Comments on: Design: Rethinking our Needs

By: Ben

Ben — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 00:36:38 +0000

Products fail when they are not created with the consumer in mind. If a product is given and received, rather than purchased, it implies the product has little or no value to the recipient.
Products that are designed with local partners who know the needs of the local market are much more likely to succeed. Check out a story on NPR’s Marketplace for a great example of product design meeting local need.
http://marketplace.publicradio.org/shows/2007/05/07/PM200705078.html

By: Global Health Solutions

Global Health Solutions — Sun, 03 Jun 2007 23:17:36 +0000

For another perspective, here is a recent article by a Kenyan author on these “pure products” and his opinion on how they eventually fade from sight/use; a small excerpt and link:
“Biogas. A windup radio. A magic laptop. These pure products are meant to solve everything. They almost always fail, but they satisfy the giver. To the recipients, the things have no context, no relationship to their ideas of themselves or their possibilities.”
http://www.bidoun.com/issues/issue_10/04_all.html
It is great that this exhibit has been brought to the public and equally important it is necessary to discuss why some of these amazing technologies may never be used to their full potential (infrastructure problems, poor design, politics, etc. etc.).

By: Mdx

Mdx — Fri, 01 Jun 2007 08:30:42 +0000

The concept of human community is seen as being at odds with capitalism and free market enterprise (sounds like communism). I really shouldn’t be. We should work together as well as compete with each other. There’s nothing wrong with collaborating to make this world a better, more user-friendly place. But we’d rather cut each other out of the game so we can have a bigger piece of the pie.