ID [PNW]

Industrial Design Education in Africa I have also arranged to advise and evaluate the first product design program in the country at the Kyambogo University in Kampala. I will be meeting with faculty assist them in development of plans for a product design curriculum. This could perhaps have greater impact than just a bicycle design. Instead of a Western designer trying to design for an African problem, it’s Africans who should be designing their own products. This is beginning to happen around the world, as design centers for Nokia are being established to create designs that are sensitive and appropriate to their local market. This is a far better solution than to have products that were originally designed for Westerners forced upon other cultures. However, in order to have African designers, we first need design education. This is an opportunity to make a large impact on design education in a part of the world where design education is in its early stages.

This blogging stuff is hard to keep up with. I'm not a writer, I am designer, so I can't write all the time. That past material was about 4 months worth of work. Enough complaining and on to a new topic/project! As you may have heard, I’m heading to Uganda in a few days. I’ll be there from August 21st to September 10th. For those unsure about what exactly I’ll be doing, here’s a little background: Design of a Utility Bicycle for the people of rural Uganda The objective of this project is to design and develop a low cost utility bicycle with rural Ugandans as the target user. The design has been developed to the state of a working prototype. The next step is to bring the prototype to Uganda to be reviewed and tested by the people for whom it was designed. Intended result or outcome: The eventual goal is to convince a major manufacturer to produce and distribute this bicycle design to developing countries, a market that they have mostly ignored. In order to generate interest and