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Designing for Disruption: Preparing Product Designers for the Next Billion

Gauthier, Noel
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1313766266

Abstract Details

2011, MDES, University of Cincinnati, Design, Architecture, Art and Planning: Design.
The Industrial Designer's role in Social Construction has always been evidenced by the outputs of the Design function. Now the question is being raised in the Design Community whether the inputs of the Design Function can have a primary leading role in effecting Social Construction. The exhibition “Design for the Other 90%” and the organization Project H, for example, have moved these designers from artificers to instigators. Should Design be involved in these challenges? There are examples showing that in some situations long term growth can occur by jump-starting stalled markets. There is growing thought that social business concepts that develop humanitarian products can be the spark necessary to restore momentum and opportunity to these markets. If we are going to do that, however, we must fundamentally understand not only what people in these situations most need, but what they find valuable in order to create meaningful products that are motivating enough to create transactions. This thesis looks at programs that have been successful in deploying enabling products that are both profitable and address a social need in an economic demographic making under $5 a day, often referred to as the “Bottom of the Pyramid.” It analyzes them using traditional Industrial Design techniques for determining value, and then suggests the possibility of a new model focusing on Risk and Flow. It proposes that Industrial Design can play a primary role in these areas of Social Construction by aligning products with the values of the world’s poorest customers, and doing so in a way that creates stronger markets that empower their people.
Steven Doehler, , (Committee Chair)
Michael Zaretsky, MArch (Committee Member)
70 p.
Design
Social Design; Product Design; Bottom of Pyramid; Design; BOP; Industrial Design

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Gauthier, N. (2011). Designing for Disruption: Preparing Product Designers for the Next Billion [Master's thesis, University of Cincinnati]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1313766266

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Gauthier, Noel. Designing for Disruption: Preparing Product Designers for the Next Billion. 2011. University of Cincinnati, Master's thesis. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1313766266.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Gauthier, Noel. "Designing for Disruption: Preparing Product Designers for the Next Billion." Master's thesis, University of Cincinnati, 2011. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1313766266

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

ucin1313766266
601
© 2011, all rights reserved.
This open access ETD is published by University of Cincinnati and OhioLINK.