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Panel Discussion: Catalyzing Usability and Design in India

A panel discussion was conducted at the end of the World Usability Day on ‘Catalyzing Design and Usability in India’. The panelists included representatives and perspectives from the Indian software industry, industrial and consumer products, multinational product companies, and Indian design academia. Panelists and the audience engaged in a lively discussion and points counterpoints on what it means to catalyze design further in India.

The starting point of the panel was that despite increasing design presence in India by design firms, technology organizations, and universities, designers and user experience professionals in India represent small islands of design thinking in a larger universe of limited design sensitivity. Usability professionals in India need to take up the gauntlet of reaching out to and engaging the larger technology and business community.

Download Panel Discussions Transcript

Some of the areas covered in the panel discussion included:

• Challenges in balancing research and field study perspectives to catalyze India based designers and usability professionals themselves in contributing original publications
  
• Expanding ‘design’ to include expert perspectives from technologists, strategists, and other non-formally-trained-designer professionals
  
• Reaching out to a larger IT industry and local communities on the value of design thinking and design sensitivity
  
• Opportunities in India to reach out to a wider base of students in undergraduate schools and high schools

The panel was moderated by Amit Pande from Oracle and included:

• Sridhar Marri, VP, Communication and Design group, Infosys Technologies
  
• Prof. Pradeep Yammiyavar, Indian Institute of Technology, Guwahati
  
• Madhuri Kolhatkar, Senior User Experience Manager, Oracle USA
  
• Vinay Rao, Principal Designer and CEO, Bang Design

Vinay making a point about how business sees design

Sridhar Marri describing the cusp of technology & culture where Indian design stands

Prof Yammiyavar emphasizing the need for a broader designer base