Introduction
Participative design bridges the intellectual gap between the designer and end users to ensure that the product really does meet the needs of the end users. For technology, the gap can be very large even between users and designers belonging to the same culture and with similar education and life experience. When designing technology for the developing world, there may be so little commonality that it is almost impossible to judge what will work– even if the fundamentals of needs-gap, ease-of-
use and cost are well thought through.
This paper reflects on the differences between two participative design experiences, one in the UK and one in Kenya. The UK experience is of the first author designing a PC notetaking application to help dyslexic students with lectures. The Kenyan experience is of the three authors jointly designing an agricultural information voice portal for Kenyan farmers and smallholders.
position paper pdf
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