Project Duration: 2 weeks
Client: Plan Strategy, London
Project done at: Deskala Research & Design Consulting
Design Research tools used: Photo-ethnography, Contextual Inquiries, Personal Interviews.
About the project
Plan, a Strategy and Design firm based in London was commissioned by a major mobile phone manufacturer to understand the Indian mobile phone market and to look into informing the design for the phones that could be in the markets a could years later.
Aim of the project
Identify and visually communicate 5 Indian design trends that will be relevant to mobile phone design in 2012-13
The scope of the work included studying
- Form, detail CMF and patterns (that could be applied to mobile phones)
- Design areas: Products, fashion accessories, furniture, architecture and patterns
- Product relevance: Relevant to the future of mobile handset design (NOT UI)
- Relevant to financially constrained consumers (spend up to 5000INR on a mobile phone)
- Timeframe to consider 2012-2013
About Trends Analysis
Trends are increasingly reflecting our lifestyle choices these days. Trends in the architectural and interior design world have developed greater synthesis with the fashion world. The consumer’s private world and physical self are increasingly in tune (at least aesthetically) with their public existence and living space. It is also manifested in the way they travel, and the various things around them, like public places, publicity hoarding and the people around them, that influence them.
This new dynamism is changing the way we define trends, because they are no longer isolated. People are increasingly aware that anything in their life worlds, makes a statement about them.
Design today is all about re-enforcing individuality and finding its place in a larger social context. It is therefore now in a much broader context than before. This also means that there are no strict rules that can govern for a long period of time.
Consumer Group Details
Financially Constrained and are more likely to purchase the <100$ (Approx Rs 5000) Phones. They are present across Tier I, II, and III cities and are also spread across urban and rural landscape
Design Research Process
The research was conducted keeping the following points in mind. Cost of Product, Peer Pressure, Status Symbol, Battery Life, High on Features, Music Capability. This allowed us to get a wider understanding of the customer and the kind of products they use.
The trends were identified and present in the form of keywords, and images.
Showcased here are visuals of some of the identified trends.
Identifying mobile trends
Other Trends
More Design Trends
(Further work not available due to confidentiality and NDA)