The role of human-centered designer in a multinational company through innovative product development for African BoP communities

Download

index.pdf

Date

2020

Author

Işık Tosun, Hande

Metadata

Show full item record

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Item Usage Stats

370
views

259
downloads

The importance of the field of design is increasing in the face of complex problems humanity has been facing. Respectively, the orientation of design is shifting from products to strategies that facilitate corporate transformation. In parallel with this transformation, designers take new and diverse roles. However, there is a knowledge gap regarding these roles. This study aims to explore the roles the designer (author) takes in a multinational home appliances company through the innovative product development for the African Bottom/Base-of-the- Pyramid (BoP) communities. Its goal is to propose a model built on research data. The research methodology comprises the designer’s auto-ethnographic inquiry of long-term practice-led research within the new product development case and its analysis with grounded theory. The results show that the designer plays six diverse and contemporary roles throughout the new product development process. These are frame creator, user-researcher, collaboration mediator, creative facilitator, evaluator, and inspirer. Besides, human-centeredness, holistic thinking, change-driven mentality, collaborative mentality, tenacity, and systems thinking emerge as prominent skills. The results and the outcoming model indicate that the designer spreads skills to the entire organization that makes organizational learning possible. The significance of this research comes from shedding light on the contemporary designer roles in the context of innovative product development for a complex problem.

Subject Keywords

Industrial design, Industrial design Social aspects., Contemporary designer roles, design for the bottom/base-of-the-pyramid, design thinking, human-centered design, new product development.

URI

http://etd.lib.metu.edu.tr/upload/12625354/index.pdf
https://hdl.handle.net/11511/45426

Collections

Graduate School of Natural and Applied Sciences, Thesis

Suggestions

OpenMETU
Core

Evaluation of basic design education at METU department of industrial design Bayırlı, Ümit; Özgen Koçyıldırım, Dalsu; Department of Industrial Design (2015) Basic Design is a crucial course for design education. This course is offered in the first year to initiate students to the theory, practice and communication of design and to lay a basis on which more advanced and specialized knowledge will be gathered throughout the rest of their design education and careers. However, the course's results, influence in design education and methods of conduct receives many criticisms from students, educators, designers and researchers. Even though the course plays a foundi...
Experience reflection modelling (ERM) as a generative research method and student engagement in product design at undergraduate level Turhan, Senem; Doğan, Çağla; Department of Industrial Design (2013) Research approaches driven by design thinking have the potential to bridge early stages of design process to idea generation phases in design education. Generative research is emerged from participatory approach which is used at early stages of design process aims to elicit user needs, experiences, expectations and preferences by using generative tools and techniques through helping non-designer participants express their thoughts, feelings, opinions effectively independent of their skills and abilities in ...
Learning by doing in the age of design computation Oezkar, Mine (2007-01-01) A design teaching approach of integrating the notions of design thinking and computing in the first year of architectural design education is introduced and discussed. The approach aims to enhance and bring up-to-date the educational practice of "learning by doing" in the first year foundations curriculum. In the studied example, the analytical phases of thinking in a simple design task are systematically and visually recorded. This documentation is incorporated to the design process as a means for the stud...
Transforming and prolonging design lifespans: design education cases for sustainability Doğan, Çağla (2017-11-10) This paper aims to present an approach focusing on design education for sustainability through providing two exemplary cases from third-year industrial design projects. The main themes explored in these projects involve personalization via design transformation, adaption and upgrading during design, use and post-use phases. The first project developed and facilitated at Carleton University, the School of Industrial Design mainly addresses the key theme of transformation of LED lighting from indoors to outdo...
Sustainability as an Educational Concern: A Study on Industrial Design Curricula Turhan, Senem (null; 2009-04-09) With the emergence of sustainability, it became an important concern for curricula of industrial design education as for many other educational structures. Currently, lots of higher education institutions offer courses focusing on sustainability for various objectives. This study deals with the current situation of industrial design education in the world by means of sustainability as an educational concern. It starts with the examination of a variety of sustainable development definitions and continues wi...

Citation Formats

H. Işık Tosun, “The role of human-centered designer in a multinational company through innovative product development for African BoP communities,” Thesis (Ph.D.) -- Graduate School of Natural and Applied Sciences. Industrial Design., Middle East Technical University, 2020.