A few weeks ago, Adeptic Labs had the opportunity to conduct a workshop at Srishti Manipal Institute of Art, Design and Technology. So we thought of inviting some of their design students to share their experiences as design students. This conversation with Chitra explored -

• Chosing design as a course of choice
• From wanting to become a doctor, engineer, theatre person and knowing that they wanted to be only a designer
• Challenges and experiences of staying in the problem space, solving fights with friends using a design mindset,
• Letting go of assumptions while trying to build the right product
• Research and design, having to observe people for hours
• Being influenced by having a parent in marketing
• Design is a continuum
• Influences in their design journey through spiritual exploration, cultivating their own lines of inquiry, being influenced by friends and family and going back to them when they are stuck, influence of having a parent in marketing and the creation of impactful campaigns
• unlearning at Srishti with a course on chaos and turning traditional learning on its head
• How research helps in design, like a scientific mind
• Engineering approaches have rules, designers work more openly
• Theatre influencing design and vice versa, seeing design through theatre as reflections of the world we live in, actors and designers minds are like a begging bowl always waiting to be filled with anything coming their way, curating and creating experiences
• What unlearning meant in their first year at design school
• Their perspectives on what people aspiring to learn design should take note of

Jahanavi Goel:

An aspiring service designer with strong observational skills, empathetic approach, and ability to develop and deliver practical and conscientious solutions. Currently studying at Srishti Manipal Institute of Art, Design &Technology, pursuing Business Services and System Design.

Abhiram Jois:

Abhiram Jois is a human centred design student at Srishti Manipal institute. He is currently associated with the collective Design Beku and is working on a project called COWKI (Community owned wireless knowledge infrastructure) that enables communities to co create local knowledge repositories and self host meaningful digital services. He also did a semester of student exchange with The Glasgow School of Art where he studied interaction design. His areas of interest include UI/UX, design research, open data/software, HCI4D and ICT4D.

Rhea Mittal:

A 3rd-year student pursuing Human Centered Design at Srishti Manipal Institute (SMI), Bangalore. She recently completed a student exchange semester in Besign, The Sustainable Design School, France. And currently interning as a design researcher at IIT Delhi and has previously interned as a UI/UX Designer, Product Designer, UX researcher and Graphic designer.

Linkedin profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rhea-mittal/

Website: https://rheamittal04013ae9.myportfolio.com/