Project Title: Conceptual framework for opportunity mapping in design

Supervisor: Prof B K Chakravarthy

Designers today are dealing with complex realities while working on design projects. They need to deal with not only specific problems but also aspirations, issues and concerns. The critical role played by design opportunity mapping in bringing clarity to the ‘fuzzy’ initial phase of design and providing creative design directions cannot be disputed.

The motivation to investigate opportunity mapping in the initial phase of design has been to understand opportunity mapping in client initiated design project context and to investigate and examine the various aspects connected with the same to arrive at a conceptual framework which will assist designers in mapping diverse design opportunities.

Due to the practice-oriented approach and contextual nature of design, multiple case study method is selected as the main research tool. A major component of the research project was to generate original case studies. Investigating tools included interviews, document analysis and observations. Triangulation of sources helped in achieving reliability of data. Forced pair analysis and juxtaposing components revealed interesting patterns of similarities and differences across case studies.

A tentative conceptual framework for coming up with new design opportunities integrating four major perspectives: “The Project context, Opportunity facilitators, Opportunity generators and Design Opportunity” is proposed. Several research propositions relevant for design opportunities in terms of products and systems need to be further articulated.

Contact details:
Industrial Design Centre,
IIT Bombay ,
Powai, Mumbai 400076

Telephone:
091-022-25767812

E-mail: gayatrimenon[at]iitb.ac.in