From Jugaad to AI - 14 ways to see and shape design today
- kiran kulkarni
- 3 days ago
- 8 min read
Updated: 1 day ago
When I look back at various of my projects over the years—from designing a musical instrument in bamboo to shaping the digital flows of a fintech app for travelers—I’m struck by the sheer variety of ways one can approach design. Some projects emerged from chaos and constraint; others flowed from theory or co-evolved with communities. Design, I’ve learned, is not a single practice but a shifting lens. In India especially, design is not always found in studios or galleries—it’s at the tea stall, in temple rituals, or in a grandmother’s kitchen. Below, I explore design approaches seen through the lens of objects, spaces, artifacts, and services, drawing from both Indian and global examples. And crucially—how each of them can bring value in a business context.
1. Jugaad – The Frugal Fix
Jugaad is the art of making things work with whatever is at hand. In Rajasthan’s arid regions, I once saw a farmer use discarded scooter parts to repair a broken irrigation system. The object—patched with duct tape and rusted bolts—may not have looked elegant, but it worked. In urban spaces too, jugaad flourishes: street vendors in Delhi use tarp, milk crates, and bamboo to create functional stalls that fold away by dusk. This spirit of improvisation mirrors similar movements globally, like Brazil’s favela architecture or Kenya’s boda-boda customizations.
Personally, I am in this situation with most of the tech startups in Bangalore which are building from 0 to 1. I struggle to balance for longevity, safety and aesthetics. Often, there's a rush to create an MVP, and I have to make space for discussions with stakeholders who are in a hurry. Jugaad celebrates ingenuity, but I see how it often sacrifices depth unless consciously addressed.
In Bangalore’s early-stage startups, I often find myself in this mode—racing to ship an MVP while trying to balance longevity, safety, and aesthetics. Jugaad celebrates ingenuity, but without intention, it risks becoming superficial or brittle.
Business Value: Jugaad enables speed, agility, and cost-efficiency—essential in early-stage ventures and for solving last-mile problems in resource-constrained environments.
2. Flow and Shaping – The Language of Movement
Design that emphasizes flow respects the way people or things move through a system. A walk around a Hoysala temple brings back the glorious design language in a flow that shapes a viewers "Pradakshina" as a memorable circumambulation around the Lord. At Kochi Biennale, I recall walking through a pavilion where space flowed like a river—curved walls, open sightlines, and shaded pauses. Flow is also evident in tools shaped by function: a Madhubani artisan’s brush, carved from bamboo and cloth, glides with minimal effort to draw complex patterns. Globally, Apple’s UX design ethos emphasizes this same principle: reduce friction, increase intuitive movement.
In my experience, I find teams doing a lot of rework when they approach flow late. New requirements often creep in, disturbing the clarity of movement. Designing for flow requires anticipation and early alignment. Otherwise, you lose both elegance and efficiency.
Business Value: Flow-based design increases customer satisfaction, reduces churn, and minimizes rework and complexity in scaling services.
3. Mixing – Hybrid Forms and Collisions
India thrives on mixing: Mughal architecture meets Rajput engineering; Bollywood borrows from K-pop and Marathi folk. A contemporary object that stands out is Prof A G Rao's product designs fuse industrial steel, paper or plastics with cane and bamboo weaving—functional yet rooted in craft. In urban India, hybrid spaces like co-working dhabas or music cafés blend typologies to accommodate new work-life patterns. Similarly, Japanese-American fashion designer Issey Miyake created garments that fused origami, tech, and textile tradition.
But mixing if not done well, in my view, most often leads to very insensitive combinations—of shapes, of purposes. It results in design outputs that are confused and lose context, historicity, and sensitivity. Without care, mixing becomes a mess instead of a merger.
Business Value: When done well, mixing allows for rapid prototyping, appeals to diverse user bases, and helps brands localize global concepts with cultural sensitivity.
4. Language and Systems – Designing with Logic
Some designs emerge from frameworks: modularity, language, visual systems. At Niyo, I helped design a UX library of components to help travelers make sense of their money. The system became a silent guide, reducing cognitive load across platforms. In objects, think of IKEA’s furniture kits: built on a universal language of symbols and sequences. India’s metro systems—especially in Kochi and Delhi—have increasingly adopted design systems that combine English, Hindi, and icons to aid comprehension.
Personally, this feels like the commoditization of design. The outcome may work functionally well but has a danger of lacking the juice (rasa). It becomes mechanical, inhuman. It doesn't touch your heart or evoke emotion if done as a drag and drop arrangements of elements.
Business Value: Systems thinking improves operational efficiency, allows scalable design, and creates brand consistency across touchpoints.
5. Contextualizing – Rooted in Place
In Ladakh, the Druk White Lotus School uses mud-brick construction and solar alignment to suit the local climate. Here, space itself listens to the mountains. Objects too are embedded in context: the Kashmiri kangri (a portable earthen pot heater) is designed for life under pherans. Services like Barefoot College, which trains rural grandmothers in solar engineering, build from local wisdom outward. Globally, the Slow Food movement echoes this, rooting culinary design in terroir and tradition.
I find this approach very relevant, but often designers struggle to make true connections with traditions. Many times, traditions themselves are no longer relevant or fully understood. There's a danger of just borrowing nostalgia. Getting the shape right without understanding the ritual or cultural meaning can feel shallow and unconvincing.
Business Value: Contextual design strengthens market fit, builds community trust, and differentiates products in saturated markets.
6. Variations – Evolving Archetypes
Design often dances with archetypes. At a crafts workshop in Kutch, I saw a hundred variations of a three-legged stool—each altered slightly in pattern, height, or material, all clearly kin. In contemporary India, brands like Nicobar create variations of the kurta—reinventing a timeless form for urban minimalism. In architecture, Tokyo’s capsule hotels or India’s co-living startups are new avatars of the dormitory. Variation respects history while introducing novelty.
Personally, I see this as a strong way to bridge tradition and innovation. But it requires designers to deeply study archetypes—what remains constant, and what can evolve. Shallow variations, without understanding the archetype’s logic, can easily fall flat.
Business Value: Variation allows brands to offer novelty without reinventing the wheel—preserving core identity while appealing to evolving markets.
7. Based on Texts or Theories – Guided by Frameworks
Some design flows from ancient texts or contemporary theory. Vastu Shastra continues to shape Indian home layouts—placing kitchens in the southeast or entrances in the northeast. In a home I visited in Chennai, even the slope of the roof responded to Vastu. On the flip side, I’ve worked with designers inspired by Deconstruction—using fragmentation and contradiction to provoke thought. Bernard Tschumi’s Parc de la Villette in Paris is one such global example.
Theory-based design brings depth, but can become esoteric. What do I mean by that? Esoteric design draws from niche or obscure sources that aren’t easy to relate to for most people. It risks alienating users if it doesn’t offer clear or accessible meaning.
Business Value: Theoretical frameworks can offer narrative depth and positioning clarity—especially in premium or intellectual brands.
8. Personal Aesthetics – The Designer’s Inner World
Sometimes, a design emerges purely from the creator’s sense of beauty. A potter in Puducherry once told me, "This curve makes me feel calm," as she shaped a pot that didn’t follow any utility logic. In a Bengaluru studio, a textile artist dyes saris in colors that come to her in dreams. These objects carry a personal language—like the architecture of Luis Barragán, whose colors came from his memory of Mexican landscapes.
But how will clients believe you in this process? Why should they? What makes them trust your personal instincts? This is a tough path unless the designer has already built credibility. The leap of faith required is real.
Business Value: Personal aesthetics can build strong brand identities, emotional differentiation, and artistic integrity—if balanced with audience resonance.
9. Co-Design – Shaping with Others
Co-design begins not with the designer’s vision, but with the community’s voice. In a project in Dharavi, we asked residents to sketch their dream living spaces. One girl drew a rooftop garden; another, a kitchen that opened into a play area. These drawings became seeds. We shaped their ideas into real design proposals. This method aligns with the global trend of participatory design—from urban planning in Medellín to rural telehealth in Ghana.
This method is not very popular in India. How do I make it more reachable? What should a designer do? I think it begins with humility. Designers must build trust, translate intent into forms, and create simple feedback loops. It's hard work, but essential for equitable design.
Business Value: Co-design improves product relevance, increases community adoption, and fosters long-term stakeholder engagement.
10. Speculative Design – Designing Futures
Speculative design explores what could be, not what is. It’s about provoking thought, questioning norms, and visualizing alternative futures. In India, think of the work of artist-designer groups imagining climate-resilient cities or future caste-less societies. Globally, Dunne & Raby’s speculative artifacts imagine surreal but plausible futures—like genetically modified pets or economy-run governments.
Why it matters: It helps societies prepare emotionally and intellectually for emerging challenges.Your reflection: I often feel India needs more space for this—not everything must have a business case. Designers should be allowed to dream provocatively, even if it scares stakeholders.
11. Repair and Care – Designing for Maintenance
This method focuses on longevity, repairability, and emotional continuity. From the darning of old shawls in Kashmir to the Japanese practice of kintsugi (repairing broken pottery with gold), care-based design centers values like humility, stewardship, and sustainability. Indian repair bazaars and cycle mechanics are unsung design labs of this kind.
Why it matters: In a world of disposable products, repair-centered design counters waste and builds intimacy.Your reflection: I’ve found few tech companies truly embracing this. Design often means “new.” But I think we need to invest in the aesthetics and dignity of care.
12. Embodied Design – Using the Body as a Guide
This method listens to the body—its posture, gestures, rhythms—as the foundation of design. Bharatnatyam choreography, yoga sequences, or the way a tailor feels fabric before cutting are examples. Globally, product designers use ethnographic body mapping or somatic sensing to shape objects and interfaces that “fit” the body intuitively.
Why it matters: It roots design in empathy and bodily intelligence, not just logic or metrics.Your reflection: I try to watch how people sit, fidget, lean. The body speaks before the words do.
13. Ritual Design – Designing Experience through Ceremony
This approach draws from rites, sequences, and symbolic objects to create structured, meaningful experiences. The puja thali, wedding mandaps, and temple processions are richly designed experiences. Modern apps like Headspace or Calm borrow this method, crafting rituals of logging in, breathing, pausing.
Why it matters: Rituals hold emotional and psychological power. They shape behavior gently but deeply.Your reflection: I feel this method offers immense untapped potential in India’s app and product space—can onboarding feel like a welcoming aarti, not a checklist?
14. Algorithmic/Generative Design – Designed by Rules
Here, design is driven by algorithms—either mathematical, procedural, or AI-powered. Parametric architecture like Zaha Hadid’s buildings, or generative art created with code (like by Manolo Gamboa Naon), are examples. In India, startups using AI to generate fashion patterns or architectural layouts are early adopters.
Why it matters: It scales creativity and enables complexity no human alone could manage.Your reflection: I’m intrigued but cautious. Algorithms reflect biases. As a designer, I must stay in the loop—not out of fear, but to make sure soul and surprise remain.
Design is a prism. Whether it comes out of scarcity or theory, shaped by hand or built from code, every approach brings a different kind of intelligence into the world. And in India—where design lives in rituals, jugaad fixes, digital apps, and street corners—this variety really matters. These methods have taught me that design isn't about chasing perfection. It's about what fits, what feels right, and what helps us imagine new ways of living, working, and belonging.
So, what kind of design fits your current need? Let’s talk.
*Have used ChatGPT to polish my thoughts and present my view in the above article
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