Can Design for the “Poor” Result in Better Designs for Everyone?

About Can Design for the “Poor” Result in Better Designs for Everyone?

Abstract

Although the global market allocates relatively fewer resources to some of the neediest on our planet, Christians are called on to take special concern for the disadvantaged. Scripture speaks of the blessing of serving the “poor,” which might be understood as including a lack of influence, position, or power such as may be experienced by persons with disabilities. Recent design research suggests insights gleaned from design for persons with disabilities may lead to breakthrough innovations benefiting the larger community. A new “Extreme Experience Design1” method at the forefront of this exciting theme places interviewees in simulations which often parallel physical disabilities (such as wearing dark glasses to simulate low vision), in order to elicit non-obvious design needs and ideas. This paper describes implementation of “Extreme Experience Design” in a first-year design course at a teaching university, along with results and survey data. The overwhelming majority of student-designers agreed the technique led to design ideas significantly benefiting average users. This case study suggests that the scripturally promised blessing of heeding the needs of the “poor” may give an immediate and tangible manifestation in engineering design – better designs for everyone. Future work includes extending the disability simulation into other realms such as economic scarcity simulation.