Can design save the world?

Last month I wrote briefly about a story I heard on the radio regarding an exhibition at the Cooper Hewitt museum called Design For The Other 90%.  It is a collection of design ideas to improve the lives of people in developing countries, and I really admired the effort.  Until an article by David Stairs called Why Design Won't Save The World made me rethink the whole thing again...

David argues that even thought the idea behind this exhibition might be noble, it is poorly executed and ultimately misconstrued:

Essentially, Design For the Other 90% is shot through with well-intentioned nostrums, familiar statistics, and a messianic calling to open peoples’ eyes to the disparities of the world.

He continues to tell a story from his life to accentuate this point:

Not long ago I visited Gulu, the epicenter of northern Uganda’s twenty-year insurgency, with my friend David Latim. David was born in Gulu, but fled to Kampala after escaping from the Lord’s Resistance Army in 1995. One day, I recounted a particularly gruesome scene in the movie, Hotel Rwanda. He responded by describing a similar massacre he had personally witnessed as a young man in Gulu. Before he was half-finished with his story, I blushed with shame at the realization that I was comparing my movie-going experience to his life experience. My well-intended faux pas is emblematic of the challenge facing outsiders, who cannot begin to imagine the vicissitudes of life in such distant places.

His point is that designers cannot begin to understand the complexities of the cultures in these developing countries, and therefore cannot design effectively for them.  He goes into a lot more detail, but I wanted to skip to his final paragraph, which sums up his views and on which I would to comment:

Is there a realistic response designers from developed countries can offer? A starting point might be to recognize that in many cases, we don’t need to remake other people or their societies in our image and likeness. The idea of design intervention — sustainable or otherwise — may feel very intrusive to people who are still reeling from 150 years of colonial intervention. (You don’t just waltz into a patriarchal society and aggressively advocate equal opportunity for women, or deliver pumps and boreholes to peasant farmers without understanding the sociology of migratory herdsmen). Living among other people and learning to appreciate their values, perspectives and social mores is an excellent tool of design research.  Education is also a wonderful access point, as is a required second language. But how many design curricula are supporting, let alone implementing such global initiatives?

Now, as someone who grew up in one of these "developing countries", and who intends to return in a few years, I tried to look at this issue from the perspective of a "consumer" of these design ideas.  Then I put my user experience & design hat back on to make sense of it all, and I have the following response to David's views.  Even though I appreciate his viewpoint and he is clearly passionate about his own altruistic efforts, I do think he is being too critical of the Design For The Other 90% effort, for the following reasons:

• Designers rarely get it right the first time.  Unless you're Apple, you're very rarely going to design a product that works perfectly as soon as you put it out -- no matter how much upfront design research and anthropological work you do.  Design research is mostly qualitative in nature and until a product is "stress-tested" you won't know all the flaws and areas for improvement.  And let's be honest, misfires happen!  So if some of these designs don't immediately seem to hit the mark, that's ok.  Bad ideas are ok as long as they lead you to better ideas...
• Leading by example is not a bad thing.  When designers from developed countries show an interest in the developing world and apply their skills to better the lives of the world's poor, I think it's a good thing even if mistakes are made along the way.  Yes -- these countries should develop their own curriculums for design and raise up designers who can tackle the unique problems they face, but you need someone to spark the flame, right?  Designers interacting with users in these countries can do just that, and even if it might feel paternalistic to some, this "teaching people to fish" approach is what is needed.  You need experts to train upcoming experts...
• Let's take what we can get.  I think any good-intentioned attention the developing world gets is positive in its own unique way.  Is it weird to see Brad and Angelina talking about impoverished nations?  Yes -- but they are raising awareness and getting people interested in the plights of these nations.  Can someone who lives in these countries be inspired and touched by flawed yet good-intentioned efforts by designers who take the time to apply their skills to these unique problems, and build long-lasting relationships along the way?  I think they can...

Which brings me back to the main question I started with: can design save the world?  Probably not, but I think it can do its part, as this exhibition clearly shows.  And besides, who are we to stand in the way of those who are trying...

Making the case for ethnographic research to inform design

As a big fan of ethnographic research, two recent articles caught my attention.  Though pretty basic and meant for audiences who are not familiar with this type of research, the articles do make a good case for using this methodology in a business context as part of the design process.  I wanted to quote a few paragraphs that showcase insights that can be gained from ethnographic research that you can not get as effectively from other methodologies.  Bold emphasis added by me.

From a United Airlines publication entitled Executive Secrets - Greenhouse Effect:

Though ethnography is indeed a social science, a number of companies use it to gain a greater understanding of their customers. Their objective is to garner information to help create and develop products and services that better meet customers’ needs — especially those that customers haven’t yet articulated.

Jan Chipchase is an ethnographic specialist with the communications firm Nokia. Last summer, he and a team of designers and other ethnographers spent several weeks in Uganda. They traveled to multiple villages and lived with and observed the residents going about their activities. “We’re charged with bringing the experiences of the local culture into the company,” Chipchase says.

While in Uganda, Chipchase’s team noticed local entrepreneurs who had purchased their own cell phones and then sold minutes to other residents. Because customers paid in advance for their calls, they kept close track of their allotted minutes. Drawing from these observations, Nokia designed phones for use globally so that callers could easily see on the screen the number of minutes used per call.

To determine which observations are significant, the researchers focus not on the sensational but on the patterns that appear. Their goal is to find the actions that are common across many participants and discern their meaning. The insight that results can be compelling. “When it’s done right,” says Chipchase, “ethnography can inform and inspire the design process.”

From a Business Week article entitled Nokia's Global Design Sense:

Our process starts with a team of anthropologists and psychologists working in our design group. They spend time with specific types of people around the world to understand how they behave and communicate. This helps us to understand better and to spot early signals of new patterns of behavior that could be harnessed into mobile communication. Our designers often go out into the field to understand the world they are designing for. All of these observations are brought into the design process to inspire and inform our ideas.

One thing both articles don't mention is the fact that for ethnographic research to be truly effective, it should never be done on its own.  Exactly where in the research process ethnography fits in depends on the specific situation:

• Ethnographic research is usually done at the beginning of the design process, as is the case in most of the examples in the articles I just referenced.  This research is used to uncover user needs and help designers come up with high-level concepts.  This should be followed up by quantitative work (desirability surveys, needs & attitude surveys) as well us additional usability testing to further flesh out the concepts.
• Ethnography can also be extremely useful as a follow-up methodology to quantitative research like segmentation studies.  Once a market segmentation has taken place, ethnography can help companies understand each segment better by "living a day in their shoes" and understanding how customers use their products/web site within the context of the rest of their lives.

Ethnography is not an easy methodology to get right -- observing people is easy; knowing what to look for and how to uncover unmet needs and desires is not.  But it can yield extremely valuable insights that all levels of the business can utilize.

Designing for the other 90%

I recently heard a great story on NPR about product designs that specifically fulfill user needs in developing countries:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=11032381

Listen to the audio as well – it’s really great. Some excerpts from the story:

"Design for the Other 90%" features inventions created by social entrepreneurs that solve problems for those who lack adequate food, education, water and shelter.

The examples on display aren't conventionally pretty. Many cost just a couple of dollars to produce. Yet they could be life-changing for millions of poor people, says curator Cynthia Smith. For example, a simple ceramic pot nestled within a larger pot is a low-cost refrigeration system for fresh produce. Water poured into the sand around the smaller pot evaporates, taking the hot air with it.

And the LifeStraw, from a Danish firm, addresses a problem plaguing the world's poor. It's a personal mobile water-purification tool that turns any surface water into safe drinking water. The LifeStraw has been effective against waterborne diseases such as typhoid, cholera, dysentery and diarrhea. It is currently used in Ghana, Nigeria, Pakistan and Uganda.

Other inventions include prosthetic limbs that cost only $30, and charcoal made from sugarcane stalks that substitutes for wood and helps prevent deforestation.