Culturally acceptable and non-offensive products

The global nature of trade means that product designers need to be aware of the culturally diverse nature of their markets. 

One of the major areas to be aware of is the different meaning of colours of products.

For example:

Products that are inclusive

The British Standards Institute’s (BSI) definition of inclusive design is

 ‘the design of mainstream products and/or services that are accessible to, and usable by, as many people as reasonably possible’.

you have covered inclusive design in Unit 1.8, but it is worth revising what it is to be an inclusive product.

These might include:

Poverty, health and wellbeing

The declaration of human rights, first published in 1948, is a United Nations document setting out the rights of people all around the world. Article 25 in the document states:

‘Everyone has a right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care’.

Just how many people in the world do you think that definition no longer applies to?

The improvement of health and wellbeing is an ongoing area of major development in terms of products and technological advances, as well as medications and how they are administered.
Designers have a key role to play in ensuring that the wellbeing of all human beings is considered when designing products and services….but sadly it is not always the case.

Many people around the world become migrants and refugees due to conflict, poverty and victimisation in their home country.
This results in massive temporary communities springing up all over the world. 

The infrastructure to support large numbers of displaced people sometimes does not exist, and governments often turn to humanitarian organisations to provide support. 

We will now look at examples of how organisations have responded to these needs....

Clothing

Donating discarded clothing for reuse by refugees is an excellent way of providing humanitarian aid at the same time as improving sustainability.

Housing

Shelter for refugees, particularly in hostile climates, is an urgent need that has been addressed in various ways. 

Medical care

Access to hospitals, medical professionals and medicines is very difficult or impossible in refugee camps, and it often falls to non-governmental organisations (NGO’s) to provide appropriate care. 

Summary

We are an industrial and technologically advanced society that is very much consumer driven.
There is an ever growing population constantly consuming the earths resources; many of which are running out quickly.

Many directives have been introduced to ensure that manufacturers work towards reducing environmental impact of their products. It is also the designers role to ensure that new products are designed to meet those requirements.

Many new materials and processes have been introduced over the years and, after hundreds of years of abusing the Earth’s resources, which has caused irreversible damage to the environment and caused climate change, consumers are becoming more aware of their contribution to the problem.

There are still countries who have not joined the Kyoto Agreement (to reduce oil consumption) such as the USA who still consume around 10 million barrels of oil per day!!

Hundreds of years of industrialisation have caused irreversible damage to the Earth’s environment through pollution, deforestation, mining, drilling and consumer waste.

The population is growing at an alarming rate and the Earth’s resources are under increasing pressure to meet even the most basic needs of the consumer. A consumer based society also expect more advanced technological products.

It is the designers and manufacturers responsibility to ensure new products seek to minimise the potential damage to the environment and, where possible, utilise the Six R’s.

Products also need to be designed so that the consumer can make responsible choices when purchasing products as they are made aware of the effect on the environment of using and disposing of the product.

Revision notes

Ensure you are familiar with concepts of Eco design, green design and circular economies as well as key terms like renewable and sustainable in terms of energy and materials.

You should know and understand a range of alternative renewable sources of energy such as wind, tidal, geothermal etc.

Do some research into Fairtrade and other initiatives that seem to support traders in developing countries.

Look at the case studies in the unit for more information on what has been studied in class.