 This story is about the challenges of designing a palquin or palki as it's popularly called for ferrying pilgrims to hillside shrine of Vaishnodevi in Jammu. Many pilgrims, especially the old and disabled, need help to negotiate the steep uphill climb up to the shrine. This Vaishnodevi Yatra starts from a place called Katra and on this four and a half hour long journey, the porter's dexterity in manoeuvring the palki through narrow alleys and slippery roads is truly amazing. But the palki itself, the one that has been in use for so many years, is anything but sophisticated. A heavy structure made of galvanized iron pipes, usually used for water lines, are welded together to form a structure. This is tied to a wooden pole which rests on the porter's shoulder. This unwieldy chair continued to be offered as a service only due to the porter's ability to carry heavy loads, improvise solutions in emergencies and keep the passengers safe. We were approached by the government to redesign the palki. Our basic brief was that we had to reduce the drudgery of the porter's, make the palki lighter, much sturdier and more durable. I took the resolve that I will reduce the drudgery of the porter's. So this was the championing the cost aspect as we were talking about earlier. The context refers to understanding the user's socio-economic and cultural and environmental conditions. We made a trip to Katra for getting a first-hand experience of the journey to Vaishnodevi. On a palki, of course, the trip gave us an in-depth understanding of the porter's need and also made us very close and empathize with the porter's. We learned to appreciate the special requirements of the terrain. By translating our ideas into actual prototypes, we had already crossed the first pitfall of the design death. It is not that this challenge was entirely new to us. We had already designed a palki for the tourists in the Ajanta caves but the stark dissimilarity of the two terrains told us that the Ajanta design would never work in Vaishnodevi. Now remember, we are looking at the context very closely. The traditional design also reflected that for Ajanta, the four porters stand front and back on both sides like a square formation. But for Vaishnodevi, all four men are in a single file. Why the single file? Just because they are very narrow alleys and very crowded pathways with ponies and pilgrims and hence if they are not in a single file, they just cannot manoeuvre and actually take the palki forward. In fact, I must tell you this that when we tested our Ajanta palki just for checking out at Vaishnodevi, you graded the traffic jam. Yes and then the palki didn't move but the porters were very happy to use it. So they were using early in the morning when there was less rush and they liked the lightweight designs. They were using it only for the lightweight purpose. Such observations was critical in making us more sensitive to the social and geographical context in which our design was to make an intervention. But they never considered building a road. There was a motorable road part of the way but the government agreed to keep commercial vehicles off the road so that porters will not lose their likelihoods. So the very idea behind redesigning the palki was to safeguard their means of subsistence while reducing the load on their shoulders. Interaction with users led us to the third concern which is the comprehension which is the stage of arriving at design insights. The existing palki was heavy and easily damaged. The crude structure actually did not have the capacity to withstand the load of the palki for a long duration of time. They were good for some months. Most of the time it would be engaged by an aged or physically challenged pilgrim who boarded the palki along with a luggage. Whenever it broke it was welded locally but the material itself was not suitable for welding. We visited the location several times during the design process. During each visit we refined our understanding of the porters need. In fact we were becoming very very empathetic to the porters needs. We studied how the porters coordinated at bends and climbs. The manner in which they shifted the weight from one shoulder to another shoulder because of the very heavy loads was also studied in detail. We realized that we had to stay close to some time tested features of the old design. The grips at the right places for the porters and others inbuilt safety features that help them carry the passengers safely. So now do we come to the fourth see the check? The check refers to creating a list of key requirements or we commonly say product brief. The major points in a product brief for the palki were to reduce the drudgery of the porters to make a change in the basic material for better durability, design a more comfortable seating arrangement for the pilgrims and create a long lasting product. The check captures all the insights thus it gives a clear direction for ID generation. The fifth see for conception refers to generating many ideas and combining them to create multiple concepts. We incorporated the different requirements of various teams of porters whom we interviewed and thoroughly assessed the context to come up with as many as five different prototypes. Each of them was tested which led to improvements in the next model. The choice of stainless steel solved the problem of durability and lightness but we had to modify the diameter of the pipes so that we could ensure strength and durability. The design process had taught us that we could not radically alter the existing design without seriously affecting the porters functionality because they were using these palkis for ages. Hence we made some dimensional changes only after user testing in the field with the porters. Did you conduct any structural analysis? You caught it as the right place. In fact we were late in getting back to our engineering professors to do a structural analysis. We took the help of a colleague from IIT Bombay itself, Professor Yogesh Desai and expert in structures. He told us that our structure was unsafe for long use. He helped us redesign the chair for structural stability over a long period of time with a large factor of safety. The structural analysis helped us make our product more usable and to our surprise it also improved the looks. The work of translating a prototype into a product, a designer thus needs to collaborate with structural engineers and manufacturing experts. That brings us to the sixth C, the crafting. Refers to converting the selected concept into functional prototypes and finally to mass-producible products. Why do you need to mass-produce the palki? Because there are around 600 porters and they also ferry pilgrims during the Amanat Yatra. After taking in all the ergonomic and structural inputs, we finalized the design of the palki in bent and welded lightweight stainless steel pipes. To reduce the weight, the seats were made from perforated stainless steel sheets. The wooden pole from the original design was retained for better comfort at the points where it came in contact with the porters' shoulders. Are we now at the final C? Yes, connection is the seventh and final C. It refers to the solution that leads to user satisfaction and delight thus completing the innovation cycle. Nina, can you please hand over that model to me? In case of the palki, we took the final prototype to Katra for user trials. We were thrilled when both the porters and the pilgrims were very satisfied with the experience. This story illustrates why the designer can never hope to work magic in isolation as every design project brings together skills from a number of interconnected fields.