Abstract
Design is essential to fulfil unmet or under-served needs of resource-poor societies, supporting their social and human development. A great deal of design research has been undertaken in such low resource settings, and is discussed under different names, such as ‘community development engineering’, ‘humanitarian engineering’, ‘appropriate technology’, ‘design for development’, ‘design at the Base of the Pyramid’, etc. This has created an important need to know what has been examined and learnt so far and to plan for further investigation. To address this, we review a broad range of literature, with close examination of 30 design studies in this field. This reveals a multifaceted picture, showing a great diversity in investigation and reporting of attributes of context (income, rural and urban, design sectors, countries, and gender), the roles of poor people (consumers, producers, and co-designers), characteristics of research methods employed (e.g. descriptive and prescriptive, data collection methods, qualitative and quantitative aspects, and unit of analysis), and design topics. Based on the review results, we offer recommendations for further research, identifying concerns that researchers ought to have about this field and suggesting ways in which research in this field can be undertaken and reported.
Highlights
Forty percent of the world population subsists on less than 2 dollars a day, and twenty percent on less than 1.25 dollars per day, living in extreme poverty (World Bank 2010)
There is a great deal of design research in this field, its analysis is lacking, making it difficult to gain an overview of what has been investigated, how these investigations were undertaken, in what context they were undertaken, and how marginalised people were engaged and positioned in such investigations. This is addressed by reviewing the relevant literature, focusing on contextual and methodological aspects, while considering the roles of resource-poor individuals—all these aspects are crucial in undertaking design research in this field and in developing and evaluating methods to support the practice of designing products for enhancing social and human development of resource-poor societies
Many engineering and design departments in universities around the world promote development projects, and offer courses and even full programs in such areas (Jagtap et al 2014; Nieusma and Riley 2010). This has led to many design investigations in the context of poverty in developing countries (e.g. Mattson and Wood 2014; Whitney and Kelkar 2004; Sethia 2005; Hussain et al 2012). Design studies in this field have been undertaken in many different design sectors in urban and rural regions of several developing countries, engaging and positioning poor people in different roles, while considering aspects related to their income and gender
Summary
Forty percent of the world population subsists on less than 2 dollars a day, and twenty percent on less than 1.25 dollars per day, living in extreme poverty (World Bank 2010). Designed products have the potential to create significant impact, contributing towards social and human development of disadvantaged societies (e.g. Schumacher 1973) Such products include, among others, smokeless cookstoves, incomegenerating products, medical devices, educational devices, communication products or any other products that support development of resource-poor individuals or enhance their capabilities There is a great deal of design research in this field, its analysis is lacking, making it difficult to gain an overview of what has been investigated, how these investigations were undertaken, in what context they were undertaken, and how marginalised people were engaged and positioned in such investigations This is addressed by reviewing the relevant literature, focusing on contextual and methodological aspects, while considering the roles of resource-poor individuals—all these aspects are crucial in undertaking design research in this field and in developing and evaluating methods to support the practice of designing products for enhancing social and human development of resource-poor societies. The paper will be useful to those who are new to this field as well as to those who are experts in this field
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