Deconstructing Product Design

Jaipur Foot

Ram Chandra, P.K. Sethi, and Devendra Raj Mehta, 1969

1. Great product innovations are often the result of professional designers employing methodical research and design practices to solve problems, but they are as often the result of improbable people employing unconventional practices in unlikely circumstances. The latter is the case with the Jaipur foot. Ram Chandra, an Indian sculptor hired to teach art to polio victims at a local hospital, observed the many problems and correspondingly high rejection rates of Western prostheses by amputees. While thinking about alternative designs that addressed Eastern needs, he got a flat tire while riding his bicycle. Chandra took the tire to a local repair stall, which re-treaded the ...