Traditional Embroideries: Fostering cultural recognition and appreciation
Designing an e-book to serve as a primer for Traditional Indian Embroideries, based on research into consumer perception of it, as a part of a branding tool for R Textiles
Client
R Textiles
Duration
February 2023 - May 2023
Services
UX Research and Design
Skills
Secondary Research, Survey, User Interviews, Concept Design, UI Design
Challenge
Research
The following research methods were used. This combination of methods ensured a comprehensive understanding of the problem while aligning with the project's objectives and triangulate the findings.
Research Methods
Secondary
Research
Survey
Why Traditional Embroideries?
02
Survey
Surveying 30 participants enabled us to capture quantitative insights directly from users, providing a broader perspective on their perceptions of the subject and reasoning of choices.
01
Secondary Research
Analyzing existing research for problem root cause, introductory sources on learning about Traditional Indian Embroideries and learner attitudes towards them helped gather foundational knowledge and identify existing trends efficiently.
03
Conducted semi-structured interviews with five participants from diverse demographic backgrounds, followed by a Thematic Analysis of the interview transcripts to extract qualitative insights and identify emerging patterns.
User Interviews
Embroidery in India dates back to the 16th century, with roots in the Indus Valley Civilization's art. Women have long been pioneers in crafting intricate embroidered garments, making it a vital Indian handicraft.
Indian craftsmen are renowned for their exquisite workmanship, creating handspun and handwoven textiles showcased in Indian and Western museums. Their artistry has been admired by writers, poets, historians, and kings alike.
Amidst the growing unawareness surrounding Traditional Indian fashion, R Textiles aimed to create a user-friendly, engaging e-manual as a brand engagement tool by understanding of consumer, especially youth, perception of it.
Historical Importance of Traditional Indian Embroidery
Key issues:
01
Shift towards fast fashion and mass production
The rise of fast fashion brands and mass production offers cheaper, trend-driven alternatives, making traditional techniques less visible and accessible to younger generations.
02
Decline in Artisan communities
With reduced financial incentives and fewer apprentices, artisans struggle to sustain their craft. Many younger artisans shift to other professions, leading to a loss of knowledge and fewer opportunities for the youth to engage with traditional embroidery.
03
Lack of Art education and exposure
People or students willing to take arts and skill education are continuously going down.
The survey was designed to get insights into the user behaviour.
Survey statistics
Key Insights:
A majority of participants favored image-based guides (33%) and interactive formats (40%) over text-heavy explanations. This indicates a strong preference for engaging, visually rich content rather than traditional text-based learning.
01
Youth prefer interactive & visual learning formats
Nearly half (47%) of participants preferred smartphones for accessing the e-manual, followed by laptops. This suggests that the design should be optimized for mobile usability, ensuring readability and seamless navigation on smaller screens.
02
Smartphones are primary access devices
03
The e-manual can boost interest in cultural heritage
60% of participants stated that an interactive e-manual would increase their interest in Indian embroidery, with another 30% expressing a possible inclination. This highlights the potential for the manual to bridge knowledge gaps and enhance cultural appreciation among younger audiences.
Design Process
The next step after identifying the problems was coming up with a holistic solution to address pain-points. After detailed brainstorming phase, we concluded to focus on two main goals for the e-book, ease of readability and visual appeal.
Key design decisions:
The information was split into logical sections or blocks namely- State, History, Motifs, Materials, Stiches and Clans
02
Organise information into blocks
The embroideries were classified into 9 main types after many iterations and research and the ‘sister embroideries’/ ‘closely related embroideries’ were mentioned under the section of “Clans”.
03
Structured information classification for improved hierarchy
For each type of embroidery, there are same sections/ blocks in same order which gives uniformity to information. Giving uniformity to a huge number of entities (embroideries) which are unique in their own but also share some common traits.
04
Consistent layout
The content was divided into smaller, digestible sections to improve readability and comprehension, while also following the Progressive Disclosure principle by revealing information gradually to prevent cognitive overload.
05
Information chunking
Diverse sources were unified into a single coherent information system to create a cohesive, and structured content format.
06
Source integration and content synthesis
Design
elements
Design elements like color, typography, etc. were chosen based on user needs and impact, to ensure clarity, accessibility, and engagement.
Design Solution
Pages and cover design
Learning
Applying concepts of content hierarchy, information organisation, layout, etc. to ensure that information is presented clearly.
01
User-centered content design
The importance of the niche/domain knowledge for a designer in-order to come up with the best-possible solution.
02
Domain research
User Interview
Method: In-depth semi-structured interviews , Sample size: 5 participants, Why: To uncover pain points and needs
“The text is so dense and boring."
"I want bite-sized, easy-to-understand info for quick read."
Key pain points:
Majority of the text is written either for historical arts’ records or for research articles. No layman-friendly information available. The information is text dominant with too much of lower level details, unsuitable for a common audience.
01
Dense Text and difficult language
The embroideries are not organized as per their chief types making the list too long to read.
02
Lack of Information Organization
The texts have no information consistency which aids user to remember the information long term.
03
No consistency or uniformity
New learners have to read about each type of embroidery from seperate sources making learning process slow.
04
Scattered Information
01
Simplifying language
The local language/ Hindi words were accompamied with their English meanng besides them. For example, Ghagra (Skirt), Rumal (Handkerchief), Phul (Flower), etc.
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