Celebrating 50 years of design education at The Ohio State University

Uday Dandavate
Aug 31, 2018 · 10 min read

Columbus Ohio is fast turning into a thriving hub of creativity. In 2015 the city recorded the nation’s highest wage growth even edging out San Francisco. Columbus has a very large cluster of design companies. It also has the third largest concentration of fashion designers in the country, behind New York and Los Angeles. It has America’s 15th largest LGBT population. More than 100 languages are spoken in Columbus today, and one in six residents are first or second generation immigrants — a reflection of the city’s long tradition of cultural diversity.

The Ohio State University has contributed significantly to the emergence of Columbus as a thriving hub of creativity. The department of design at The Ohio State University is dedicated to a culture of research and interdisciplinary learning. Access to 200+ majors and a flexible curriculum provides OSU design students an opportunity to design their own learning path drawing upon a wide variety of knowledge domains.

In October 2018, The Ohio State University Department of Design completes 50 years as an independent department. As part of the anniversary celebration, the department is planning an exhibition about the department’s history and its impact beyond the university. Its centerpiece will be a visual celebration of sixteen graduates who are representing the department’s undergraduate and graduate programs in an outstanding way throughout its long and illustrious history. SonicRim co-founder & CEO Uday Dandavate was selected as one of the fifteen. In their letter the department Chair, Mary Ann Beecher explains,

“We were very interested in featuring alumni who have used their design backgrounds in a broad range of ways. We all have tremendous respect for the work you have done as a design researcher. Under your leadership, Sonic Rim has become one of the most impressive design research companies in the country. Few alumni can claim to have attained the level of excellence in their field that you have”.

The invitation to contribute samples of work for the exhibit proved to be a challenging task. Unlike traditional design companies, that have images and models of design outputs, we do not have any. We serve as catalysts of the co-creation process. So how does one provide samples of our work? The department of design invited comments by the peers of Uday Dandavate from the industry outlining his contribution to their thinking and work.

Here is the compiled response from the peers in the industry. We feel humbled and honored to receive the acknowledgment of our work from both the Ohio State University and our peers in the industry.

Steve Kaneko, FIDSA, Partner Director of Design, Microsoft Corporation, Redmond, WA

Uday is the first person I call when I have a problem requiring deep and sometimes abstract human insights. It’s been a pleasure working with him for all these years to better understand what truly motivates people based on their social, environmental, and activity-based context. A very well-deserved honor!

Max Yoshimoto Director of Design Google

I love working with Uday. He brings personal passion and energy to every project we’ve worked on together. His insights are always informative, relevant and often eye opening. He is one of the first people I think of when I need to understand the vibe and behaviors of consumers.

Ross Mitchell, Director of Research and Innovation at AT&T, Los Angeles, CA

If I had to pick one word to describe Uday it would be inspirational. He inspires users like no one I’ve seen to imagine a better future through design. He inspires companies to think about their businesses in new ways. And he inspires his team to work through whatever challenge might be in front of them.

Curtis To, UX Vision Lead & Prototyping Supervisor at Ford Motor Company, Dearborn, MI

“Uday is truly a leader in the field of design research because of his generosity and innate empathy for not only my target customers but for me and my colleagues as his clients. My work with Uday was SonicRim’s first collaboration with Ford. I believe it is no coincidence that co-creation is now within our corporate vernacular.”

Tim Parsey, Ex head of design at JP Morgan Chase, Mattel, Yahoo, Motorola and ACCO Brands, now Advisor.

If you’re ever in need of focused large or small groups, especially ones that are co-interested in an area of innovation together … even if they’re just getting used to the idea of collaborating … then give Uday and his team a call! There is no better source for Participatory Design mastery. I have had the privilege of hiring Uday from large companies in three industries that I worked in … and have always marveled and enjoyed the sustainable momentum, and deep innovation, that came from our interactions. Plus he’s an awesome guy!

David Muyres, Mobility Futurist and former Design & Innovation leader at Johnson Controls/Yanfeng Automotive, Milwaukee WI

I have had the pleasure of working with Uday for the past 10 years. He is a wealth of insight about innovation and co-creation. His global mindedness and passion for exploring a users unique point of view has always been a very welcomed addition to all the projects I have had the pleasure of partnering on with Uday. A very fine example of a forwarded minded creative explorer.

Preetham Kolari, Head of Design, New Products, eBay, San Jose, CA

Uday Dandavate’s pioneering work on co-creation in product design has resulted in a lot of better products in my work inside of Microsoft Motorola and eBay. Furthermore, it has changed the process of product development in the whole tech industry to become even more user-centric. His work, writings, and teachings have created a new generation of Design leaders that continue to inspire others to focus in on the user and involve them deeply in the creative process.

Catey Corl , Director Experience Strategy and Research, Clutch, Columbus, Ohio

Uday’s appreciation for connecting with the life of any person he encounters forever shaped my research practice: he helped me understand what it truly means to be human-centered. His endless energy and natural curiosity are inspiring. I will always fondly remember our many international fielding adventures!

Chris Von Dohlen, Principal — Strategy and Innovation, Target Corporation, Minneapolis, MN

When I began my career as a designer, Uday showed me that research could be so much more than interviewing people. Not only is listening to what they say important, but the solutions they can develop, with the richness of their own stories and context, provide a deeper level of understanding.

This philosophy of co-creation has influenced not only how I approach research for new products and services, but also how corporate strategies can be developed with all the various stakeholders at fortune 50 companies.

Ashish Deshpande, President, Association of Designers of India (ADI), Pune, India

There are very few designers with an honest view of the world, that is unpretentious, yet bold. There are even fewer design professionals who are able to articulate this view sans any ego, with an edge that is razor sharp. Uday stands tall amongst this rare category of thought leaders in Design & Design Research. His ability to creatively extract emotions, analyse and reflect across complex relationships has made Design Research a sublime art and a cutting edge science. Uday has that childlike sparkle to learn from fresh and old alike. His large hearted approach to unflinchingly share his professional learnings & thoughts has polished me, and going beyond, has empowered our standards of design practice in India.

Michael McKay, Founder and Evangelist at Five Mindsets, Copenhagen, Denmark

Working with Uday and SonicRim profoundly changed the way I view the world as a professional and as a person. Uday was my teacher and mentor while first studying User Centered Design at 180 Academy in Denmark. He brings a curiosity and a level of optimism and belief in human beings that radiates and spreads to everyone around him, whether students, clients or colleagues. The outcome is a shift towards a customer centricity that enables breakthrough innovations within service concepts, product concepts and social — humane initiatives.

John Edson, Partner at McKinsey & Company, San Francisco CA.

Uday is more than a skilled researcher and engaging collaborator. He brings an unbridled and childlike energy to his work because he has a real love for understanding people and finding ways to make their lives better.

Evette Cordy Author and Founder at Agents Of Spring, Melbourne, Australia

Don’t you love the way you meet a curious person and they light up the room? Uday Dandavate is one of these people. His insatiable curiosity is also why I asked for his contribution to my book: Cultivating Curiosity. We first met in India in the early 2000’s working on a global innovation project for Motorola, it was here that he first inspired me and sparked my passion for design.

Ashwini Deshpande, Co-founder Director Elephant, India’s Top Ranked Design consultancy since 1989, Pune, India

As a trained designer, there is always a hunger to “do” design. But what I learnt from Uday is the strength of “facilitating” the journey of design development. With his immense experience, unlimited energy & genuine empathy towards the user, Uday has time & again demonstrated the power of true co-creation in his endearing style. He has been a very large influence on our work at Elephant as we walked the unexplored path of design practice in India.

Mehmood Khan, MBA Former Global Leader of Innovation Process at Unilever and Managing Trustee of Rasuli Kanwar Khan Trust, Gurgaon, India

Uday and I are fellow travelers in the journey of life where Design is our common interest. This has led to lot of shared interest in well-being of nations and societies around the world. We have had long conversations in London, India and in virtual space. We both wish to make this world a better place. Our thought process keeps us connected in our various initiatives e.g. rural communities in India, political discourse across the world. Uday is an advisor in our charity work in India. He is a gentle soul whose heart is in the right place.

Mackenzie Shaw Customer Experience Manager, Huntington National Bank, Columbus, Ohio.

Working with and traveling the world with Uday provided me the experience and passion to be an advocate for co-creating with people, a perspective I have been fortunate to bring to internal stakeholders and design teams within large insurance a and financial services organizations.

Denise Airdo, SVP Insights at Dairy Management, Inc. and Former Global Insights Leader at Motorola

I partnered with Uday to introduce co-creation to the Motorola organization, which helped to identify unmet consumer needs and ultimately drove future smartphone experience development. Uday’s approach to contextual exploration generated consumer empathy across the organization — pioneering a new way of thinking that ultimately contributed to the consumer-driven cultural shift at Motorola. His positive energy and enthusiasm is contagious — in my thirty years of insights experience, I’ve never met anyone who can so effortlessly and authentically engage with people across all cultures. I’m proud to call him my friend and mentor.

Isabelle Martinelli, International qualitative research Director, IM Consulting, Lausanne, Switzerland.

Uday has been a teacher and a trend setter professional in many innovative research we have been doing together in Italy and France . Every project has been a new adventure : trying new methodologies, discovering how people would work with all that funny and creative material , and at the end the result was there : new ideas, innovative insights and inspiring new concepts. And this was when cocreation sessions and design thinking was not trendy as it is today.

Long Jiao, VP Asia Pacific/Director of R&D and Innovation Center, Simon Electric, Shanghai, China

Uday is an entrepreneurial design researcher who observes, reflects, and inspires. His professional work features high quality of intellectual thinking and inspirational results. He shares his wisdom of life which builds upon his natural curiosity, gut, humor and sincerity, making him a lifelong mentor and friend to me.

The Future of Humanity and the People-Centered Approach

Anna Kirah, Design Anthropologist, Oslo Area, Norway

The practice of trying to make sense of things and find out how we can transform knowledge in to creating meaningful and relevant objects, services and places for living from a humanistic perspective is proving to be critical for humanity’s future.

We are in an era where advancements in technology are happening at an exponential rate, often without the understanding of the effects this will have on individuals, communities, nations, continents and the world.

Technology is a blessing and a curse. On the one hand, it saves lives, brings us all closer together and provides us with the democratization of knowledge. On the other hand, it dehumanizes us and pushes us to act and think without emotions and often with the common call for being more effective and more productive. I cannot help but ask “why”?

Uday Dandavate is one of the pioneers of this people centric approach to the design and development of products and services. He is one of an increasing number of people who asks “why” and who searches for meaning and value in helping his customers solve challenges in their businesses and organizations.

An important tenant of the people-centric approach is that meaningful and relevant products and services cannot be made without involving the people who will be using them in the process. The more they are involved, the more chances of success. Uday and I are practitioners and not theorists. We get down and dirty and we work tirelessly to solve the real challenges out there and facilitate change in large corporations, large organizations using humbleness as our tool. Humbleness is, in fact, the key to allowing others to see that which is right in front of them, it is the removal of our blinders created by culture, by our education, by our places of work and just seeing the organic nature in how we think, act and interact with people, products, services. Uday is one of these amazing humble human-beings.

I have known Uday since the turn of the century when I was working as a Design Anthropologist at Microsoft. Later, when developing the concept of a radical innovation school for leaders in the public and private sector in Denmark (was the first country in the world to put a people-centered innovation practice in to the governmental plans for a nation’s growth), it was natural to call upon Uday to be a co-creator of the school and to be a member of the faculty. The school was called 180 Academy and the purpose, to turn things upside down in order to act our ways in to new ways of thinking and to think our way in to new ways of acting.

I have observed Uday in practice and watched his ability to open the eyes and ears of the people he works with and works for in multidisciplinary settings. People like Uday transform the world because they are capable of seeing things from so many perspectives and find the core to the challenges we face. Uday transcends design by working with other disciplines and I believe that this is what will save humanity and the world — — it is not design thinking, but trans-disciplinary thinking — — no one field, no one person but the ability to facilitate mindset change. And that is what Uday Dandavate is, he is a human being who facilitates the ability of others to see, and collaborate in order to solve real challenges in the real world. Design will not save the world, people like Uday will.

SonicRim: Stories from the Edge

Thoughts and provocations on co-creation, design research and innovation

Uday Dandavate

SonicRim: Stories from the Edge

Thoughts and provocations on co-creation, design research and innovation

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