‘Learning always begins at home’, so it won’t be wrong to say that during my last one year in IDC, I got a pretty clear understanding upon the kind of work i would like to involve myself in and was therefore looking for an opportunity to experiment with the same. Choosing Samsung Design Delhi (SDD), for my internship was moving one step ahead in this learning process, as i wanted to see the practical implementation of the design process and to use my understanding of the same to generate something of high potential. At SDD, the opportunity to design “Mobile Applications For Indian Youth in 2010’ helped me in developing my own understanding and skills within a given time constraint. The whole project was a kind of different learning experience, ranging from primary and secondary research, conceptualization, ideation, user inputs and iteration. Also, I learned the intricacies of the corporate environment, as there were always a deadline to take care of within a given time constraint but the open atmosphere and time to time group discussions and inputs from the highly qualified and learned design team never lead the design ideas to supress or go waste. For me, Design is about exploring and experimenting. The more we explore and experiment, better the design is. SDD not only helped me in developing my design thinking but also exposed me to the new range of possibilities and opportunities a designer can get into.

Complexity of a system involves in the multiple loops which bind the entire system together. Often a complex system takes a longer duration for a user to get a hold of it, which results in errors and time consumption. When it comes to looking for a system design for a bigger organization, where multiple players are involved in the process and each one is assigned a different role to be played, the entire process becomes multi fold, and therefore it becomes essential to understand the complexity involved at each stage, and in order to create a larger impact, it is also necessary to understand the need of creating a system in first place and also the problems which it would cater to. Understanding which, would help in finding the right solution to the problem. The model of Teach for India is a threefold process wherein major role is played by the facilitators of the organization, followed by the teachers and the students. Role of each player differs from other in some or the other way and therefore coming up with a system design, which caters to everyone’s requirements and providing them with relevant information. It also requires understanding of the interconnections and links within the system. The project aims at understanding the need gaps in the existing manual process and coming out with a new system design to facilitate the networking between the three major players i.e. The facilitators, teachers and students involved with ‘Teach For India’ foundation. As the entire system is currently being done manually, the project also aims at creating a new online system which could reduce the extra amount of work done in a manual process and also providing the right information at the right time along with making access to the required information and validating and authenticating it at the same time reducing the chances of flaws in the process.

Information and communication technology have not only affected the younger generation, but they are also pervading and finding their way into the lives of the elderly. With the growth of mobile phones, the World Wide Web, and other various modes of connecting people, the face of communication is changing at a rapid pace. The development of communication technologies has caused an enormous social change. Mobile phones are currently one of the biggest modes of communication between people as they target a larger audience, but when it comes to the elderly, this is where it fails to connect as the needs and requirements of the elderly are different from all other age groups, which needs to be considered separately during the design process. Designing for the elderly requires a "human-centered approach" as it is more important to discuss and debate about the technology and design with the people who are going to use them. The project is an attempt to create an alternative means of communication and information sharing for the elderly, keeping in mind the physical and technological constraints. We are designing a wearable device for the elderly to carry whenever and wherever they feel like it, with all the basic essential features required for communication and information sharing. For example, sharing of songs and pictures, emergency calling, and tracking systems to keep track of family and friends. To overcome the problem of sight and hearing, which comes with increasing age, audio-visual feedback at every step while performing a function and icons for easy mapping and navigation have been implemented in the design. Also, metaphors for the interface are taken from the already existing mental models of elderly people so that they don’t find it difficult to adapt to the new interface.