 Hello there, welcome back to Understanding Design. Last time we spoke about design for sustainability. Today's subject is design and industry. We have with us Rashmi Kurjan, who together with her partner Dinesh Kurjan runs Studio Kurjan. It is a design studio dedicated to product design and development. Good to have you here Rashmi. You tell us what is product design involved, especially when we speak of design and industry. Thank you Nina. Well, today we find companies have to work very hard to create attractive solutions especially because the market is full of similar products. Industry has to create features that differentiate their products to get an advantage over the competitors. Create mobile phones in every category, they come with nearly the same features and the ones with special features are the ones that are most popular. Today's audiences are well informed, they see beyond the promotions and evaluate products thoroughly before buying. So who does the industry turn to? Increasingly it is design that provides industry with a competitive advantage. Designing products that respond effectively to user requirements. So what are some of the ways in which design does this? Well, design enhances a product, helps it make it stand out. While much of this lies in the physical qualities of the product, a good part of it is also to do with the relationship that is built up between the user and the product. This is because the product satisfies user needs both at a functional level and at an emotional level. You seem to be saying that good design leads to good business. Yes, absolutely. Let's look at something that helps us understand this better. So we can take the story of Gillette guard raisers, they were developed by Gillette especially for the Indian market. Though Gillette had been in India for some time, they were not able to reach the lower income customers. Affordability was one big concern but also their research showed that Indian men tend to have thicker hair than European men and also in rural areas people do not shave as frequently or not daily probably. So in 2002 they developed a low cost razor for this segment. They tested this razor with Indian students who were studying in Boston. All of them gave the razor a thumbs up but when they launched it in India it just didn't sell. Some years down the line they decided to better understand the needs and aspirations of the Indian consumer. They sent 20 researchers into the field to closely observe and talk to potential users. So their studies would have helped in understanding the context. Very much so. The research team saw firsthand that unlike the Indian students in the US, men in rural areas shaved without running water, sitting on the floor in very low light, sometimes with a small mirror and sometimes with no mirror at all. They also learned that these users were more concerned with safety than with a smooth shave. All this was new to the Gillette people and they could not have discovered these realities without engaging with the customer in their context. The researcher visited homes, shops, had discussion groups, observed users and recorded their observations. Users and context. This is a designally approach to problem solving. Yes very much. With these new insights they began developing a new razor. It took them more than a year to come up with the new razor. It was called Gillette guard. It's a single blade razor which is safe. It has a comb near the blade which is meant for the thick hair. It also has a textured handle so it has a good grip and there is a hole in it so you can hang the razor up on a nail. They were able to manufacture it at a low cost and it has been a huge success in the market ever since it was launched. You know from the initial Boston study till this final stage it has taken them 8 years. So now we know how critical it is to understand users in their context. You can read more about this in the resources tab on our course platform.