PHYGITAL Product & DASHBOARD | Sustainable technology

sustAInable

AI-Assisted Collaborative Ideation toolkit for Sustainable Product Development

Master's Thesis

IIT Guwahati (M.Des)

Duration

12 months

My Role

Designing the product and dashboard end-to-end, working closely with Industrial Designers

Contribution

Solo designer and developer with guidance from a Project guide

context

Maximizing Collaborative Sustainable Design: Phygital Integration for Product Teams

Solving the pain points

sustAInable fundamentally reimagined how sustainability ideation can be collaborative, guided, and data-driven. By merging physical tools with AI and real-time digital feedback, I created a platform that empowers teams to make more sustainable design decisions, with no LCA expertise.

Highlights

Collaborative Ideation, Real-Time AI Insights

sustAInable unites hands-on card-based ideation with instant AI sustainability analysis. Teams arrange and scan color-coded cards to identify where improvements matter most. As ideas are sketched and rated, the AI provides real-time feedback and visualizes impact, making sustainable design decisions collaborative and data-driven.

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Highlights

Designing for AI, with AI

AI powered the material analysis, lifecycle assessment, and ideation recommendations, enabling insights no human team could generate alone.

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Minimum of 5 offerings, for each and every Goal Exam
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Carefully Researched to meet students expectations
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A Syllabus timeline broken down for students
Process

Iterative Design with Rapid Prototyping

problem 1

Excel-Based Toolkit Limitations

ICS toolkit is a excel only ideation toolkit for sustainable proudct development. It has 3 main phases which are Checklist to evaluate present designs, Eco-Ideaboards for ideation cues and evaluation to rate improvment of ideas.

Limited to a Single-Computer

Lack of Engagement and Flexibility

problem 2

Overload and Complexity
in Evaluation

The whole ICS toolkit has a lot of Ideation cues and assessment question in the checklist, which is a clear overload to finish at a stretch and decision making for which problem to solve for.

There are too many evaluation and assessment questions

The size and structure of the Eco Ideas board cannot be standardized

problem 3

Self-Evaluated Priority Ratings and Subjectivity

In the product evaluation checklist which which is the 1st step itself the users need to decide which Strategy to solve for which is currently purely on basis of user judgement and prior knowledge.

Priority ratings are based on the user’s own understanding and priorities

The direction and quality of solutions generated are heavily reliant on the creativity and expertise of the user, which can vary widely

problem 4

Cascading Effects and Interdependencies

Ideating on the Ideation cues of the Eco ideas board directly or indirectly results in many cascading effects which can prove to e critical resulting in nullification of Design improvments ideated.

The ICS toolkit faces a major challenge in handling the cascading effect, where changes or ideas in one area impact other areas

The direction and quality of solutions generated are heavily reliant on the creativity and expertise of the user, which can vary widely

USER TESTING

Validating Iterative designs

Testing quick with Target Users

Key Research Focus

  • Testing each component and scaling up the ideation toolkit to fit the contenxt better
  • Failing fast for quicker ideas to prototyping
  • Mental model check on crcuial flows
IDeation & USER Testing

Externalizing the Excel based Ideation Cues

Ideation Cards

The first major step was to externalize ideation cues as physical, color-coded cards.

  • Each card represents a sustainability cue, grouped by product life cycle phase (Raw Material, Production, Transportation, Use, Disposal).

  • This made selection and collaboration tangible and intuitive.

  • Iterative prototyping and user testing ensured the cards were easy to use and understand.

iteration 01
Ideation Cues on Cards

The ICS toolkits Sub-strategies and the Ideation cues under each of them were externalised to support:

  • Collaborative ideation

  • Externalisation of insight to facilitate dialogue

iteration 02
Ideation cards grouped on basis of Ideation sub-strategies

As there were multiple Sub-strategies and the Ideation cues, now identifying a helping in selection was the need observed.

iteration 03
Colour coded for easy identification

To further ease selections by segratating cards with respect to color coding on basis of sub-satrategeis

Final design
Ideation cards grouped on basis of Product life cycle phases

Grouping the Ideation cards into product life cycle phases(instead of previous Sub-strategies) with motifs and colors:

  • Raw material

  • Production

  • Transportation

  • Use

  • Disposal

IDeation & USER Testing

Guiding users to proceed with ideation

Idea board

  • The ideation cards alone weren’t enough; users needed structure.

  • I designed a modular, hexagonal idea board to help teams distribute and arrange cards by life cycle phase.

  • The board reduced cognitive load and made the process feel more like a collaborative game.

  • The central scanner and circular arrangement reinforced the product’s life cycle concept.

iteration 01
Ideation board

The board helps:

  • Structure the ideation process

  • Helps in reducing the deck size by eliminating cards

iteration 02
Ideation board tiles with motifs and hexagoal tiles

Motifs were now grouped as life cycle phases as inspired by final designs of ideation cards and hexagonal tiles for close packing and to allow for placment of hexagoalnal Scanner.

iteration 03
Colour coded for easy identification

The hexagonal can now be placed in between the trapezoid tiles which encircle the Scanner to indicate circular nature of product life cycle phases.

Final design
Ideation cards grouped on basis of Product life cycle phases

Grouping the Ideation cues into product life cycle phases:

  • Raw material

  • Production

  • Transportation

  • Use

  • Disposal

Prototyping

Visualizing the UI

Data Flow Diagram

AI powered features

  • Material Mathcing: The materials in the Bill of Materials (CSV) is mathced with the Climatiq or the local  Idemat database.
  • Answering Questions: Gemini NLP api is used to answet evalaution question on the basis of most impacting materials
  • OCR: Deduce the card scanned based on the code on the cards
  • OCR & Symbol match: Match the improvment level with respect to Ideated sketches

The Scanner has a Raspberry Pi 4 motherboard connected to a camer and 4 LEDs.
The motherboard has the code running in it to power the sustAInable dashbaord.

final designs

Overhead Line Fault Management: the watchful guardian

Assessment

AI powered features

  • Upload BOM: Teams upload their product’s Bill of Materials (CSV).
  • AI-Powered LCA: The system calculates carbon footprint and identifies top-impact parts.
  • Actionable Insights: Recommendations are generated for redesign priorities.

The Scanner has a Raspberry Pi 4 motherboard connected to a camer and 4 LEDs.
The motherboard has the code running in it to power the sustAInable dashbaord.

final designs

Intranet Dashboard for collaborative sustainable product designs

Assessment

AI powered features

  • Upload BOM: Teams upload their product’s Bill of Materials (CSV).
  • AI-Powered LCA: The system calculates carbon footprint and identifies top-impact parts.
  • Actionable Insights: Recommendations are generated for redesign priorities.

Ideation

AI powered features

  • Step 1: Distribute
    Cards are spread by color across the board, grouped by life cycle phase.
  • Step 2: Select
    Teams choose ideation cards from decks to spark new ideas.
  • Step 3: Scan
    Cards are scanned; the system highlights which areas “MUST” or “TRY” to be ideated upon, based on negative or positive impact.

Evaluation

  • Step 1: Sketched
    Teams sketch ideas on cards based on cues.
  • Step 2: Rate
    Ideas are rated using simple symbols:
    ++ Radical improvement
    + Incremental improvement
    o None 
  • Step 3: Results
    The dashboard visualizes improvement levels and stores all ideas for embodiment design.

Project status

Project is Live

sustAInable is now fully deployed and operational. The dashboard and physical scanner system are being used by product design teams to assess and improve the sustainability of their products in real-world workshops.

Pilots will begin with early adopters.