Kenyan's creating their own HIV/AIDS awareness posters with designers as their guide.
Seems pretty smart to me. Why didn't we think of participatory design sooner?
People who know their audience and have experienced the problem + designers as facilitators = design that works
The big problem that we as designers seem to have is that we do not have experience in or know the subjects we are designing. We can pick up a book and do research most of the time but in the case of designing across cultures, especially in the case of AIDS in Africa, the is no way that we can truly understand.
Understanding another culture's symbols and iconography is never easy because we have had our own versions ingrained into our subconsciousness our whole life.
Just as we need a guide when we travel, we need a guide when we attempt to design for other cultures. An even better solution is participatory design. If we really want people to listen and learn from our designs, they have to be real. In the case of AIDS in Africa, I don't think that we as Americans can get through to the people of Africa in the way that we think we can.
Empowering the people of Africa to inform each other and design for each other is a great start to cross-cultural design.
Seems pretty smart to me. Why didn't we think of participatory design sooner?
People who know their audience and have experienced the problem + designers as facilitators = design that works
The big problem that we as designers seem to have is that we do not have experience in or know the subjects we are designing. We can pick up a book and do research most of the time but in the case of designing across cultures, especially in the case of AIDS in Africa, the is no way that we can truly understand.
Understanding another culture's symbols and iconography is never easy because we have had our own versions ingrained into our subconsciousness our whole life.
Just as we need a guide when we travel, we need a guide when we attempt to design for other cultures. An even better solution is participatory design. If we really want people to listen and learn from our designs, they have to be real. In the case of AIDS in Africa, I don't think that we as Americans can get through to the people of Africa in the way that we think we can.
Empowering the people of Africa to inform each other and design for each other is a great start to cross-cultural design.
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