Frugal Engineering; Designing with dignity

Last week we read about the importance of frugal engineering. In “The Importance of Frugal Engineering” the authors state that when designing products or services for emerging markets, one must start with a clean slate with no presuppositions about the item he or she is designing. They provide the example of the Tata Nano and the low-cost ChotuKool refrigerator. While the ChotuKool was successful at penetrating the low-income market (see: http://www.innosight.com/impact-stories/chotokool-case-study.cfm), the Tata Nano did not penetrate the low-income transportation market as impactfully as its creators thought it would. It seems that this is one of the classic cases of impressive design without targeting the aspirations of the audience in mind. The author of this Chat Bhandaar article (http://www.brainmaalish.com/chatbhandaar/tata-nano-failure-due-to-perception/) states that “TATA-NANO was positioned as logical upgrade for a family of four with a two wheeler. This concept did not gel as every such household had an aspiration to move to something better and not necessarily cheaper, thus NANO was brought as a second car and not as a first car.” The Tata Nano appeared too cheap, and was not seen as something that a family could show off with dignity.

Another example of a failed innovation is the “One Laptop for Every Child” Project. Joshua Keating states that “OLPC is a classic case of a development program more tailored to the tastes and interests of its funders, than the needs of the people it was supposed to help. Back to the drawing board.” (http://foreignpolicy.com/2009/09/09/why-did-one-laptop-per-child-fail/) the laptop was developed with a lofty goal, but it left out the actual needs and wants of the teacher and kids they were targeting.

These statements enlighten some of the reasons that our innovations fail. While many funders in the western world seem to believe that a certain innovation introduced to a developing country may be the solution to a problem, we must confront our own “white savior” tendencies, and actually make sure that this is something that an individual in a less-privileged situation than us would feel comfortable and dignified utilizing. Strategies to identify these items may include observation, surveys, or discussions with residents of the target areas. One organization that practices this idea in the USA is called Neighborland (https://neighborland.com/). This organization sets up a booth in a neighborhood and hands out stickers to residents that say “I want ___ in my neighborhood.” Residents can input their ideas and post them on the booth. There is a social media component as well, where ideas are posted and the best ones become “upvoted.” Systems such as these may help utilize citizen input to mitigate the many errors that occur when western individuals are innovating for eastern, developing areas.

This week’s readings presented some examples of more successful innovations. Prof. Silver’s adjustable eyeglasses, for example, were successful not only because they provided a product that was extremely needed, but they also don’t stand out by looking cheap. A caveat is that at around $18 they are not as cheap as they were originally intended to be. Still, they have an impressive impact because they help people avoid the cost of going to an eye doctor (http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/302550.php?page=2). I also believe that Ikea’s refugee shelters, still in the design phase at the time of the article's publishing, will be very successful. The design not only offers more amenities for families, but it also has a much more dignified presence, which can be mentally helpful for refugees (https://www.fastcoexist.com/1682416/a-new-ingeniously-designed-shelter-for-refugees-made-by-ikea). Both the eye glasses and the refugee shelters are not the cheapest innovations, but because they can give those in need help and dignity, they will find success. It also doesn’t hurt to have wealthy individuals like Prof. Silver and corporations like Ikea subsidizing the costs!