Designing for poverty alleviation:
A case study of normative judgement in design practice



PhD Candidate

Edan Weis

Supervisors

Professor Christopher Ryan
Dr Michael Trudgeon

Faculty of Architecture Building and Planning
University of Melbourne


Abstract

The use of industrial design and engineering activity in non-governmental organizations (NGOs) aimed at alleviating poverty is widespread. The development of appropriate technologies, human-centered products targeting the base-of-the-pyramid, artisan assistance programs and pro-bono design services are examples of design-led interventions to improve people's social and economic conditions. In this context, the role of design practice and its association with economic development thinking is contested, yet the influence of designers’ values, beliefs and institutional norms on design activity is significantly under-researched. This study investigates how normative judgements influence industrial design and engineering practice through an explorative case study of eight design-led NGOs working in Guatemala, El Salvador and the United States. Empirical data from the case studies is embedded into a domain-specific ontology for the creation of an online semantic web application to serve as a knowledge base for practitioners and a source of data for further research. The resulting application facilitates the analysis of shared practices and interrelated stakeholders in designing for poverty alleviation. Examining the contextual aspects of design practice that are exogenous to the design process extends traditional cognition-based design research methods in which the individual and the design process are the main units of analyses.