Tag Archives: ideas

Sidewalks, Health & Peace of Mind

Posted in Ideas by

I am a software tester, finding flaws in products. I am also passionate about user experience & design and find it exciting to simplify & improve the experience of products we use. One such thing I wanted to simplify & make it better accessible is the side walks. Something that’s part of our public space.

Like many, I’ve tried to de-stress by going for a walk, only to be forced off the sidewalk and into the street. Our sidewalks are often unusable—either encroached or poorly designed. The intersection of my experiences in testing, design and walking, made me view these sidewalks not just as civic problem, but as a design & behaviour problem. I began to capture pictures of various footpath patterns I encountered, trying to understand what makes some pathways easily walkable and others a nightmare. How might we reclaim these vital public spaces? How might we build better & pedestrian friendly sidewalks? The solution might be right beneath our feet. Let’s design our way to a better walk.

Think about the Nudge Theory, the Nobel Prize-winning concept that shows how subtle cues can guide our behavior. If we put a sign to switch off lights before leaving the room, we are most likely to do so. What if we could apply this same principle to our public spaces?

In his book, The Tipping Point, Malcolm Gladwell argues that for an idea, trend or behaviour to spread, the Power of Context is crucial. He shows how small changes in our environment can trigger significant behavioral shifts. The environment itself becomes the nudge.

My idea is simple, yet I believe it holds the potential for significant impact: a new standard for footpath design based on these behavioral insights. What if we started using indicative colors on our sidewalks? Imagine clear, universal visual markers painted along the edges of our sidewalks, sending a subtle, non-intrusive message to vendors, to vehicle owners, and to pedestrians themselves: “This is the pedestrian zone. Please respect it.” We’re not just painting lines; we’re changing the context. We are nudging people not to encroach, not drive vehicles on the sidewalks and guiding pedestrians to walk on the designated path. A small modification to our public space can potentially create a positive change in how we use it.

As a first step, let’s understand some examples that hinder pedestrians from using the sidewalks.
Pedestrians prefer to walk on even surfaces. Unevenly built sidewalks like shown in the examples below, where houses and shops add kurb ramps/driveway ramps, forces pedestrians to get down and walk on the even road. Pedestrians also avoid sidewalks that are too high to easily step on.

Illustration of better sidewalk with side markings. (Image generated with the help of Gemini AI. Learning to refine the prompt to get better output. )

Curb ramps/driveway ramps shall be built like illustrated below. (Image generated with the help of Gemini AI.)

Also, pedestrians find it easy to walk when the starting point and end point of the sidewalks are built like a ramp rather than like a step.

*The article is being drafted. Apologies for publishing a not fully drafted post. Just published today as it is a day of significance for me.

Additional reading: How a broken wall led me explore the modern management principle, Therblig?

Making higher education accessible to the underprivileged members of the society

Posted in Ideas, Musings by
India is capable of becoming a knowledge super-power. Why not help the under privileged too be a part of this? There are quotas and reservations, but still there are people who cannot afford the cost of education.
 
What can be done in addition to the reservations? Though the law prohibits educational institutions from taking capitation fee from students, most colleges do collect capitation fees and donations, which are kept unaccounted and in turn becomes black money. When the government is unable to curb this, why not pass a bill, legalize it and make it taxable. Some might argue, why sell education. Even otherwise, it is sold, illegally! Rather than letting go off tax revenue, why not proactively account those.
In return to taking capitation fees, the bill should mandate educational institutions to admit 5-10% of students without charging them in any form and for any purpose, through a single window system facilitated by the government.
Such an amendment will not only benefit the underprivileged to get quality education, but also the government in terms of tax revenue.
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Submitted this idea for a better a future, as part of the Leaders of Tomorrow contest conducted by ISB, where I went on to receive the Best Profile award.
 

Tracking and auditing donations made to government and non-governmental organisations

Posted in Ideas, Musings by
There are instances where authorities misuse donations or public funds. For example, when some one donates furniture to government schools and if it is not properly publicised, and the school also receives government funds, the school authorities can obtain fake bills and show that the furniture were purchased from the government fund and loot the money sanctioned by the government. Donor will be under the impression that his money was used for a certain purpose and the government will be under the impression that government funds were for the same purpose.
 
One way to make donations transparent would be to create and maintain a public repository where all the donations made to government and non-governmental organisations and how it was used are reported and maintained, and can be under the watch of the government auditors.
This will not only reduce the leakage of funds but also improve trust and confidence among donors and encourage more donations.
 
 
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Submitted this idea for a better a future, as part of the Leaders of Tomorrow contest conducted by ISB, where I went on to receive the Best Profile award.

Creating a better nation with well informed citizens

Posted in Ideas, Musings by
How to do this on a large scale? One way is by extending the scope of RTI act, so as to include mass media, which has an important role in nation building, such that, 25-30% of the first page of all regional and nationwide news papers, 20-30 secs of air-time of all regional and nationwide TV/Radio channels during prime time be handed over to the government for free usage or for an yearly fees based on the newspaper’s/channels’ readership.

This space/air-time, which can be shared between the state and central government proportionately on daily or weekly basis, can be used to impart moral education, educate people on social issues and create awareness on legal matters and government policies. The government can use this to proactively disclose information on issues of larger public interest, which in some cases can reduce the number of RTI applications and also avoid harassment of RTI applicants.

Also, this space/air-time can be used to sensitise people on various frauds/scams and the modus operandi of scamsters. Preventing people from getting cheated will spare a lot of liquid cash which can be a growth booster rather than that money getting converted as black money.

Moreover, the government and politicians, most times spend lavishly to inaugurate new schemes or infrastructure facilities. Availability of such newspaper space or air-time can also be used to declare open any new schemes/infrastructures, which in turn will save money for the government, prevent chaos and traffic jams and save time for a lot of people including the government.

The newspaper space can sometimes be used to publish large scale tenders, which to some extent can prevent corruption in allotting tenders.

Publications of all such kind will create better informed and educated citizens and over the long run will pave way for a peaceful and better society.
 
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Submitted this idea for a better a future, as part of the Leaders of Tomorrow contest conducted by ISB, where I went on to receive the Best Profile award.