Pramod Khadilkar

This paper intends to deliberate on the scope of future Rural Technology Action Group (RuTAG) projects and prescribes that the project scope for a technological solution to a demand-driven problem must include the design of technologies for its whole lifecycle and especially for dissemination. Principally at RuTAG, the satisfaction of the desired outcome has to be important than the design of the technology itself. Prevalent design, rather narrowly, refers planning and realization of the technology as Design. This paper argues that, for the final aim of scaling up the rural technologies to deliver the desired social good, designers must involve not only at improving the target technology, but also in design and developing the technologies that can support its successful lifecycle. This paper uses the case study of dissemination and successful adaptation of biomass cook stove. Astra Ole is an energy-efficient cook stove designed at Indian Institute of Science, India. Despite its successful dissemination for over three decades through government funding, the cook stove presented different challenges in dissemination. The dissemination of cook stove in frugal/open market settings demanded the design of manufacturing technology without compromising on the design of the original cook stove design. Design of the manufacturing technology proved to be the crucial contributor towards sustenance of the dissemination of the original technology.

What is the scope and responsibilities of design? This work partially answers this by employing a normative approach to design of a biomass cook stove. This study debates on the sufficiency of existing design methodologies in the light of a capability approach. A case study of a biomass cook stove Astra Ole has elaborated the theoretical constructs of capability approach, which, in turn, has structured insights from field to evaluate the product. Capability approach based methodology is also prescriptively used to design the mould for rapid dissemination of the Astra Ole.

Behavioural design has emerged as an important domain of design practice and research due to its ability to deliver the desired outcomes beyond technical designs. Research on behavioural design is not successful in discerning it from other design domains, which is important for theory building. This paper discerns the unique characters of behavioural design by tracing the emergence of behaviour in design. Twelve interviews from six behaviour design cases belonging to four firms has been used to further discern the unique characteristics resulting into the conceptual model of behavioural design

Extending the dictionary meaning of ‘capability’ as individual skills or abilities, the current paper adopts a Capability Approach (CA) based definition. Accordingly capabilities are effective (operational) options available to an individual to be and do as aspired, in leading a life of value upon reflection. This concept primarily evolved in development economics, and has remained confined to the Bottom/Base of the Pyramid, wherein the capabilities of the poor are envisaged to be leveraged upon in alleviating poverty. Design for the BoP aims at designing appropriate products to serve as means to realize or augment the capabilities of the poor. However, the designer’s role as an individual with capabilities is taken for granted. Here, the designers capabilities to design are the effective options/resources available for the designer to design effectively. The current paper extends the concept of CA to the designer, and evaluates the related capabilities for its impact on designing products aimed at the BOP to alleviate poverty.

The base (BOP) and the top (TOP) of the world income pyramid represent the poor people and the people from developed countries, respectively. About two-fifths of the world population can be categorized as poor. Poverty is a trap because children born to poor parents are likely to grow up to be poor adults. In recent years, a poverty reduction approach that combines business development with poverty alleviation has received attention. The design of products for the BOP is an important ingredient of this poverty reduction approach. While companies are beginning to address the product needs of the BOP, there is limited practical and theoretical knowledge to support them. The current understanding of the design for the BOP is limited. This study, using a protocol analysis, compared the design processes for the BOP and TOP markets. The results indicate the differences between the design processes for these markets in terms of the design strategy employed by the designers (i.e. problem driven, solution driven strategy), their requirements handling behaviour, and their information behaviour. We have discussed the implications of the findings for design practice and education. (Less)

The base (BOP) and the top (TOP) of the world income pyramid represent the poor people and the people from developed countries, respectively. About two-fifths of the world population can be categorized as poor. Poverty is a trap because children born to poor parents are likely to grow up to be poor adults. In recent years, a poverty reduction approach that combines business development with poverty alleviation has received attention. The design of products for the BOP is an important ingredient of this poverty reduction approach. While companies are beginning to address the product needs of the BOP, there is limited practical and theoretical knowledge to support them. The current understanding of the design for the BOP is limited. This study, using a protocol analysis, compared the design processes for the BOP and TOP markets. The results indicate the differences between the design processes for these markets in terms of the design strategy employed by the designers (i.e. problem dr...

The base (BOP) and the top (TOP) of the world income pyramid represent the poor people and the people from developed countries, respectively. About two-fifths of the world population can be categorized as poor. Poverty is a trap because children born to poor parents are likely to grow up to be poor adults. In recent years, a poverty reduction approach that combines business development with poverty alleviation has received attention. The design of products for the BOP is an important ingredient of this poverty reduction approach. While companies are beginning to address the product needs of the BOP, there is limited practical and theoretical knowledge to support them. The current understanding of the design for the BOP is limited. This study aims at exploring the differences between the design strategies used by the industrial design students in designing products for the BOP and TOP markets. The results indicate the differences between their design strategies (i.e. problem driven s...

Behavioural design has emerged as a critical new area of research and practice. However, despite the development of extensive lists of possible problem features and suggested solution principles there is little guidance on how these should be connected. Therefore, in this work we systematically examine interactions between major problem features and solution principles, based on an analysis of 218 behavioural design interventions drawn from 139 cases across design domains and foci. This forms the basis for a number of contributions. First, we bring together behavioural and designerly perspectives on problem characterisation via two proposed problem features: change demand and behavioural constraint, related in a two-by-two framework. Second, we synthesised recommendations from across domains and foci to operationalise a list of 23 solution principles relevant to designers. Third, we link these insights in a proposed Behavioural Problem/Solution (BPS) matrix. Further, we identify a n...

People living under $2 income per day, referred as Base of the Pyramid (BoP), face undesired situations like lack of nutrition, health, education etc. Design as a process of changing current undesired situation to a desired situation has failed. A crucial reason behind these failures is lack of normative basis to identify and understand the absent or unsatisfied stakeholder. Currently stakeholder analysis in the design is heuristic. This paper uses a normative framework of Capability Approach (CA) for the stakeholder analysis. A brief discussion on stakeholder theory and analysis is used to identify gaps in the literature. The constructs of the CA are discussed for its suitability to the purpose. Along with methodological details, data generated from the stakeholder interviews, focus groups in a case study of dissemination of improved cook-stoves is used to interlink the theory with the practice. The scope of this work is in identifying and investigating the motives of the stakehold...

Behavioural design is a crucial research area due to its potential in leveraging the positive outcomes of traditional design. Current need for theory building requires discerning the unique characteristics and challenges of behavioural design. To contribute towards this goal, the paper structures the conceptual and operational uniqueness of the behavioural design using the process and cognitive perspective. Process model uses the basic design cycle to discern the tasks and stages of behavioural design. Cognitive perspective uses dual process theory and cognitive strategies used by designers. Integrated model of process and cognitive perspective is the crucial contribution of this paper. A case study involving interview of lead designers from five behavioural design consultancies has been used to present and elaborate the usefulness of the integrated model of behavioural design. Integrated perspective links the process characters like incomplete analysis, simulation and evaluation st...

Base of the (economic) Pyramid (BoP) represents a population living under severe resource constraint s. Design for BoP has crucial responsibility of achieving the well-being through fulfillment of specific needs. At BoP, design has to shoulder this additional responsibility due to absent or severely constrained mechanisms to translate the functional product into well-being. This paper proposes a design scope for the BoP using normative approach from developmental economics, and then compares it with the pervasive product centric scope. Author defines product centricity as a design scope that considers resultant product as sufficient outcome of design and evaluates the extent of product centricity in prevalent design approaches.

Behavioural design has emerged as a critical new area of research and practice. However, despite the development of extensive lists of possible problem features and suggested solution principles there is little guidance on how these should be connected. Therefore, in this work we systematically examine interactions between major problem features and solution principles, based on an analysis of 218 behavioural design interventions drawn from 139 cases across design domains and foci. This forms the basis for a number of contributions. First, we bring together behavioural and designerly perspectives on problem characterisation via two proposed problem features: change demand and behavioural constraint, related in a two-by-two framework. Second, we synthesised recommendations from across domains and foci to operationalise a list of 23 solution principles relevant to designers. Third, we link these insights in a proposed Behavioural Problem/Solution (BPS) matrix. Further, we identify a number of potential systemic challenges in the reporting and evidencing of behavioural design interventions. Together, these insights substantially extend both theory and practice surrounding problem-solution mapping in behavioural design, and form a foundation for further theory development and synthesis in this area.

Behavioural design is a crucial research area due to its potential in leveraging the positive outcomes of traditional design. Current need for theory building requires discerning the unique characteristics and challenges of behavioural design. To contribute towards this goal, the paper structures the conceptual and operational uniqueness of the behavioural design using the process and cognitive perspective. Process model uses the basic design cycle to discern the tasks and stages of behavioural design. Cognitive perspective uses dual process theory and cognitive strategies used by designers. Integrated model of process and cognitive perspective is the crucial contribution of this paper. A case study involving interview of lead designers from five behavioural design consultancies has been used to present and elaborate the usefulness of the integrated model of behavioural design. Integrated perspective links the process characters like incomplete analysis, simulation and evaluation stages, over reliance on the prescriptive methods, and unequal emphasis to multiple disciplines, with incomplete analytical process, and solution and knowledge driven strategy along cognitive perspective

Behavioural design has emerged as an important domain of design practice and research due to its ability to deliver the desired outcomes beyond technical designs. Research on behavioural design is not successful in discerning it from other design domains, which is important for theory building. This paper discerns the unique characters of behavioural design by tracing the emergence of behaviour in design. Twelve interviews from six behaviour design cases belonging to four firms has been used to further discern the unique characteristics resulting into the conceptual model of behavioural design Keywords: behavioural design, design for behaviour change, design theory, human behaviour, human-centred design

Base of the (economic) Pyramid (BoP) represents a population living under severe resource constraint s. Design for BoP has crucial responsibility of achieving the well-being through fulfillment of specific needs. At BoP, design has to shoulder this additional responsibility due to absent or severely constrained mechanisms to translate the functional product into well-being. This paper proposes a design scope for the BoP using normative approach from developmental economics, and then compares it with the pervasive product centric scope. Author defines product centricity as a design scope that considers resultant product as sufficient outcome of design and evaluates the extent of product centricity in prevalent design approaches.

People living under $2 income per day, referred as Base of the Pyramid (BoP), face undesired situations like lack of nutrition, health, education etc. Design as a process of changing current undesired situation to a desired situation has failed. A crucial reason behind these failures is lack of normative basis to identify and understand the absent or unsatisfied stakeholder. Currently stakeholder analysis in the design is heuristic. This paper uses a normative framework of Capability Approach (CA) for the stakeholder analysis.
A brief discussion on stakeholder theory and analysis is used to identify gaps in the literature. The constructs of the CA are discussed for its suitability to the purpose. Along with methodological details, data generated from the stakeholder interviews, focus groups in a case study of dissemination of improved cook-stoves is used to interlink the theory with the practice. The scope of this work is in identifying and investigating the motives of the stakeholders in the involvement in the product. Though a lot of insights to discern and manage crucial stakeholders is inbuilt in the methodology, this work does not claim explicit coverage of these aspects.

Extending the dictionary meaning of ‘capability’ as individual skills or abilities, the current paper adopts a Capability Approach (CA) based definition. Accordingly capabilities are effective (operational) options available to an individual to be and do as aspired, in leading a life of value upon reflection. This concept primarily evolved in development economics, and has remained confined to the Bottom/Base of the Pyramid, wherein the capabilities of the poor are envisaged to be leveraged upon in alleviating poverty. Design for the BoP aims at designing appropriate products to serve as means to realize or augment the capabilities of the poor. However, the designer’s role as an individual with capabilities is taken for granted. Here, the designers capabilities to design are the effective options/resources available for the designer to design effectively. The current paper extends the concept of CA to the designer, and evaluates the related capabilities for its impact on designing products aimed at the BOP to alleviate poverty.