Human-Centered Design Summit in India

Module Overview

India is a study in contrasts. One of the world’s fastest developing economies, it is also one of the world’s oldest living civilizations. Sky-rocketing growth is often juxtaposed against a landscape of challenges. Infrastructure, rural development, healthcare, the environment, gender empowerment, education, and many more domains are just some of the areas worthy of attention.
A combination of workshops and ethnographic immersions explore the challenges faced by people in rural India. Students are immersed in local communities and observe their life at close quarters. Intellectual and emotional connections are immediately formed with the prevailing issues, and students have a unique opportunity to put theory into practice in a hands-on scenario. Intense learning, cultural engagement and emotional bonds help students deploy a human-centered design approach

in offering sustainable solutions and pragmatic prototypes that address the situation at hand and which support the community.

Location

The summit begins in a major metro city such as Mumbai, New Delhi or Bangalore. This gives the students an opportunity to get oriented with the country and its cultural nuances via lectures, workshops, and language and cultural immersion activities. Once acclimated, the students move into a rural setting where they are immersed ethnographically in the environment of a rural community. In this manner, they observe the local lifestyle at close quarters and work on designs and prototypes, sharing their work with the community and eliciting feedback. The summit finally shifts back to an urban setting where the students have an opportunity to reflect upon what they have learned and accomplished.

Key Elements of the Program

Lectures and workshops by human-centered design experts.
Interaction with inspiring social entrepreneurs working to create sustainable impact in local communities.
Community living and engagement that offer a deep ethnographic immersion experience.
Interviews with local community leaders who help students understand the social, economic, political and cultural context.
Language sessions to help students build a basic vocabulary to engage with local communities.
Facilitated reflection sessions with experienced professionals from diverse backgrounds.
Cultural immersions to experience and understand the local landscape, context and culture.
Output-driven curriculum and structure.

Educational Outcomes

Personal and Professional Skills:

The program gives students an opportunity to work together as a team in an ethical manner, and to take professional accountability. Leadership, creativity, innovation and a proactive working approach in the context of an international setting leads to tremendous growth.

Application Skills:

Students gain insight into the depth and complexity of factors that contribute to a specific development scenario, and demonstrate a work approach that is appropriate in that context.

Practical Knowledge:

Students have an opportunity to critically analyze various development approaches and collaborate to form opinions and make recommendations on appropriate action.

Human-Centered Design:

The summit provides an opportunity for participants to gain an understanding of human-centered design principals that can be applied, and recommendations devised to enhance the community.

Critical Thinking & Problem Solving

Students learn to identify problems and opportunities, and validate them with the relevant stakeholders. They can think through hypotheses and solutions that will suit the context and produce a result that is usable and replicable in the community.