Abhishek Chakraborty

On Design

For me the three things that make great design happen are empathy, candor and optimism. Without empathy for whom we design for, we are designing in the dark. Without candid feedback one does not know what to improve. And without optimism there is no reason to ever start a project or let alone bring it to its conclusion. The best project teams I have ever been part of worked hard every day to make this happen. They invite and celebrate curiosity. They are able to evaluate ideas free from personal attachment. It is in this environment I find myself the happiest. It’s when being a designer is the best thing in the world. And it is what makes me want to tackle things I am afraid of.

Opportunity

The dabbawalas (tiffin carriers) of Mumbai are facing challenges in business sustainability as other businesses with similar and better services are emerging. Technology has yet not been incorporated in their business, hence online booking, customer database is not available.

Process

Solution

To empower them we introduce Dabbawala — a mobile application that enables partnership between dabbawalas and food services and directly connects them to their combined customer base.

Signup of new customers

When a customer signs up through the app for the dabbawalas' service, the food services of his choice and the dabbawalas of that area get notified. A dabbawala is assigned to him and the service starts immediately.

Changing daily menu

Customers have options to change their daily eating menu and order from any food service of his choice. This gives a lot of flexibility to the customers. This was not possible earlier.

Additional features

Customers have options to change their daily eating menu and order from any food service of his choice. This gives a lot of flexibility to the customers. This was not possible earlier.Orders, transactions etc. are maintain within the app. Customer and dabbawala profiles are also maintained and the app enables calling any stakeholder right from its interface.

Opportunity

Children of age group 10 to 14 face difficulties to understand the concepts of the Universe when they are introduced for the first time. As per observations, 2D renderings on paper in text books and videos are not sufficient

Process

Solution

Facts can be memorized, but the Universe has to be experienced. Odyssey, a Solar System simulator is designed which creates a realistic simulation of the positions of the planets and various other events in our Solar System.

Structure of the Solar System

Odyssey helps to visualize, interact and play with the Solar System. One can zoom in and zoom out and move around in space.

Scale of the Planets

The relative size, texture of the planets can be visualized once zoomed in.

Main Features at a glance

Opportunity

The challenge was to build a board game for children that is both fun and educational. The learning should happen in the background. The additional challenge was to make multiple games with the same set of game pieces.

Process

Solution

Chemical Island is a 3-in-1 educational board game for children. It comprises of:

1. Treasure Hunt: A fun family game of collecting treasure.

2. Discover Elements: Educational game to learn the Periodic Table of elements.

3. Hexagons: Game to improve visualization skills of children. It can also be used as a stepping stone in learning chess.

Treasure Hunt

A 2–4 players game where players move their team of hunters on the tiles, collecting treasures. The player who has collected the most treasure by the end of the game wins.

Discover Elements

A 2–4 players turn based Chemistry game where players move their team of scientists on the tiles, collecting elements. The player who has collected the most points by the end of the game wins.

Hexagons

A 2-4 player turn based game where you try to form different shapes faster than your opponent and earn points. You can draw at least 3 shape cards from the deck. Each player has got 6 moves in each turn. You can take any of the following actions costing one move.