inferred by feedback that users are willing to continue using this ELIIDE interface for data entry. The thesis argues for incorporating user specific prompting local features that intelligently cater to the group's error patterns over general prompts that user software normally provides. It posits that local language prompts with voice over are more acceptable to rural operators as compared to screen based visual prompts alone.
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    Design & Implementation of Intuitive and User-Friendly Citizen-Centric Websites for Government of Assam for Sustainable eGovernance
    (2021) Pyarelal, Suchitra
    E-Government systems targeted at various stakeholders aim to promote good governance and to bring in more efficiency, transparency, and accountability. The overall ease with which the end-user can avail the services from an E-Government system is paramount to its usefulness and thereby its effectiveness. The Government-to-citizens (G2C) interactions offer the widest range of information and services. The E-Government Systems built for Government to Citizen (G2C) services are intending to provide quality services, in the minimum possible time. The main benefit is improved relations between a government and its citizens. In such systems, some features require a fine balance in confidentiality and transparency. The user experience of a citizen begins from the time of receiving the information about a service and its benefits and accessing the service through multiple channels to the final interaction with the system itself. The end-to-end experience of the interaction that the user has with the system can be termed as the human-system or human-computer interaction (HCI). The different stages combine to form the user experience. Although E-Government is high on the agenda of the Indian Government and many resources are set-aside for it, E-Government systems still face significant challenges as it continues to evolve. The success of electronic service delivery is not always clear. Adoption and use of the new services are still rather limited and need to be stimulated. The focus of the research is on improving the information and services delivery through the E-Government websites in the context of the Government of Assam. The research work is combined with real-life implementation of websites and the learnings factored into the EGovernment website development model and framework.
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    Design considerations for comfortable motorcycle riding posture: Ergonomics perspective
    (2021) Arunachalam, M
    With the exponential growth of the population, the number of motorcycle users in India is increasing rapidly. The number was reported as 40 million by 2016. Injures and accidental death due to motorcycle mishaps are in an upward trend in recent years in comparison to other modes of transportation. One major aspect associated with these accidents is the ignorance of proper consideration of human factor issues in motorcycle design. Out of various human factor issues, prevalent postural distress among the Indian riders might be an important root cause of these road accidents. Thus, it is essential for designers/ engineers to find the comfortable riding posture (CRP - which was perceived to be comfortable or no discomfort by the rider) and optimum riding position during the conceptual phase of motorcycle design. Moreover, it is worthy to note that there are various databases on the CRP (based on comfort joint angles), anthropometry and range of motion (ROM) for four-wheeler drivers, but there is no reported similar database for motorcyclist in Indian context. Thus, it is very important for automobile industries to develop the databases on standard motorcycle rider’s anthropometry and ROM, since standard motorcycles are widely used as a mode of commute by Indian riders. The problem was addressed with the systematic approaches: (a) Development of an instrument for measuring key dimensions of standard motorcycles. (b) Considering the dimensional variations of standard motorcycles, the adjustable motorcycle test-rig and experimental set-up were constructed. (c) With the help of an adjustable test-rig; CRP and optimum riding position were estimated from the representative sample of the Indian motorcycle riders. Perceived comfort/discomfort ratings, image process techniques, and Taguchi optimization techniques were adopted for this purpose. The measurements were also tested for trustworthiness using alternate-form and intra-/inter observer reliability technique. (d) Statistical analyses were used to establish the association of the rider’s physical attributes (anthropometric, and ROM) with the CRP, as well as with comfortable riding position (RP - position which was perceived to be comfortable or no discomfort by the rider). It is expected that the findings on rider’s anthropometry, ROM, CRP and optimum RP will be immensely useful for automobile industries to design a new or redesigning of existing motorcycle to ensuring better comfort. Design of motorcycle based on the anthropometric and ROM data for defining optimal riding position and thereby comfortable riding posture would certainly reduce muscular discomfort/ pain of the motorcyclists.
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    Design Development of an Amphibian Ambulance for Riverine Areas
    (2018) Boruah, Dipanka
    Despite rapid urbanisation, majority of the population of Assam inhabit the remote rural areas, and out of this population, 2.5 million people live in the riverine island (popularly known as char- chapari areas in local Assamese language). Many places in riverine areas in Assam are totally inaccessible by road in spite of expanding rural road networks under Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY) (Prime Minister’s Rural Road Scheme). These riverine islands and many other areas are affected by floods created by the river Brahmaputra and its tributaries in monsoons. As a result, the health services for the people living in these areas are badly affected. To provide health care facilities to the riverine areas, the C-NES (Centre for North East Studies and Policy Research) first developed innovative ideas for implementation to reach the poor and marginalised group by introducing boat based health services called boat clinics. Later, when Government of India introduced NRHM (National Rural Health Mission) to make health services available to the rural population, Government of Assam based on success of boat clinic operated by C-NES, collaborated with it through expansion of boat clinic to make health services available to riverine rural communities in Assam. Although the government expanded boat clinics to cover bigger area, people found it difficult to access these in emergencies, since patients cannot be easily transported by road to these boat clinics in absence of proper road. To bridge this gap requires appropriate ambulances. It was found that, in most of the developing countries people need to travel to health care centres by walking or by taking whatever mode of transport is available including buses, rural taxis, private cars, bicycles, animal-drawn carts and local stretchers (Starkey, 2005). To facilitate access to medical services, local communities and transport service providers can work together to plan an appropriate and sustainable transport technology/system. The prototype of the proposed amphibian ambulance has been designed and developed as a part of doctoral research in the Department of Design, Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati (IITG). Workshop based prototype of the amphibian ambulance followed by refined field experiments and field trials were carried out at IIT Guwahati campus and Aminagon primary health centre, a location adjacent to IIT Guwahati beside the river Brahmaputra with participatory approach. While the field trials were carried out, it was found that the vehicle was safe for operation from the view of user friendly, comfort, easy access, protection from natural elements and also sustainable for the riverine people, which was a fully amphibian featured and worked both on land and in water.Thus this research is contextual research endeavour for design development of sustainable amphibian ambulance for riverine people in Assam to be socially responsible in the long run.
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    Design Development of an Indigenous Tricycle Rickshaw
    (2007) Das, Amarendra Kumar
    The localised issues of meeting transportation needs of vast masses of population that can not afford a personal vehicle and to meet the limitations of public transportation systems needs consideration for alternative viable means that are contextual. Human powered tricycle rickshaw still fulfills this need. In addition to this, there are variations based on tricycles used as delivery vans with boxy storage compartments, goods carrier and school children van to name a few that are put to use to fulfile the localized transportation need .