Project Adhirachana
Graduation Project at National Institute of Design (NID) done at IBM iX
2019 | Design Research | Service Design | Design for Education
Note: Due to NDA reasons with both NID & IBM, the detailed graduation project document will be available
to read only on request. However, an overview of the project is provided on this page.
Sponsorship & Mentoring
About Project Adhirachana
The Graduation Project was done as part of a 6 month internship at IBM iX, the design & strategy wing of IBM as an initiative to look into introducing design education in Indian Public Schools in a more accessible and reformed way. My teammate & friend Akhil & I worked as a duo on the project under the guidance of then Chief Design Officer(CDO) and two Design Directors.
After the internship and deliverables given to IBM, Phase Two was carried on by me independently with mentorship from
NID in order to achieve my Masters degree by completion of the Graduation Project.
Scope and Focus
The project initially set out to define a design curriculum for students in government schools, with a particular emphasis on integrating design thinking. The team had the challenge of balancing this broad and vital topic with the specific objectives of creating a curriculum framework and syllabus draft. Key questions for the direction ahead revolved around the introduction of design thinking, the future of schooling, curriculum alignment with education policies, the role of technology, and the involvement of designers in education.
Impact of COVID-19
The unforeseen COVID-19 pandemic had some influence on the project's progression and is considered as a major factor for Phase Two, although it didn't alter the core objectives significantly. I have acknowledged the pandemic's impact on project flow and delivery in the document in detail.
Key Deliverables
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Comprehensive research documentation
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Ecosystem study with gathered insights
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Framework for the Design Curriculum
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Concept ideas and solutions
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Concept storyboarding for a design challenge.
The intention was to ensure that the project's findings and recommendations were well-documented and structured so it can be taken up as guiding piece of content by anyone who wishes to work in the design education space.
Future Scope
As part of Phase 2, the project introduced the ‘Sahayog’ platform which was detailed out as a illustration of a service connecting designers & educators. I did share the outcomes and the detailed documentation with some of my participants and other educators - I felt content with the fact that they understood the flow and intent of the project.
I wanted to personally take that up as a way of testing and implementation, maybe someday I will. I feel the stakeholders of the solutions are the real change-makers for introducing design education better in early stages of education fostering individuality, beyond the box learning & creative freedom.
Conclusions and Learnings
The document reflects on the project's overarching objective of improving design education within Indian schools. I feel we need to emphasize the need for small-scale testing in educational initiatives to assess the effectiveness and make necessary adjustments to various initiatives, including this project. Project Adhirachana is the fruit of true, honest & encouraging support from everyone - especially the mentors & our colleagues from various fields which made the inputs interdisciplinary in nature.
I have taken the creative liberty to highlight the project’s and my journey in the Graduation Project document in a very anecdotal, structured flow. It can be shared upon request due to the NDAs depending on the intent of use.
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As I'm under restricted NDA, here are some no context snippets from the document.
