• Freshworks Releases Book on ‘Indian Democratic Design’ Principles that Outlines the Success Mantra Emerging from Customer-centric Indian Companies
Freshworks Inc., the customer engagement software company, has published a new, beautifully crafted book that articulates the emerging democratic design movement in India. “Indian Democratic Design,” showcasing both the design principles and the Indian companies that have embraced them, was unveiled recently at Refresh 19, Freshworks’ annual user conference in Las Vegas.
“Indian Democratic Design” showcases a powerful set of innovative product design principles grounded in simplicity, self-reliance, scale, craftsmanship and affordability. Democratic Design is derived from India’s rich cultural history and rooted in the world’s largest democracy. The movement provides end users with richly rewarding, easy-to-use products and services.
The egalitarian design concept, started by renowned designer Philippe Starck and then embraced by IKEA, promotes products built for common masses versus the elite few. Whether it’s an app for ride share, affordable hotels, payment systems, cloud software — or even great-tasting beer — this design and development approach, focused on the end user, has been embraced by India’s fast-growing product and service ecosystem.
Marcus Engman, former Head of Design at IKEA spoke at the launch about how democratic design principles at IKEA complement Indian Democratic Design and how both reinforce the viability and sustainability of building great, affordable product that can scale to the masses.
“It doesn’t come as a surprise to me to see that Indian designers and engineers share the same ideals we had at IKEA. I am proud to be associated with Indian Democratic Design and this emerging movement. We have the same source of inspiration: our passionate commitment and research into the everyday life of many people — how they live, work and play.” said Marcus Engman.
“Indian Democratic Design” details five pillars of simplicity, self-reliance, scalability, craftsmanship and affordability that complement Indian values and result in products that deliver enormous benefits to the people:
1. Simplicity – Democratically designed products are approachable, easy-to-use and self-explanatory. Good design brings together form and function to solve problems in the simplest way possible.
2. Self-reliance – Global products must be easy to deploy, adopt and maintain with minimal assistance to empower as many users as possible.
3. Scalability – Democratically designed products are developed with a large number of users in mind and, therefore, must work for businesses of all sizes.
4. Craftsmanship – Global markets and customers expect the best possible product and high-quality experiences crafted to perfection.
5. Affordability – Central to the idea of democratic design is affordability. Making scalable products available to everyone but also passing on the benefits of economies of scale to the end-user.
Girish Marthrubootham, CEO and founder of Freshworks, discovered that these principles are deeply rooted in the Indian culture and extend to businesses of all types that are building products designed for the needs of the end users everywhere.
“Be it the simplicity of yoga, the self-reliance of our Swadeshi movement, the scale of the Indian elections that process 600 million voters from the southernmost seashore to the northernmost mountain top, the craftsmanship displayed by our artists who continue our ancient shipbuilding traditions or the ingenuity of our engineers who’s Chandrayaan-2 rocket shot to the moon for the cost of a Hollywood movie, India is pushing the boundaries of what is possible”, said Girish Mathrubootham, CEO of Freshworks.
