“Today, the most precious resource is not oil or money, it’s time. Every company in the world is vying for it,” says Jayawant Tewari, principal designer manager at Microsoft. He recently spoke at the DesignUp 2017 conference recently held in the city.
But the difference, he points out, is that while certain social media behemoths monetise on time, there are other organisations trying to ensure that people do more with the little time that they have.
“We want you to be more productive so that you can spend time on other things that are more important to you, like spending time with family. The work that I am doing specifically is to help people in the emerging markets encompass technology to be more productive and to do this in a way that doesn't seem limiting or constraining,” explains Jayawant, who is also a bassist and has worked with several bands.
“We want to make technology as intuitive and natural as possible while helping people get work done.”
As a design manager, he is working on productivity software that is tailored to meet the needs of emerging markets in countries such as India and Brazil. “There is a new breed of users who have leapfrogged the entire desktop era and get work done through smartphones. Their only access to the internet is through a smartphone. The design process essentially starts with an understanding of who our users are, their specific requirements, and their goals and aspirations.”
According to him, some of these insights about their behaviour, and their motivations that designers are not usually aware of, are seen more clearly with the building of empathy.
“We ensure that we foster this empathy as apart of a larger developmental organisation because designers are usually more empathetic than engineers, who are trained to be more analytical. Once we endorse empathy, we ideate and conceptualise on the design based on these insights about users.”
What, for him, is most interesting and challenging about being a designer is that people can have an opinion on the design of any product or tool without really having a background in the subject.
“This means that a designer has to be cognisant of and receptive to feedback. Being designers, we have to filter this through our expertise to help drive home the point. The most challenging part is to convince people that this is the right thing to do and back it up with sufficient empirical data.”
At the same time, he observes, the possibilities are endless because technology is penetrating every part of society, through the smartphone. “Some of our user research has shown that there are several smartphone users in India who don’t mind having to skip a meal for a few days to be able to afford an entry level smartphone. And the smartphone opens up limitless possibilities for people. Technology is becoming more pervasive and socially all-encompassing,” he explains.
On the other hand, he says, this also places a huge responsibility on designers to ensure technology is not used to further the wrong interests.
“We all know about fake news, which is targeted towards polarising opinions. Sometimes it tears apart friends and families because people are so strongly opinionated. A lot of this is fuelled by what they are consuming on social media. That’s where design plays a critical role, it bridges the gap between people and technology. It brings in human-centric values and aspirations and melds it with business and technology.”
His stints in SAP, Google and Microsoft, says Jayawant, have helped him become more impactful as a designer.
“Designers are usually a minority in software setups, but their work is significant. I have the learnt the importance of building great relationships and being the voice of the user in a company. There is no one else who can do it because the other teams are focused on the technology or the business interest. Designers are the only people who bring up what users really want.”
He believes there is great potential for design in shaping technology to help people achieve more, in terms of helping people understand situations and contexts without physical being there — through virtual classrooms or too seek guidance during surgeries, for instance.
On the other hand, he agrees, it may have its own downfalls in making people more dependent on technology, just as they have now become dependent on electricity and water supply. But, he says, such advancement is unavoidable.
“What I would like to achieve is to make a demonstrable difference the quality of life among people in India, through the companies I work for, with teams I am a part of.”
