Reflections on design thinking for government: empowering policy makers and stakeholders
Yesterday I came across a post on The World Bank’s blog, “Design Thinking for Government Services: What happens when the past limits our vision of the future?” Given that I’m in the process of writing a report on the role that human centered design can play in government, that too for a developed nation, I’d […]
On the science of niti
Therefore, with an eye to the public good, I shall speak that which, when understood, will lead to an understanding of things in their proper perspective. ~ Chanakya, Niti Shastra, Chapter 1, Verse 2 Although many great savants of the science of niti, such as Brihaspati, Shukracharya, Bhartrhari and Vishnusharma, have echoed many of these […]
Consuming the future: a wide angled perspective
This was written at the end of August 2007; how far have we progressed? Even as I have just written about sustainable design and ecodesign, I find myself pondering the larger issues at stake. I didn’t set out to go green and I’m not wholly sure what my outlook is on this topic as yet. […]
Human centered systems design: Navigating complexity through flexibility
Drawing credit: JAM visualdenken Systems designed for use by communities tend to operate differently from back end or operational processes. Its only natural given the unpredictable nature of crowds. I’m sure there are a lot of people looking into this field, with greater experience and knowledge than I. However, I bring this up due to […]
Mainstreaming REculture into the materials supply chain
In July 2009, I was inspired by my then working space in the Research wing’s open office at the Aalto University’s Design Factory in Espoo, Finland, to launch a group blog called REculture: Exploring the post-consumption economy of repair, reuse, repurpose and recycle by informal businesses at the Base of the Pyramid In a post […]
Lowering barriers: Its about access, not the device
When Vanderbeeken sent me a link yesterday about Nokia working closely with Facebook to get the next billion online, it reminded me of this crude diagram I’d constructed back when I was watching this space far more closely than I do now. Twitter and Facebook are the two big names that weren’t even on our […]
User centered design thinking: An approach to problem identification
What is user centered design thinking? Lets break this phrase down, first into two parts of two words each, user centered = being user centered means that your frame of reference for creating a system, a product or business model is always the potential or intended ‘user’. Immersion in the user’s environment, also known as […]
How social media can steal your soul.
In January 2011, I began researching articles on the African economic rise and concurrent opportunities, for a series I was writing for Dirk Knemeyer’s GoInvo blog. Having just been introduced to Tumblr, I liked the real time capture ability of the application and the flexibility in tagging, for keeping track of quotes and snippets. I […]
Interim project report: User centered Agricultural value chain development
My colleague and project leader for the current work in The Netherlands, Bart Doorneweert has just published an excellent analysis of our workshop on user centered design for a multi stakeholder group invited by the Ministries of Economic Affairs and Foreign Affairs. Here’s a snippet: Insights on the multi-stakeholder working processWhen the break-out groups re-convened […]
Priorities for an internet on the mobile platform for Africa’s prepaid economy
Something that Gustav Praekelt said in the news about access to no-cost information being a basic human right at the Mobile Web Africa caught my attention. There is still a gaping void in services accessible to and customized for the needs of the mass majority of mobile phone owners in the world. The next billion […]
