Bachelor's Thesis · Srishti Manipal Institute · NDA 2024
Havells India

I spent a semester in Indian kitchens.
Then redesigned the fan.

50+ field studies across 8 states, 150+ concepts iterated, and 2 prototypes accepted by Havells' CXD team for further development.

50+
Field Studies
8
Indian States
150+
Concepts
2/10+
Accepted
🔒 This project is under an NDA. Email me
My Role
Solo Product Designer · End-to-end
Timeline
Jan to May 2024
Company
Havells India (FMEG)
Tools
Fusion 360 · Blender · Adobe Illustrator
00 Context

Design a kitchen fan for Indian homemakers.

Havells India is one of the country's largest FMEG companies, moving from industrial roots toward their "Deeper Into Homes" consumer strategy. For my Bachelor's thesis, I was partnered with Havells to design a new kitchen fan concept from scratch: research to prototype.

My hypothesis going in: most kitchen appliances are designed for how kitchens look in product catalogues, not how they're actually used. I needed to find out if that was true.

Rhea at the Havells office

Me at the Havells office during the project kick-off

🏭
Havells India is one of India's largest FMEG companies. This project was part of their "Deeper Into Homes" consumer strategy, a push to design products that actually fit how Indian families live.
01 Discover

8 states. 50+ kitchens. One clear gap.

I ran the entire research phase solo: 50+ interviews and observational field studies across 8 Indian states. The geographic spread was intentional: cooking habits, kitchen layouts, and climate conditions vary drastically between Punjab and Tamil Nadu. A fan designed for one wouldn't work for the other.

"The kitchen is where most cooking happens. Almost no appliance is designed for it."
Map of India showing states where interviews were conducted

States covered during field research, 50+ interviews across 8 regions

02 Define + Develop

150+ concepts. 10+ prototypes. 2 accepted.

After affinity mapping and competitive analysis, I moved into rapid concept generation: 150+ hand-sketched ideas exploring different approaches to height adaptability, airflow direction, temperature response, and regional configurability. The volume was intentional: I needed to exhaust the obvious before finding the unexpected.

01
Affinity Mapping + Competitive Analysis
Clustered insights from 50+ field studies. Benchmarked existing kitchen fan products against the gaps my research uncovered, identifying where the entire category was failing.
02
150+ Hand-Sketched Concepts
Rapid ideation covering height adaptability, directional airflow, ambient temperature response, and regional configurability. Volume was the method. Exhausting the obvious to reach the unexpected.
03
10+ High-Fidelity Prototypes
Built high-fidelity prototypes in Fusion 360 and Blender, translating the strongest sketch concepts into 3D models ready for CXD stakeholder review.
04
CXD Review + Submission
Presented final prototypes to Havells' CXD team. 2 of 10+ concepts were accepted for further development, directly addressing the three core gaps identified in research.
Havells design process sketches

Physical prototyping and model iteration

Havells prototyping process

Physical prototyping and model iteration

Project Timeline · Jan to May 2024
Project calendar for the thesis semester

Semester calendar mapping the Jan to May 2024 project timeline

03 Impact

Adaptive. Regional. Real.

Two of my prototypes were selected by the Havells CXD team for further development. The accepted concept was an adaptive kitchen fan designed to adjust height, respond to ambient temperature, and be configured for different regional climates, directly addressing the three core gaps my research uncovered.

The project also resulted in a customer experience framework: a strategic document mapping user needs to product opportunities across Havells' kitchen segment.

2/10+
Prototypes Accepted by CXD
150+
Concepts Iterated
8
States Covered in Research
04 Tools & Skills

How the work was made.

▲
Illustrator
Visual design · Brand · Concepts
◎
Fusion 360
3D modelling · Industrial form
◈
Blender
Rendering · Visual prototyping
✎
Sketching
150+ concepts · Rapid ideation
⬡
3D Modelling
Physical prototypes · Dev-ready forms
◉
Prototyping
Low to high fidelity · User testing
▸
User Interviews
50+ field studies · 8 states
✦
Obs. Research
Kitchen contexts · Field observation
⌥
Comp. Analysis
Market mapping · Feature benchmarks
✿
Affinity Mapping
Research synthesis · Insight clusters
05 Reflection

Scale of research doesn't guarantee clarity. Synthesis does.

More data isn't more insight. At 50+ interviews, the bottleneck wasn't gathering information. It was making sense of it. Affinity mapping and synthesis required as much design thinking as the physical prototyping that came after.
Geographic diversity changes everything. Designing for "Indian homemakers" as a monolith would have produced a mediocre fan. Designing for the gap between Punjab and Tamil Nadu produced something that actually had a reason to exist.
This project is under an NDA.
I'm happy to walk through the full process, research, and prototypes in a conversation.
Get in touch ↗ View all work
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