Co-design in Zambia - An examination of design outcomes
After decades of limited success "designing for the developing world", it is clear that Base of the Pyramid (BoP) markets are complex and face unique challenges, such as large geographical distances between designers and users as well as poor understanding of user/customer needs. Participatory design has emerged as a strategy to improve user/customer understanding in BoP markets in hopes that it may lead to improved design outcomes. This study aims to better understand the relationship between codesign and related participatory design approaches with design outcomes. An experiment was conducted in rural Zambia in partnership with an agricultural enterprise and also at a university in the USA, and the resulting design outcomes compared with the level of end-user/customer participation. Concepts rated with the highest likelihood of adoption were generated by teams composed entirely of endusers/ customers, however these were also among the least creative concepts. Teams that employed usercentered design produced concepts with mixed results, and teams that followed a co-design approach produced concepts with the greatest balance of creativity, feasibility, and meeting the need.
