The money earning exercise: what are its outcomes?
The outcome of the exercise was basically to learn how small business at a extreme ground level start , how we can face initials problems while starting the business and how we can innovate to earn faster also we used the role play method of research where we actually play the role of small scale business people.

What other similar exercises can be created?
we can offer to work with them simultaneously without pay so they are willing to keep us and we can get maximum information by being there the entire day. Take 50 rupees n send an entire day travelling and see how one can survive and innovate to earn for living that day better.

What kind of research tool is role play?
Role playing is a research tool in which an individual participates to play the role of the the person he/she is researching on. In this case he will become that individual for some period and experience how that individual lives, what he goes through daily, how he manages his routine, how he earns, how his relations are etc. This gives research method gives a first hand information as by playing the role of that individual we directly experience his life.

What are its advantages over plain interviews?
In a role playing method we get first hand information as we ourselves play the role of the person we want to research and get every detail of how his daily routine is, how he earns, how he lives, etc. However in interview method you can get only the information the interviewee is giving you and he might not give the exact details or might forget a few things. So the role play method is a better research tool.

What is ergonomics?
Ergonomics is a design of the tools and the workplace in relation to the worker. The tools are designed for a particular job taking the human measurements into consideration so that tool is best fitted for the particular work and repetitive human injuries, maybe short term or long term are prevented by the regular use of the tools.

How is it as a research tool?
The importance of ergonomics as a research tool is that it helps us to study why a workplace or a tool is designed in a particular way. How the worker is benefited from it and Also there can be flaws if the ergonomics is not properly applied and we can help improve it with our research. Also in small businesses how people innovate to find ways to make work simpler.

What kind of user understanding does ergonomics provide?
Ergonomics helps to understand the relation between the workers and their tools and workplace. Helps to understand how the furniture, arrangement, size of tools, body posture and also the physical and social environment should be in relation to the person working in that space.



What is a scenario and or persona, what are the advantages of creating them ?
Persona's are fictitious characters created to represent a particular individual or a group pf people and scenario is a fictitious description of an event or chain of events. Building persona and scenario can help understanding behavior of different people in different situations and how we can deal with them.

How can it also work as a design tool?
Many companies now use persona and scenario building as a design tool. they create persona's of their customers and put them in different scenarios to understand the the how their product might be reviewed, how many problems can occur and what situations they might have to deal with. It also helps to understand what type of products might be required for the future market and what amendments can be made in the present product. This helps them to see the future for their company and design products in such a way.


What are the advantages of a Matrix as a research tool?
Matrix helps to rank our needs from the most important to the least important and thus helps to make a correct choice. When we do research we have a several options and we either consciously or subconsciously create a table and mark our needs when we have got a choice and this helps to make a exact decision of what we require.

How can it also work as a design tool?
Method of matrix can be used while designing a product. Making a list of all the features or the contents the product is required to have and then selecting it on the basis of customer requirement and needs then matrix can be done by ranking the the most important to the least important feature and selecting the highest ones and including those in the design. This way many companies use matrix method to design products.

Give two examples of second level understandings from Marasandra village based on your own reflective judgment.
Marasandra was a not only a potters village but there were many families engaged in various other activities as well. Many of the families were engaged in the same occupations since generations where as a few were going out to the city for jobs because of which the traditional art and craft was dying. Also they were not only dependent on one profession but also had two three more businesses in a family like pot making, murti making etc. There were different activities going on during different times of the day. The village was interdependent in many ways. The potters need not go out to buy clay as it was available to them from the lake near by which is however dying now. Also the waste was not thrown as they mostly reused it.

Give two examples of design interventions you can do on the basis of these three weeks of research.
We can either create commercial products based on the skill of the potters or artisans so they are acceptable in the current market. but a lot of research has to be doe for this. Also we can have more innovative options to create small business so many unemployed can be give the idea to start their own business.

Matrix

Matrix for buying an iPod/mp3

				Transcend		Sony		Philips		Apple
Long lasting			100	4	400	3	300	2	200	4	400
Good music quality			90	3	270	3	270	2	180	4	360
Good display			80	2	160	1	80	2	160	4	320
Facility for radio			60	3	180	2	120	2	120	4	240
Video capturing			50	3	150	1	50	2	100	3	150
Pricing(Budget)			70	4	280	3	270	4	280	2	140
Small size			40	2	80	3	120	3	120	4	160
					1550		1220		1190		1830

Method of selecting the an object with many choices.

Here the features are marked out of 100 for the level of importance and each company is marked out of 5 for the level of faring in each Feature. In this way the apple ipod ranked the most and i finally decided to buy the same.

Visit to Honnavar.

The visit to Honnavar

After reading the brochure about this place i was really excited about the whole trip. The area of my interests were mainly learning the and knowing more about the tribal arts, culture and lifestyle. i had always wanted to do this but never got a chance before to do so. Thus this a good opportunity for me. Also the basket weaving, mat weaving and jewelry making is also what i am looking forward to on this trip.

I hope to make the most of this opportunity and learn as much as i can.

Mapping Marasandra.

Mapping Marasandra

Mapping Marasandra was our main objectives on 20th July. We reached the place at 9:30 am started moving from the highway towards the village and marked the route along on the paper. Also this times we went during the morning hours which is a bit different from the afternoon hours we went last time.

The mornings were much more quieter than the afternoons. Ladies busy washing clothes and utensils and doing other household work and men mostly stated their work, opening shops etc. Not many children were seen outside playing but on a contrary the number of cows grazing was much more.

We had to divide the group into two and went into two different directions. Taking the route from the main shelter on the potter, towards the kin, the murti making shack, the shack where the old murti's weer placed to the brass casting shop and then the vineyard we went all along and i made a rough map while others wrote the information of the surrounding space.

Once we all came together a combined map was created of the area all together. We had some more ideas in store to get the locals to chalk their own village but were not left with much time.

Reflection and learning

The main difficulty in making the map was sticking to the scale. However we managed to make one not so exact but clear enough to locate the space around.

We also learnt how the village is interdependent to some extent. Most of the things needed are made or grown by the villagers themselves so they hardly need to go out daily. However many have now started doing jobs in the nearby ares because of which the craft which has been done there since generations is slowly dying.

Marasandra visit.

Marasandra visit

The lake from which the potters get the clay in the village

The old murtis getting repaired

Brass murti's and caste shop

Pots baked in the kin.

Manjunath the murti maker.

The main Potter.
The first day we went to Marasandra was just when we knew nothing about the place and had to explore. It was not a really big village but just a small settlement. the main profession of most of the people there was pottery and making murti's also they used he old murti's, cleaned it, colored it again and resold it. Most of the ladies indulged in housework and kids played around most of the time. One thing noticed was that most of the children followed the same occupation as their father and learned the skill by just observing them. No one had done some special kind of course or learning too acquire that skill. It has become like a family profession for them which continues for generations.

We had gone to this place at afternoon hours around 1:30 pm and I noticed that most of them were still working irrespective of lunch hour many of the women were busy either cooking or looking after the small children. The murti maker made a minimum of 10 Ganapati bodies in a day and 10 heads the next day to complete 10 Ganapati's in two whole days. This was the seasonal occupation of the son to make the murti's and otherwise he helped his father. They did not keep an account of how many murti's had to be made as they kept on making it till they could.

The experience was worth it. Even there was a small dead lake ahead in the village from where mostly the potters got their raw clay to make the pots. The place was beautiful with greenery and farmlands but the lake was almost dried.

We returned to college at around 4 and discussed about next days visit.The visit was mainly to know the nature of the village from which i learnt how the surroundings were different at different hours of the day and also the activities of the people. Also how people generally tend to follow the same profession that has been going on in the family since ages as they are also not aware of more career options. But this is the only way that some amount of traditional craft is still alive in these parts.

Ergonomics

The vegetable cart moved with the help of a cow. The owner does not have to do much work in this case as pulling the cart is taken care by the cow he just has to weigh the vegetables and collect cash. Also the cart can take weight as much as 1000 kgs.

Iron frame wooden planks for base. Can carry a weight of almost 200kgs.

Around 7 racks are there on a single frame n each compartment can hold 9-10 magazines or paper. Each panel is 20-30 inches above ground level and 60 inches in height. Easily approachable by the customer so the shopkeeper just sits n collects cash.

This cycle is usually used to carry waste from houses.. Can take a load of up to 20-25 kgs each side. Mostly used for papers n cardboard waste. An average person or even a small child can carry it.

There are 4 racks and 5 compartments each in a row. The average height of a person being 5ft 4” that is around 64-65 inches it is idly made for an average heighted person to even reach till the top compartments.

The machine table is made with a height, length and width suitable for a person to work on the table and as the legs are 16 inches and moving the panel down takes up the legs 4 more inches there is sufficient space between the table and legs. The area next to the machine is good enough to keep the fabric there while working.

Ergonomic was one of the assignment which helped me understand the human body relation to his work surroundings. Why certain things are designed in a certain way was best understood by the help of this exercise. Even the smallest of businesses have innovated way to make life simpler or to make the most of minimum resources.

These machines are designed in a way that it is conducive for human use and less hard work has to be performed.This type of research also helps to understand to what extent the human body has to be stretched while performing any activity in the course of his work.

The biggest mistake (story 1)

The story of the cycle repairwala.

I Raju(Rajkumar) came from a small village in Hosur to Bangalore hoping to start my own cycle shop. However I could not fulfill my dream because of lack of funds but after coming to Yelahanka i met my old village friend who himself was looking for a job. I gave him this idea of starting a cycle shop for repairing cycles and so we started with our new business by renting a place at 1700 rs per month. I had been working here since last 4 years with business going on a regular pace. In 2006 S my partner and myself Raju started with our shop. I had also been saving quite a lot for my sisters wedding back in town. Thus i had even cut down quite a lot on my daily expenditure and worked for more hours.

On a very fateful day there came a property agent to our shop. I thought I had seen him a couple of times before in this area but was not so sure about it. I had not realized that this m, had been spying on my whereabouts for quite sometime.

He came to my shop and introduced himself as a property agent started the usual talks of where I was from and all. After a while he got down to questions like are you satisfied with this place and how much rent do you pay and stuff like that. I always dreamed of having this big shop where I would sell all sorts of cycles but could never accomplish it because of less funds.

The property agent who came in knew I was paying 1700 rs as rent per month so he offered me a very tempting deal. He said I could buy a place of my own near by in the same locality and pay the cash in installments to money lender who can offer me loan of 50,000 rs which was the price of owning that shop. The agent was supposed to be given 2% of the cost in this deal. The locality was good as it had a junior college next to it which meant I could have more customers now. I thought after a clearing the initial cost i could start expanding the business. However Suresh did not really agree to the situation. He said I was thinking to fat about it and it should be given more time. Being too much excited about the whole new thing i did not give too much thought and convinced Suresh to go for it.

The deal was made in 2 days and all the paperwork was collected. Also the documents and all the paper work was done. I borrowed the money from the lender and promised to pay back 3000 rs per month. I also gave the agent his 2% commission.

All was clear . Business went good. I had more customers than before and i also worked for more hours to cover up the cost. we borrowed 30,00 from the lender and the rest 20,000 i had given from my saving i had kept for my sisters wedding. I thought i'll earn this amount in a years time and everything will be normal soon.

Suddenly one day there came the BBMP people and asked me to clear my shop as it was illegal. I was shocked!! How could this possibly happen. They asked me to show me the papers and documents of the shop if it was legal. I brought them up and showed it to them and then after thoroughly going through it we realized that the documents and papers were all fake.

I felt devastated. The agent and the owner were not to be traced anywhere. They were thugs. They had very cleverly stolen my money and run away. I launched a police complaint but nothing much. I had to pay money to th lender. My sisters marriage was at stake. Everything had gone wrong. I WAS IN A BIG FINANCIAL DEBT AND NOW IN A LEGAL PROBLEM..... TOO.

Creating a Persona and a Scenario.

Thursday was panned in a way to do the remaining research and create fictitious stories on the life of that person.

I could make the stories after i sat in front of the shop and could relate the fictitious character i was making to the actual life of that person.

I used the character of the person and his most important asset to build up the story.

The stories will be posted in the blogs further.

My day plan for tomorrow will be starting at 9 and visiting all the possible shops which can help me get these different ways which the owners have innovated to make earning simpler.

What was learnt out of this was how a person in the this kind of business fall in an intense situation or what could go wrong in business at a small point which would further lead to bigger financial problems. Also it helped to think from the point of view of the subject. Observing is just one part of the research but playing the role of that person and thinking from his point of view takes it even further.

research on 2 lives (ex 2)

Raju Cycle Shop

Introduction.

For researching on the two lives i chose my cycle repair guy and the other as Aroma bakery owner. Though i am still confused about my second contender i still have options open for the pakoda and jalebi seller , tailor or the keymaker.

first visit to cycle shop today and talk to the owner for a while around 30-40 mins and then would sit at the cycle shop to observe the activities around.

Second visit was to the Dosa shop which is very near to the cycle shop.

After the visit -

cycle shop

Yesterday(14th July) i visited the cycle shop and the Dosa guy both but the cycle shop was that helpful and had too many customers on his ways.I thought of asking the customers around and many of them just came either to get a few parts fixed and most of them for came for filling air in tires. from what i could see most of the earnings on the cycle wala was from the workers who used cycle and the school kids. Along with repairing cycles he also worked on scooters to some extent. I don't how he made a living by taking just 1 rs per tire from his customers. Well he asked me to come tomorrow evening where i could be able to talk to him in detail.

next day.

The cycle shop

Raju cycle shop is the one in Yelahanka market where i usually repair my cycle. As the next day i went also there was too much rush and Rajkumar(the owner) was busy with work i thought i should just sit back and observe.

He came from a small village in Hosur and started this shop with his friend who now are equal owners. They pay a monthly rent of 2300 rs and their monthly profit is aroud 6000-8000 which is shared between both of them. Both of them not yet married so they do not have a family to support however Rajkumar sends a fixed amount of money every month back home to his parents as he is the only son.

The cycle shop has been running in this placce since last 4 years and he has not faced any loss in the business yet even though the gross profit made is not much. But he feels it is enough to satisfy his needs as

The dosa shop

first day.

Well in this case the Dosa guy was much more helpful than the cyclewala. The Dosa guy was a resident of a small village near Banglore from the Tumkur district. He discussed a lot about his village and the culture there nd about his family living there.

He has been staying in Banglore since last 10 years and working for the dosa shop since 4 years. Before the Dosa shop he was selling knives and sharpening them and his wife sold peanuts close by. Now the both of them along with his children run the shop.

The shop timing are in the morning from 7:30 to 11 and in the evening from 6 to 9:30. The owner who is also the cook starts his work from 4:30 in the morning to prepare the sambar and chatni and he also sells some idly's and lime rice with special vegetable pulav on Sundays.

He also mentioned that the cost at which he provides his breakfast is enough and affordable for a labor working on daily wages.

He still makes the knifes for his regular customers. He was again busy during this period so i just had a dosa and waited and observed at his shop and will be visiting him again today.

Next day.

he told me about his pricing policy he next day. The priced of his Idly's and Dosa's is the least in this locality. this works for him well as his target audience is the workers and college students. he says they find it he most affordable and have now become his regular customers.

Also he pays a rent of 1700 rs per month and does not earn much of profit but its enough to satisfy his family. Also he initially had to spend only on the dosa stove as he got the remaining vessels from one his friend who gave it to him without charging and a few were donated to him.

He says that a few financial problems keep hitting his way but now he has learnt to live with them.

Reflection.

how people have dreamed differently and where their life has taken them can be learnt the best from such people. Dreams always do not come true and the journey through the struggle. how the environment or the surrounding space affect the business and how small shopkeepers also innovate to attract more customers was what i could see through this exercise.

earning a 100 (ex1)

Earning Rs 100

Spending is so easy but earning a bit is much more difficult that was what i realized from our first exercise where we had to make a hundred rupees in a day. Also along with that coming up with a innovative idea to earn was a bit challenging. As a group we came up with a number of ideas for a fast earning as having a performance on the streets, car washing, providing other household services, hair braiding, nail art, selling juice and many others..

With so many ideas to work on we finally settled on the one with selling. to make it more interesting we thought of attaching tags having some funky punches to attract the crowd and titled it "gift a juice today".

Our initial investment was 200 Rs and our first target was earning 500 Rs in 4 of us.However the stall worked well and we could cross 500 and we made a profit 110 rs per head.

It was a very good experience and a lot of fun too executing the entire stall.

The way a person thinks and go abouts the process to earn fast money was well understood. If the idea of business is good even a small Business can make a lot of money. Wat we did was mainly role play that is being in someone else's shoes and having first hand experience of the situation.