Case Study : Sozni craft-design & development
Initiative to Uplift Indian Handicraft 🧵
A college project which was undertaken to understand Indian handicrafts, utilize design and development skills to uplift artisans—an individual project completed in 5 weeks.
Problem & Design Process❓
I wanted to do something for the betterment of artisans.
“ How might we increase the reach of artisans and upskill them to open multiple opportunities for the craft”
Sozni 🪡
Why this Craft- I wanted to understand the lesser-known rich crafts of my home state (Jammu & Kashmir) and bring them to the forefront.
What is Sozni- Sozni is one of the most sophisticated forms of Needle Embroidery globally, deeply inspired by Sufi traditions. The exciting fact about Sozni embroidery is that its intricacy can vary from 5 stitches per cm to 500 stitches per cm, and it is practiced only in Kashmir. Sozni work is mainly done on shawls, suits, and sarees.
Artisan Community 👥
The Artisan community consists of Designer, printing specialists, master artisans who are based in Kashmir with little technological support and guidance, rely on word-of-mouth marketing.
Ethnographic Research- Interview Insights 📝
Method: Live, Telephonic, Field Research in Jammu
- Low earnings- “I worked on ‘Sozni Pashmina Jaam’ for two years, for which I was paid a meager amount of Rs 40,000, that too in installments.”-Javed Ahmad, an artisan from Kashmir
- Long working hours- “I work from 8 am to 5.30 pm and from 8.00 pm to 12 am every day due to which my knees hurt and eyes get exhausted. The needles which we use are fragile.” -Farooq Ahmad of Batweena village
- Job shifting not feasible- “We are forced to do this work because we cannot don’t have any other skill. I do some hard labor, I can earn Rs 300 a day, my hands become hard, and I cannot then weave shawls for ten days because you need to have smooth skin on your hands.”- Dar, Embroider
- Delayed Payments- “The retailers, contractors make the real money, and it’s we who do the hard work and get only 100–150 rs a day or don’t even get paid on time.” -Hajira Begum, Artisan from Jammu.
Based on the interviews and research, I curated the persona.
Solution through Website💡
There are mainly four components of the website, i.e., Work opportunities for artisans, events and workshops, fundraisers, and blogs.
Goal: The main aim of the platform is to empower and upskill the Sozni artisans and solve the daily challenges faced by them, bridging the gap between audience and craft.
Design and Development ✅
I made a flat IA for the website to quickly achieve their tasks and kept the user flow’s simple so that artisans don’t feel overwhelmed. The information organization was done using the LATCH principle for easily accessible information.
I followed the 12 column layout structure for the website and kept the UI aesthetic and elegant with classic black and white and rich purple tones. I used a combination of Serif and Sans Serif fonts for the typography. The final website was developed using Bootstrap framework and HTML 5, CSS 3.
- A responsive website was created to be viewed on a mobile, tablet, and laptop/desktop.
- I tried to create multiple navigation routes for the user’s convenience.
- I followed the Web Accessibility guidelines while designing it.
Testing and Feedback 👩🏻💻
Twenty-four participants participated in the feedback, and it was primarily taken by doing a survey and circulating the google form for the same.
Feedback Received:
- Most participants believed that it could help significantly bridge the gap between the two parties, i.e., artisans and the end consumer.
- Most of the users were not aware of any existing site with these features. However, they concluded it makes the work of end consumers easy if they find e-commerce integrated here as well.
- Users specifically liked the color scheme and layout after the features.
- Most of the users were satisfied as multiple navigation routes have been offered. A few of them suggested that dropdown menu navigation could be used instead of tabs.
Learning Reflection✌️
This project increased my knowledge about Indian handicrafts, and as the project demanded- I had to learn bootstrap and HTML for website development. It was also my first project where I conducted field research and felt my work created an impact when this website benefited a small group of artisans.
