How We Live: Through Products We Useby Akhil Krishna Pradeep
The moment we wake up to the moment we go to sleep, our lives are divided into different phases. One phase is the professional life: where we have to behave in a certain way, we have to use certain kinds of products that are provided to us, and life helps us to meet our needs. The other phase is personal life. This is the phase in a day where it is more about a person’s own choices and wishes. Here a person is free to use whatever product he or she wants to use; there is no boundary here. It may include products for personal care, hobby items, playing with pets, reading books, or going on a hike on a weekend. In these phases, we use various kinds of products, and these products tell a story about us when they come together. Even though the function of the product remains the same, form, aesthetic look, specification, and its property vary. (For example, a main function of soap is to keep our body clean, but the number of soaps that are available in markets varies from shapes, smell, ingredients, and price perspective.) A person selects a certain product due to many reasons; it may be the cost aspect, the aesthetic aspect, previous experience, recommendation, or any random thought to buy it. Each person has their own philosophy of living life. Culture, adaptation of technology, aesthetic sense, hobbies, interest, inspiration, need, wants, and value of beliefs guide a person to choose certain kinds of products. The Design Research Seminar topic “How we live through products we use” mainly revolves around a documentation of these products for a wide range of users. The users may be college-going youngsters or working professionals. The process of telling the personalities and the whole story of a person from the product she/he uses is very interesting and critical for future design interventions and concept generation.
Details >>