Design Engagements at the Margins: What I Learned in Rural Underserved India – A Design Talk by Dr. Uttaran Dutta

Conceptualizing everyone as a potential designer and believing in local peoples' informed understandings and agentic capabilities in addressing local problems. my design research journey was committed to opening up avenues for sustained transformations in the underserved spaces of rural eastern India. In my design engagements, we (community members and I) contributed to three design projects, namely design for community development (DfCD), information design for development (lDfD), and design for grassroots innovation (DfGD). In my design journey. I sincerely questioned/challenged my presumptions and design approaches as well as reflexively reoriented myself to make the design processes culturally meaningful and contextually appropriate. Usage of local languages and visuals, harnessing indigenous wisdom, designing in-situ and intercultural competencies were some of the key aspects of my design initiatives. Being constantly cognizant about minute traces of superiority (and sense of indispensability) within me, being willing to challenge, modify, and rediscover myself continually, as well as privileging and situating local and indigenous perspectives and knowledge at the center of design processes, characterize some of the key learning of my design journey.