Design for the Majority
The very title "design for the majority" or "design for the bottom of the pyramid" has a condescending, superior implication. That is "we educated, highly creative western designers will design for the poor uneducated, uncreative people of the world." But, to design for a different culture, a different people, entirely foreign to your own is not as easy as one thinks. For one, people are very different all around the world. How they think, how they perceive money, their social structures, their very priorities, are quite different. An American design for an African market will always be more or less off-target. A Japanese design for an Indian market will always be a little inappropriate. From color to form to iconography, we're different. Of course with lots of research and expensive flights we can learn and get closer. Secondly, creativity is not an attribute limited to Europeans and Americans. It just happens that prosperous cultures have their basic...