A new mindset for product designers by Ehsan Noursalehi
Published May 2014 (Updates Required)
A new mindset for product designers by Ehsan Noursalehi
Published May 2014 (Updates Required)
Is the glass half full or half empty? Product design mindsets have exponential impacts that directly alter the lives of millions of people around the world.
This website is a tool for people who fundamentally care about their world and the world around them. This is both for humanitarians and entrepreneurs.
This project emerged from the frustrations of numerous products being designed every year and given away for free to people that don't want them.
Don't waste time and money making a bad product that no one wants!
Don't waste time and money making a bad product that no one wants!
A prosthetic hand given away for free by the Ellen Meadows Foundation to poor amputees in need. The intention is good but the product is little more than some plastic and a few velcro straps. The hand is difficult to put on take off and can barely lift more than 5 pounds.
Motivated by the world’s love for soccer, a student team at Harvard started a company and designed a soccer ball to generate electricity for poor kids. They raised over $90,000 on Kickstarter, and received praise from President Obama and the Clinton Foundation for an electricity generating soccer ball that often breaks in a few weeks.
The PlayPump Water System is intended to use the energy of children at play to operate a water pump. The effort has been very successful in raising millions of dollars in donor funds. In reality, adults are often found struggling to use the inefficient system to pump water. Read more about 10 detailed problems of the PlayPump here.
A wheelchair designed and made by the Free Wheelchair Mission organization from readily available plastic chairs, mountain bike tires, castors, and a custom metal frame. Over 700,000 have been distributed in 90 countries - they could have easily and affordably produced a more appropriate and desirable wheelchair.
The reality of objects like the Playpump is that they often do not live up to the glamourous expectation or the representation they are advertised with.
Read an analysis of this in Borland's PHd Thesis about the Playpump.
Useless products are allowed to exist in this world and be distributed en mass because of nonprofits. Nonprofits are not all bad but a bad nonprofit is very bad. Nonprofits by nature don't sell products to customers that give them feedback. Instead, nonprofits advertise their service to donors, if donors like what they hear, they donate and the nonprofit accordingly gives something away for free.
Design for the Other 90% and similar ideas of Design for Extreme Affordability, etc encourage designers to care about some of the poorest people in the world, which is what this world needs. However, caring is just the first step.
These ideas also give designers a mindset that looks down on the people they are trying to help and propels a "holier-than thou" atmosphere. These mindsets often, but not always, contribute in producing nothing more than feel-good projects and products that no one desires to own.
Even monkeys know when they are given unfair products. Can you imagine what people think?
Tim Brown, IDEO
Tim Brown, IDEO
Problem: Social product design is often driven by very tough constraints. There is no inherent problem in focusing on constraints. The problem arises when user desires are completely ignored.
The poor are accidentally seen as helpless people that need to be saved who have no agency. This type of design strips humans of their dignity.
Solution: Embrace constraints of the developing world and merge it with the typical desires of the first world. Not only can we more frequently avoid bad products, but we can also produce very innovative and meaningful products.
We can be utilitarian, but we must no longer attempt to address needs while ignoring desires.
Create a solution that embraces and satisfies constraints & desires. It must be simultaneous. One cannot ignore the other.
Start with a systematic analysis of the product. Use first principles to reinvent problematic aspects.
Provide the maximum functional, social, and emotional value for a minimum initial investment and low long-term maintenance cost.
We are all human. Do not discriminate based on geography, culture, or economic status. A homeless person and the President should be treated equally.
The quartz Casio brand F-91W digital wristwatch was introduced in 1991 and continues to be a popular product worldwide today. The watch is water-resistant, features a calendar, alarm, stopwatch, and has a battery that last over 7 years.
The BIC Cristal pen is a tool of utility and creativity. It is highly reliable, stylish, and one of the most affordable ballpoint pens in the world.
The monobloc polypropylene chair is produced by numerous manufacturers worldwide. It is the world’s most common style of chair. The chairs are very affordable, need no maintenance, can be used in any weather, and are stackable.
A carbonated soft drink sold in over 200 countries worldwide.
According to Interbrand, in 2011, Coca-Cola was the world’s most valuable brand.
In the 20th century what might have taken 20 years to spread around the world takes only a few months at most in the 21st.
In 2012, Gangnam Style took the world by storm. It went around the globe several times over becoming the first YouTube video to have over one billion views. The music video has continued to spread reaching over 1.9 billion views on YouTube – overnight becoming a globalization phenomenon. It is without a doubt a marker in history where there is now a means and interest to instantaneously distribute products, or in this case a digital product, globally to everyone without regard to social, economic, or cultural status.
"Reverse innovation isn’t optional; it’s oxygen"
— JEFF IMMELT, GE
"Reverse innovation isn’t optional; it’s oxygen"
— JEFF IMMELT, GE
Hans Rosling uses data from 200 countries over 200 years to show how the world we live in is radically different (and better) from the world most of us imagine.
Apple was penalized by the stock market recently because their new iPhone 5C was not affordable enough for the growing global population of smart phone consumers. Apple is inherently motivated to sell its products to new consumers in countries like India, Brazil & China.
Google constantly experiments with innovative ways to give internet access to the poorest of the poor in the developing world. Its new line of internet-based Chromebook laptops starting at $199 are advertised heavily as being "Designed for Everyone".
Facebook championed a partnership with Nokia, Opera, Samsung, Qualcomm and numerous others organizations to create Internet.org - "a global partnership working together to bring the internet to the two thirds of the world’s population that doesn’t have it".
Traditional ultrasound devices cost over $100,000 and need an entire hospital room. Traditional devices work great for large hospitals in the US. But in China, hospitals are small and scattered making a large expensive device impossible. When GE glocalized their USA-developed device in China it sold poorly. However, in 2002, a GE team in China developed a new device specifically for China – this device proved not only to do well in China but also in the United States finding new previously unforeseen applications.
GE succeeded in preventing disruption from emerging giants by attempting its own reverse innovation – the outcome is thus a new portable, handheld, and highly effective $7,900 ultrasound machine.
It is all about having the right mindset
It is all about having the right mindset
THE GREAT DESIGNER'S CREED
At the core of this thesis is the belief that every person on this planet is a human being. That there are fundamental human needs and desires that unite us all. It is the responsibility of the designer to discover what those needs are and to properly satisfy them through a great product.
Instead of focusing on our mutually exclusive qualities, we can and should focus on our mutually inclusive qualities.
A portable water filter straw. Instantly filters water using no electricity, UV power, chemicals, etc. Can be used effectively by rural communities or adventurers.
4.7/5 star rating on Amazon out of 2,990 customer ratings. Available for $20.
A highly affordable pedal-powered washing machine and dryer. It requires no electricity and is highly portable. This is a major improvement over manual washing methods.
This is a very practical solution for remote villagers, apartment dwellers, and campers.
Concept design & functional prototype.
A highly portable, electricity producing, and highly efficient wood burning cookstove for use in camping or developing world contexts. The BioLite cookstove weighs 2lbs, runs on twigs, and produces electricity to charge USB powered devices.
4.7/5 star rating on Amazon out of 112 customer ratings. Available for $130.
A new type of indestructible soccer ball developed in 2010 by Tim Jahnigen and funded by Chevrolet. The ball is self-inflating, never needs to be pumped up, and consists of an extremely resilient foam material.
Create a solution that embraces and satisfies constraints & desires. It must be simultaneous. One cannot ignore the other.
Start with a systematic analysis of the product. Use first principles to reinvent problematic aspects.
Provide the maximum functional, social, and emotional value for a minimum initial investment and low long-term maintenance cost.
We are all human. Do not discriminate based on geography, culture, or economic status. A homeless person and the President should be treated equally.
Simultaneously pursue what appear to be competing interests between the Top 10% and Bottom 90% users in order to discover new things, simplify the problem, and finally arrive at the core values that make us all human. It can be a difficult process but, one with great humanitarian and financial rewards.
A great designer will never assume someone will automatically want their product. A great designer knows it is a combination of the right strategies and techniques in an iterative process that helps them arrive at a solution that will have a positive effect on people's lives.
By definition, there are 9 times more people in the poorer bottom 90% than the top 10%. No matter how rich the top 10% get, they won't buy nearly as many phones as the bottom 90%. Companies like Apple and Samsung cannot ignore that massive potential.
Instead of reasoning by analogy, comparing what you are working on to what you already know, reason by what Elon Musk calls first principles. Instead of using analogies, use a greater level of mental energy to "boil things down to the most fundamental truths…and then reason up from there".
Providing products at the lowest price possible is not the most important thing for poor consumers. The Finnish have a saying that “poor people can’t afford cheap things”. Rather than "cheapness", quality and value performance are often the most important factors in the decision making process for consumers regardless of economic status or geographic location.
Question your assumptions and build something that matters.