Some Indications from Research on User Involvement in Design for Base of the Pyramid (DFPOB)

DS 58-8: Proceedings of ICED 09, the 17th International Conference on Engineering Design, Vol. 8, Design Information and Knowledge, Palo Alto, CA, USA, 24.-27.08.2009

Year: 2009
Editor: Norell Bergendahl, M.; Grimheden, M.; Leifer, L.; Skogstad, P.; Lindemann, U.
Author: Jiang, Jiehui; Kandachar, Prabhu
Series: ICED
Section: Design Information and Knowledge
Page(s): 43-52

Abstract

According to the World Bank, there are 4 billion people living on an income less than US$3 per day and 1 billion living less than even US$1 per day. This part of the population is often called "Base-of-the-Pyramid" (BoP). BoP is a definition of user and consumer group in product design science. This paper discussed difference between BoP self design action: Grassroot Innovations Approach (GIA) and current professional Design for Base of the Pyramid (DfBoP) cases. User involvement is considered as a major way to access new innovations on design approach. The purpose of this article is to give a message to Professional Designers (PDA) who want to design for/with BoP (a) GIA is different from PDA (b) GIA is challenging, but not yet well understood and, (c) research is needed to understand GIA.

Keywords: Design for Base of the Pyramid (DfBoP), product design, Grassroot Innovations Approach, Professional Design Approach

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