Short Paper

Human Centred Design and ancient Hindu philosophy in the context of embracing diversity and building coherent working environments

Please be aware that multiple presentations will take place during this session commencing at 05:15PM AEDT and share the same zoom link. Check how presentations are clustered in the program spreadsheet when adding the calendar.

This is an on-going study which aims to explore the correlation between Human Centred Design (HCD) and Hindu philosophy and how it can be leveraged to create a more inclusive design practice by blending philosophy with contemporary design contexts and methodologies.

The social construct in India dictates that design that comes out of the West is a benchmark for excellence and I had followed this golden rule without realising that designs are meant for people and that their goals, emotions, challenges and aspirations change as per their contexts. As a designer, it is crucial to develop an understanding of how humans perceive the world, in what context and the relation between emotions and cognition, especially while designing for a larger world audience. The principles of HCD have a strong connection with learnings from ancient Hindu philosophy. This study intends to understand how we might take inspiration from ancient philosophy and embrace diversity to build coherent working environments.