Design is a very old human activity that started when mankind

Design Thinking Models attempted to change their environment for their well being
and to enhance their ability to protect themselves.
Prof M P Ranjan

Design evolved gradually and reached a very high level

of refinement in our villages and our traditional societies
in the pre-industrial age. This craft based evolution was
shaped by the interplay of time and the ingenuity of the local
craftsmanship and leadership.This created a vast body of
traditional wisdom, that is today still embedded in the rural
and village life in places such as India.

Design is a product of thought and deliberate action that is

composed by intentions and imagination and its effects are
refined by explorations and sensitive judgments. Design is
now recognised at a strategic level as a modern business
activity that can help ­— create the artefacts, messages, spaces,
organisations, systems, services and governance of the future
— all within the constraints of our particular context. The
future is unknowable by scientific investigation but it can be
envisaged and responsibly chosen through the use of design
visualisation of scenarios and ethical design judgment.
Design Thinking Models
Prof M P Ranjan

Fire as a metaphor for design

Design is an activity that can happen only
with reference to its own context and in deep
interplay with all its components that form a
system of inter-dependent relationships.
Design Thinking Models
Prof M P Ranjan

Design Opportunity
The term opportunity is not about something that
you can find by pure chance, but it is a product of
intentionality and imagination.
Design Thinking Models
Prof M P Ranjan

Profile of the emerging Designer

A three dimensional tetrahedron viewed from one of its vertices,
that of feeling and values, while the other vertices include
knowledge gathering abilities, thinking skills that include a
variety of cognitive capabilities, and most of all an ability to act
with external models be it visualization, drawings or making
models and prototypes
Design Thinking Models
Prof M P Ranjan

Levels of Design
The spectrum of design are proposed in four distinct levels:
The Tactical, The Elaborative, The Creative and The Strategic.
Each is driven by a set of criteria listed in the model and
require the design thinker to garner a variety of insights, skills
and abilities.
Design Thinking Models
Prof M P Ranjan

Process of Design: Thought and Action

Design exploration extends beyond the object and
communication strategy to business models and global trends
and perspectives. Design is a process and at each stage different
tools and attitudes are brought to bear on the task at hand.
Design Thinking Models
Prof M P Ranjan

Three Orders of Design

An ecological view of design when we are attempting
to deal with the complexity of both natural systems as
well as how they connect and are influenced by human
interventions and social and economic activities
Design Thinking Models
Prof M P Ranjan

The Design Journey

The design journey through a metaphor of a “Stone in the Pond” — initial intention
is low in definition but with a sense of a direction. The stone in the pond causes
ripples which move out in ever growing circles till they reach the edges of the pond
to return as waves that would also capture the contours of the lake as well. It uses
seven distinct modes of thought, from intentional to reflective.
Design Thinking Models
Prof M P Ranjan

Mind Body Map

The resource maps that we are able to generate are inclusive only
when we are able to transcend our taboos and discover resources that
may otherwise be invisible to us when seen through the filters of our
biases and socio-cultural taboos. Propositional reasoning generates new
opportunities that help create and define the future.
Design Thinking Models Prof. M P Ranjan
Professor – Design Chair, CEPT University
Design Thinker & Author of blog Design for India
Prof M P Ranjan

Ahmedabad

Prof M P Ranjan is a design thinker with 40 years of experience in design

education and practice in association with the National Institute of Design. He
helped visualize and set up two new design schools in India, one for the crafts
sector, the IICD Jaipur and the other for the bamboo sector, the BCDI Agartala.
His book Handmade in India is a comprehensive resource on the hand crafts
sector of India and was created as a platform for the building of a vibrant
creative economy based on the crafts skills and resources identified therein.

His book on bamboo opened up new frontiers for design exploration in India.
He has explored bamboo as a designer material for social transformation.
Bamboo has been positioned as a sustainable material of the future through
his work spread over three decades. His work in design education covered
many subjects including Design Thinking, Data Visualisation, Interaction
Design and Systems Design

His blog “Designfor India” has become a major platform for Indian design
discourse. http://www.design-for-india.blogspot.com

He is on the Governing Council of the IICD, Jaipur and advises other design
schools in India and abroad. He lives and works from Ahmedabad in India. He
has been acknowledged by peers as one of the international thought leaders
in Design Thinking today.