31–40 of 44 posts
Bad design is most of the time a simple lack of research, or not enough research, of what are the actual needs and problems that people encounter.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Absolutely. Coca-Cola (the drink, not necessarily the company) is a scourge and always has been. Giving access to Coke to everyone is the last thing we should want, but it is happening. The One World Futbol the article seems to think is good costs $40 for two, and is supposed to serve the poor? How does that make sense? The truly poor make footballs (soccer balls) from garbage ; will a $20 ball do anything really pos…
The football clearly hasn't been fully commercialised. A durable foam moulded ball is one of those ideas that's super-obvious but requires just the right material to actually be fun to kick. Surely once the right polymer and foam density have been found it can be churned out for pennies.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Meaning no slight to your character in general, in this conversation you are one of the extremists. There are plenty of countries (large parts of Western Europe post-WWII) which have had predominantly left-leaning governments for 60+ years and not devolved into centrally-planned communist states. There's a genuine debate to be had about the role of governments, markets, taxation and distribution, but trying to frame…
> in this conversation you are one of the extremists. It is extremism if and only if refusing to negotiate with muggers also is extremism. > trying to frame it as the world threatened by the sword of communism Whether the world at whole is threatened or not I dont know (people seem to survive in North Korea), but leftists like you certainly threaten my income and my freedom. If you scheme to force me to give a part o…
Can you quote that argument actually made by anyone in the thread you are responding to?
> you seem to be more preoccupied with labeling your opponents
Your own post jumped immediately "distrusting capitalism", "social workers" and "allocating resources fairly" to "communism" and "muggers", so I think it's fair to say you're projecting. And it reminded me of this:
We've changed. And we've become contemptuous of the idea that we're all in this together. This is about sharing. And about, you know... when you say sharing, there is a percentage of the population, and it's the moneyed percent of our population, that hears "socialism" or "communism" or any of the other -isms they wanna put on it, but ultimately, we are all a part of the same society, and it's either gonna be a mediocre society that, you know, abuses people, or it's not.
-- David Simon ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SL6Jv2Jpnpg&t=6m50s )
Earlier quoted context omitted.
You'll find it disturbing if you fundamentally distrust capitalism. It's true many social workers tend that way. We won't settle anything in this discussion: it's fundamental to the left-right divide. One side thinks that it's vital to allocate resources fairly, and this can be done efficiently if only people would be good enough. The other side thinks that market forces are the only way we know to allocate resources…
Most people are, however, moderates, not extremists. For some reason, the Internet mostly acts to amplify extremism, and we get this you are either left or right mentality (us politics has also been polarized as of late).
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Meaning no slight to your character in general, in this conversation you are one of the extremists. There are plenty of countries (large parts of Western Europe post-WWII) which have had predominantly left-leaning governments for 60+ years and not devolved into centrally-planned communist states. There's a genuine debate to be had about the role of governments, markets, taxation and distribution, but trying to frame…
> in this conversation you are one of the extremists. It is extremism if and only if refusing to negotiate with muggers also is extremism. > trying to frame it as the world threatened by the sword of communism Whether the world at whole is threatened or not I dont know (people seem to survive in North Korea), but leftists like you certainly threaten my income and my freedom. If you scheme to force me to give a part o…
Does anybody else find this rather disturbing? Even from the outset, "We live in a new age where globalization & capitalism must harmonize with social good" - bold faced newspeak. Anybody who has ever actually done social work who couldn't help but to see this as a bleak vision of the future. The page goes even further, listing examples of well-intentioned although ineffective, dubbed "useless", designs in a negative…
The commerci product coca cola has massive market reach. So much so that live saving and very cheap oral rehydration salts were being put in the same cartons as coca cola as a method of delivery with specialliy designed boxes that fit between the bottles. http://allafrica.com/view/group/main/main/id/00028535.html > NAIROBI, 2 March 2012 (IRIN) - How is it that the world's most popular fizzy drink reaches even the far…
I worked on the Colalife project in Zambia via Zoona, a mobile payments company, and it's worth understanding how distribution of the product actually evolved.
Coke has enormous distribution into the farthest reaches of rural Zambia because there is enormous demand for the product, which Coke has achieved by its excellent marketing and a smart distribution model.
The Colalife project did great, entrepreneurial work to identify an issue and get a new medical product on the market, but it quickly found that distribution didn't happen by putting the product in coke crates as intended. When demand for oral rehydration salts/zinc increased, traditional distribution mechanisms took over -- boxes of the product making their way on trucks, bicycles, etc. There are things we can learn from Coke's marketing to help design solutions to social issues, but that's not the same as the consumer product itself contributing.
The article makes a good point that caring != ability to create something that produces social impact, but seems to miss the most important part: engaging with and actually understanding your customers, regardless of who they are. Caring itself is not a problem, it's that people conflate those good intentions with understanding, and since they care that is enough to push forward with an idea.
The missing principle, which is as true for affluent as well as disadvantaged customers, is to really engage with, understand and get feedback from your target market.