Product policy and material scarcity challenges: The essential role of government in the past and lessons for today

Materials are important in economies, business, innovation activity and products, and they have quickly become essential to maintain and improve our quality of life. The world faces problems concerning material supply, but these concerns are not translated into product design activity, even though history shows that product design policy can...

Using the capability approach to detect design opportunities

When developing products and services to improve the well-being of the multidimensional poor, designers need deep contextual insight. However, literature does not specify which topics to discuss or which questions to ask. We used Sen’s capability approach to develop question categories and specific questions, and we selected tools to support...

Approaching design for development from a capability perspective

To improve the well-being of disadvantaged and marginalized populations by product design, deep contextual insight is required. However, literature does not specify which topics to discuss or which questions to ask. To address this issue, we used Sen’s capability approach to develop question categories and adopted a semi-structured interview...

Special section on design for well-being: Preface

Assessing sustainability in nature-inspired design

In the field of sustainable product development, a new perspective for approaching sustainability has been advocated, challenging designers and engineers to aim beyond ‘reducing unsustainability’. Several design strategies – including Biomimicry and Cradle to Cradle – have been suggested for developing truly sustainable, or ‘beneficial’,...

Towards scaling up grassroots innovations in India: A preliminary framework

Grassroots innovations (GI) include need-based products or services that are created by individuals or groups within local communities. These products and services have potential to contribute to the quality of an individual’s life, and on a larger scale contribute to the development of a community by creating new business activities. The...

Nature-inspired design strategies in sustainable product development: A case study of student projects

In design practice, Nature-Inspired Design Strategies (NIDS) can be applied when developing sustainable products. However, knowledge on how this actually helps designers is lacking. This study explores the effects of applying Cradle to Cradle and Biomimicry in student projects, as compared to using Ecodesign. The findings indicate that NIDS...

Overview of literature relevant to information and communication technology based healthcare design in rural China

Nature inspired design: Strategies towards sustainability

Current design practices focus on eco-efficiency as the main approach in the field of sustainable product development. This approach mainly aims at improving existing products and services. Environmental product performance can be greatly improved using ecoefficiency but in many cases the improvements are incremental. Furthermore, the overall...

Exploring the influence of design culture on ICT healthcare product and service design for rural China

Design culture is usually considered as one of the important aspects that influence designers’ decisions and actions, especially in Design for Base of the Pyramid projects including ICT Healthcare Product Design in Rural China (IHDRC). There are two research questions in this issue: what are the cultural factors and how these factors influence...

Persuasion for a Healthier Life: Persuasive Technology Design Guidelines from the Precious Project for Indian diabetics

Health behaviour change is a key issue in India and especially for reducing diabetes related risks. But the issue is confined neither to diabetes nor to India. After the proliferation of personal digital devices and widespread internet access, persuasion for behaviour change has taken new forms. In this paper we propose 8 design guidelines for...

Introduction: GMI Theme Issue An Exploratory Journey towards the Research and Practice of the ‘Base of the Pyramid’

Material Considerations in Product Design: A Survey on Crucial Material Aspects Used by Product Designers

The competitive market rising from the increase in product consumption makes product designers consider more about materials than before. Materials, indeed, have been extensively studied in science and engineering for years. Existing materials selection sources can serve as useful function in giving up to date information on technical (physical,...

Volume efficiency as an environmental strength of moulded pulp protective packaging