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Service Design (MA)

Nilay Kachalia

Picture of Mahatma Gandhi at the Salt March protesting the Salt Laws.

I have often found myself at the pursuing and recieving end of researching and design for complex problems and that led me to the MA Service Design course at the RCA. Innovation for social impact is something that drives me and I believe all experience I gather as a designer in any field can be eventually and/or simultaneously be applied for good of all humanity. My experience of 4+ years as a UX researcher and Designer, from an Intern to a Design Lead heading my own team I have been able to channel my natural curiosity and intuition into my practice that is only strengthened through great insight and leaps of faith. My practice has led me to realize, observe and utilize the power of crowds and the community. It has also led me to harness its power and network for social good.

Degree Details

School of DesignService Design (MA)RCA2023 at Truman Brewery

Truman Brewery, F Block, First floor

Picture of me

At the RCA, I have had the opportunity to dive deeper in more strategic and service proposition design, specially for social impact. These have been in service of social cohesion, behavioral tracking of incarcerated youth and currently - integration of immigrants and natives in London.

Previosly as a designer, I have practiced UX research and design for complex systems for over 4 years. I started at Human Factors International (HFI) as an intern in 2018 and only exited the company as a Center of Excellence Lead in spring of 2022. The projects I have worked on span from helping India’s largest Bank with their banking & investments and securities platforms, education, electronic legal management platform and other complex systems. As a consultant I have seen through entire life cycles of those projects. All the activities suggested above have been conducted both in-person and remotely for clients in India as well as the USA. These activities have been conducted as part of a team which came naturally to me, and I also had a privilege to lead research and design teams before exiting to pursue my Masters.

Synopsis

Our project looks at the next stage of integration of immigrants in multicultural cities. For this we defined a theory of pollination that will help enable interculturalism in multicultural cities through sharing. Following the same, we designed a hospitality service that utilizes the pollination theory in food to hardwire sharing experiences and cultural norms leading to tolerance among people.

Timeline of integration
If we look at the timeline from the past to present, through urbanisation a lot of integration has already occurred that has made London multicultural but it has also had its consequences, like new immigrants flocking to localities where there is a majority of their ethnicity, resulting in de-urbanization.
Integration into multicultural cities requires more than integration, it requires Pollination
Beyond Integration
Pollination Theory
Food brings people together
Tiffin is food pollen
Tiffin is food pollen
People + Place + Play
People + Place + Play
Sharing food will help create conversations about their sense of belonging leading to tolerance and acceptance
Introducing N-Sery
Introducing N-Sery – Compared to where people are eating now our service shares some similarities with other hospitality services but what make N-sery different from a market hall, restaurant, and community kitchen are dynamic menu, inclusive food community, proximity to office area, cost effective, available for corporate events, and most importantly hardwiring sharing style of service
Hardwiring Sharing
We are not changing the eating ritual, we are just shaping it
Speed is habit
Scope is network
Scale is nature
We believe that creating services that enable pollination in multicultural cities and shape rituals will create tolerance
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Royal College of Art

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Kensington Gore, South Kensington,
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