Developing world paradigm shift

I’m a firm believer in a number of things. I believe those who can should help those who cannot help themselves, I believe there is opportunity for the lower 3 billion to fulfill their personal needs without expending all the resources on the planet, I believe relying on education alone is not going to solve major product problems, I believe governments and non-profits are largely ineffective at causing real large-scale change, and I believe in for-profit solutions to social problems and that Big Business could either be the savior or the destroyer of the lower 3 billion.

This is where I come from. I want to shift the paradigm that many developing world activists hold onto of designing small solutions for small communities, or of desperately hoping that they will continue to get public or private funding to continue operating. There’s a way to make a sustainable system in every sense of the word: a for-profit, triple bottom-line driven business that understand both the long-term and short-term implications of its actions.

One way I believe we can do this is to shift the marketing paradigm. Now, I’m not a marketing guru (I believe that if you build a better product, it should sell itself, but this is seldom the case), but I think many of the problems with adoption of high quality, life-improving products in the developing world have to do with how they are presented to people. These products are often sold at a discount, or free, and designed for those communities alone. The common reaction is twofold: people want to work for what they get, and they want to have something that increases their social status, not some device designed for some “savages.” I spent some time with the Kuna Indians (they call themselves Indians, but they are an indigenous tribe that lives off the coast of Panama on a small island chain), and they much rather spend their disposable income on  a cell phone or an ipod than on a water sanitizing system. Why? Because of what it said about them.

There are success stories, like the Grameen phone and many of the microfinance organizations, where people feel like they are treated as peers, not desperate impoverished folk. Everyone, no matter how poor or what culture they come from, has personal pride and values that need to be respected. And then there’s Coca Cola, which managed to penetrate the developing world because of its image as a Western luxury good.

So I challenge you. What do you think? How do we create this system that encourages a sustainable enhancement of the quality of life for the “other 90%?”

Gray wolves no longer endangered…for now.

I just read several articles about gray wolves being taken off the endangered species list. It was interesting to see how each article spun the content in a different way.

Summary: Gray wolves are no longer on the endangered species list (in most states, not Wyoming). Good news, right? Apparently there is some controversy surrounding the issue. Ranchers claim that the now somewhat-normal-sized population of wolves is taking a toll on livestock, and don’t care much about the wolves being endangered or not. Some conservationists think that the wolves were taken of the ES list too soon, and that the wolf population will decrease dangerously fast as hunters and ranchers start killing them off (since it is now legal to kill them). I suppose we will have to wait and see what happens.

Treehugger’s interpretation of the article clearly shows a bias for wolf conservation over livestock maintenance. They poke fun at the governor of Idaho for wanting to kill a bunch of the wolves, as well as poke a bit of fun at the government for not waiting a bit longer before removing the wolves from the ES list. http://www.treehugger.com/files/2009/05/endangered-gray-wolves-hunted.php

Mother Jones is also definitely biased – the article starts out with a heart-felt story about a female wolf that was recently slain. At least the article briefly mentions the ranchers’ side of the argument. http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2009/05/hey-sarah-palin-wanna-shoot-wolf-come-idaho

CNN is much more neutral and provides a more detailed background of the issue in addition to presenting the arguments of both conservationists and ranchers. http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/science/03/28/gray.wolves/index.html

-Kirstin

It isn’t that easy to design green

“Green Marketing Myopia” and Steve Bishop both pointed out the importance of addressing consumer needs and values to the success of green design. This is a concept that has been drilled into my head since I began the product design curriculum, and while I may be sick of hearing it, it does makes sense, and I could not imagine designing any other way. But because I have developed within this bubble of human-centered design (yay Stanford PD), I forget that such design thinking is not actually that common, and am constantly in shock at the products and services that have clearly been designed without human values in mind. People seem to design just because they can, or because they want to make money. Or perhaps people just find it easier to let a product guide itself into the consumers’ hands without thinking about user needs or desires. When you think about it, it is much easier (although less successful) – especially with green products.

Ok, let’s say we want to use the human-centered design approach to design a product that will help people live more sustainable lives. Our user group consists of people who are extreme materialists. It seems to me like trying to get materialists to live more sustainable lives is like trying to get teenagers to eat more vegetables. You have to wrap it up in cool packaging and deliver it with the concept that vegetables make you awesome, that they aren’t really vegetables but more of a status symbol, that eating healthy is what celebrities do so you should do it, too. Why not just design some stuff and throw it into the mass of consumers and hope it works? Might not work, but it’d sure be easier! That way we don’t have to balance  product desirability with product functionality. We just pick one or the other! Ha! Easy as that! Now we don’t have to think as hard!

Unfortunately, this does happen, and it can be rather depressing to see it happen on repeat. But things are  rapidly improving… people are making smarter choices and better designs, and this makes me hopeful. Go good design. Thanks for reading this rather stream-of-consciousness post