Nasscom, Facebook join hands to promote design ecosystem

Indian IT industry trade body Nasscom on Thursday said it has partnered with social media major Facebook to build a 'product design initiative' aimed at promoting product design ecosystem in the country.

"Design thinking, methodologies and tools enable solutions for complex and challenging issues and help re-imagine systems. With this initiative, Nasscom plans to scale up the focus on product design and engage the young entrepreneurs into becoming problem solvers and solution builders," said a Nasscom president R. Chandrasekhar in a statement.

As a flagship programme of Nasscom Product Council, the 'Product Design Initiative' aims to support more than 500 product startups on product design and more than 5,000 product designers over a two-year period.

Nasscom Product Council chairman Ravi Gururaj said: "The Design Initiative will aim to build and diffuse a design culture across our ecosystem, link up with academia, recognise outstanding designs and overall ensure India's software products delivery delightful customer experiences."

According to Nasscom, India is at an inflection point to build technology products and solutions but at the same time lacks focus on design.

"A key gap to spur innovation is the focus on design - product design that is simple, yet builds a powerful product and exemplifies customer experience. This initiative stems from the need to build design skills that will propel innovative thinking and approaches to build solutions," said the statement.

Nasscom plans to offer focused programs to build awareness on product design, training on design tools, design lab, awards, design sprints and mentorship, the statement said.

Facebook product design vice president Julie Zhuo said, "We are passionate about design and would like to work alongside industry to foster innovation in product design in India, a country known for great technology and engineering talent."

--IANS

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