Client: Oracle India

'In the Zone', a photo exhibit, was unveiled at World Usability Day's Bangalore event on the 14th of November. Themed around this day's message 'Making Life Easy', this exhibit documented users in India using technology in engaging, curious, interesting, and thought provoking ways.

The exhibit explored the interplay between technology and users, as shaped by geography and culture. In seeking to understand how technology can make life easier (or difficult), this exhibit made observations about user behaviour, about technology usage, and about that interesting space of interactions between user communities and different technologies. Indeed, it was in silently observing this space of interactions and suspending judgment that a better understanding of design assumptions and opportunities may emerge. In the Zone existed as a visually rich space to inform and provoke discussions among the larger audience on the fundamental relevance of technology in making our lives easy.

Using Bangalore as a nodal point, we aimed to step beyond established stereotypes of technology usage, and to photograph how technology was alive on the streets of India in various forms and sensibilities. From leading India in Wifi rollouts to designing light combat aircrafts, from ill designed traffic management systems to community generated websites for car pooling, Bangalore presents itself as an interesting case study – as a microcosm of some of the most perplexing and inspiring design challenges around us.