Managing Partner & Co-founder at Quicksand,
India.
Ayush heads up Quicksand a design strategy and innovation consultancy working in emerging markets at the intersection of business, international development, arts and culture. At Quicksand, he promotes design for social impact by connecting the best practices of design with development programs to address the pressing and complex issues of social equity, public health, education, financial inclusion and humanitarian aid. In this capacity, he has worked with global organizations such as Unilever, World Bank, International Rescue Committee and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to design products and services that promote sustainability and quality of life for low-income communities. An entrepreneur, educator, and mentor, Ayush is also the co-founder of UnBox, the first interdisciplinary festival in India bringing together leading voices from across the world for inspiration, debate and reflection.
Ayush received his engineering and business degrees from IIT, Delhi and IIM, Ahmedabad. In 2012, Ayush was selected as a Yale World Fellow from India, one of Yale University's flagship global leadership programs bringing together emerging leaders from across the world for a semester long immersion in the academic and leadership discourse at the University. He currently serves on the board of William J. Clinton Foundation in India.
Principal at Quicksand,
India.
Kevin has the dual role of Principal and Communications Lead at Quicksand. He originally joined the studio in early 2012 specifically to be a part of Quicksand’s Project Sammaan, an innovation-at-scale initiative which sought to holistically reimagine the community sanitation experience in India’s urban slums. Keenly interested in the role human-centered design can play in addressing the world’s most pressing challenges, Kevin leads many of the studio’s efforts in the design for social impact space. This has manifested in manifold engagements in the water and sanitation space throughout India, as well as initiatives in financial inclusion, education, and humanitarian aid.
Kevin has a degree in Journalism/Mass Communication from St. Bonaventure University in the United States, and is a member of the UN’s Water Supply & Sanitation Collaborative Council (WSSCC).
Design for Social Impact
6 hrs Workshop | Categeory: UX | Target Audience: All levels of expertise.
The dysfunction of public services around us - whether it is the poor state of public and
community toilets, or the inability of millions to participate in mainstream financial
services, or for that matter the low rate of numerical and language literacy even
amongst school going children - is in effect, a design challenge.
But what makes the design of social change unique - and what are the similarities and
differences between design of products, services and businesses on one hand and
developing solutions that help improve the quality of life of ordinary citizens on the
other?
We will use examples from Quicksand's decade long practice in this domain to
understand the nuances of design for social impact and how the latest in technology,
UX and design can be used for the betterment of society.
Three key takeaways
Understanding of complex social systems.
Principles of social innovation and design.
Tools and techniques to design relevant solutions.