How being a designer helped me combat the lockdown
It was an evening when I was at my balcony, excited, and looking forward to ringing bells and clapping my hands to honour all frontline workers. There was this energy all around and the one-day lockdown seemed much easier to comprehend. But, what transpired in a couple of days had an impact on most of our lives. We were under an indefinite nationwide lockdown. I was becoming increasingly paranoid, not because I could not step out of my home, or go to work, or meet my friends — it was because my dad could not do any of these. He was stranded, alone in another city with poor internet connectivity and no one to reach out to for help.
Days turned into weeks and I could sense his morale going down. Loneliness and boredom caught up with him and sitting in Bangalore, I began to worry about my dad’s mental health. I had to do something to help him cope with the situation, I inadvertently ended up approaching it as a design problem. This blog is about the five steps that surfaced in the process of finding a solution.
Immerse.
In the days that followed, I spent most of my time anxiously thinking about the situation we were all in, more specifically the situation my dad was in. I shared my thoughts and feelings with my friends. The more I spoke to others, the more I saw patterns starting to emerge. So I did what a designer would typically do — I grouped, prioritized, and reflected on these clusters of thoughts and few intriguing insights surfaced.
Have a conscious mindset
Working from home was a choice we made during normal times, but now, working from home is starkly different… it is forced upon you indefinitely. Work and home responsibilities merge extensively and not everyone is capable of balancing both of these tasks effectively. Some will break down and give up.
Remember that a person when at home is not the same when at the workplace. Two months ago, I could see my colleagues at their desks, gauge how busy they are, walk up to them and ask them a question, or simply chat over coffee. Now, the person is the same but the way I initiate the conversation is different — very different!
I check their Google calendar, search for probable free time, be conscious of the fact that they may be preparing or having their lunch, text them over slack, and after I do all of this, I set up a video call. Clearly, it is not the same as before.
On the flip side has the pandemic given the opportunity for globally distributed teams to feel more united?
Regardless of whether it was my peers working with me in the same office or in another continent, I now interact with everyone using the same tool — a Zoom video call. Suddenly, we are all on the same playing field and have the same kind of access as our other colleagues.
Research.
I subconsciously started searching for solutions around me- social media, blogs, news, everywhere and I realized that I was invariably attracted to thoughts and efforts that were laced with positivity and hope. I strongly believe it is important to instill hope and positivity in the minds of people with whom I interact with and my respect has grown multifold for those who are cognizant of this fact and act on it. Here is an example of Atul Khatri who searches for news all day long and makes it a point to share only positive news as a video at the end of the day, which in turn is converted into informative illustrations by a friend of mine Karishma.
Here is another great example of Atlassian’s initiatives to keep their employees mentally sane and physically fit during the pandemic.
- Forming teams across the globe, walking together, and tracking the collective step counts.
- Unique 30-day creative challenges which employees share on a Trello board.
- Recreating famous works of Art with Objects Found at Home during Self-Quarantine
I particularly like the third initiative which aims at keeping us engaged with the things we have at home. I decided to do the same to help my dad pass through these uncertain times. But instead of recreating art, we decided to connect with books.
Action.
My dad loves reading books, so we chose one of the books that he had with him and I downloaded the online version of the same. Every day both of us had to read one chapter from the book and share our thoughts, learnings, or perspectives during our call at night.
Over time, the duration of the calls got longer, we added elements of fun to our new found activity, the content of our talk and the quality of our interactions kept getting better and better with every call. It gave me a newfound peace of mind and it helped my dad focus on things other than the pandemic.
To grow, upgrade yourself
The pandemic may not necessarily disrupt anything much, but it will change the speed at which the disruptions happen. There is a sudden sense of urgency to learn and adapt to new tools — tools that will help us collaborate remotely and skills that will help us stay relevant.
Effective communication, in particular, has become more important than ever. Remote working now demands more focus time so that work can be finished quickly and other household chores can be attended to. There is an increasing trend to reduce the number of online meetings which could be a chat instead.
Mastering communication and working collaboratively in a seamless manner has never been more challenging than it is now.
For instance, overnight, designers had to become comfortable using online collaborative tools like digital whiteboards and convey complex thoughts virtually.
Impact.
It isn’t just with work and design, a lot has changed in my personal life as well. These are just a few of the upgrades that have happened in my daily life in these last few weeks:
- Going to a gym has been replaced by fitness apps
- Routine follow-ups with the doctor have been replaced by teleconsultations
- All of a sudden, I feel like I don’t need cash. Even the doctor’s fee is paid digitally
- My niece’s school completely adapted to changing times and has started classes using digital teaching methods
And, of course, these changes also seeped into the way I communicated with my dad. Digital solutions helped enhance our daily conversations. When a normal call did not connect, dad learned how to make Whatsapp calls, and when he felt like seeing us, he learned how to make video calls!
Reflect.
To embrace the new normal
This crisis has slowed people down. We buy less, travel less, and live more consciously.
Earlier, entertainment meant movies, malls, and dining at fancy places. Now, entertainment is cooking new dishes, doing household chores (I’m being sarcastic here), and playing indoor games with my family. This is the new normal. And to be honest, I am starting to like some parts of it and would want to do them forever.
Watching my mum enact the movie names while playing dumb charades feels a million times more heartwarming than watching that movie with her.
Design schools taught us how to be empathetic about user’s needs, the pandemic is teaching us to be empathetic to ourselves and everyone around us. Through this short time, we have learned to embrace digital platforms and build meaningful connections in both our work and our personal lives.
It’s time we move from making default choices to more mindful ones.
If we approach the various challenges thrown at us by the pandemic as a design problem, we may find innovative ways to apply design thinking and mitigate our everyday frustrations.
While we leverage the digital tools, be conscious that there is a person at the other end of the screen — a person who is also trying to navigate this new normal.
They say if something is done consistently for 21 days, it sticks with you and becomes a habit. Does that mean the new things I have been doing during the lockdown for over a month now will become a part of my routine even after the pandemic ends?… Maybe yes!
Never before have I had such deep conversations with my dad on a daily basis! It has given a new paradigm to our father-son relationship. All these experiences and realizations were accidentally given to us by the pandemic and many of these will continue to linger on forever even after this whole crisis ends.
And, remember that how we collaborate will change, why we collaborate will not.
Thanks to the amazing Atlassian BLR design team for their motivation and insights which helped me write this blog.
Thanks for reading 💚 Do share your stories and reflections during these challenging times.
