The Unique Challenges of African Entrepreneurs

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mouakter14
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The Unique Challenges of African Entrepreneurs

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The Indian state of Kerala recently approved a State Design Policy (SDP) which is the first of its kind in the country. Though India ratified a National Design Policy in 2007, its objectives were broadly restricted to promoting Indian design through regulatory and institutional backing and aligning Indian design education with international standards.

Kerala’s SDP, on the other hand, is closer to design policies the United Nations has consistently advocated, which have been adopted most notably by the European Union. Between 2012 and 2016, several EU countries, including Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Ireland and Latvia — as well as the European Commission — adopted dedicated design action plans or policies. These policies provide a comprehensive framework for incorporating good design principles into government activities spanning across all sectors. By focusing on end-user experience, they aim to increase the well-being and quality of life of these countries’ citizens by israel whatsapp number data providing guidance that can help optimize the design of everything from infrastructure and public services to government policy.

Kerala’s SDP heralds growing opportunities for public-private partnerships in India, through which design firms and businesses can collaborate with the government to create effective design interventions that address social or sustainability challenges. The policy recognizes that design goes far beyond just aesthetics: As stated in the government order, design is “the process of converting existing situations into preferred ones.” It’s about envisioning optimal solutions to complex challenges through a human-centric lens.

Good or bad design can have a major impact on people, whether it involves everyday objects like cutlery and furniture, or large public infrastructure like transportation, urban planning and tourism. Below, we’ll explore the value and significance of design by sharing several examples of strategic design choices that have made a major impact on businesses, governments — and the communities they serve.



Design in daily use
In his book “The Design of Everyday Things,” pioneering design researcher Donald Norman argues that a well-designed object should be intuitive and easy to use, with features that communicate its function. Think about the frustration of pushing a door that’s meant to be pulled. This seemingly simple interaction highlights Norman’s concept of “affordances,” which are the inherent clues an object offers about how it can be used. Ideally, the design of a door (e.g., its handles, signage and visual cues) should communicate the action you need to take — for instance, a door with a horizontal bar tells you it opens by pushing, while a vertical bar suggests that it opens by pulling. In contrast, a poorly designed door offers no such clues, leading to confusion and wasted effort.

Simple tweaks in design can make experiences better for users. To take one example, in 2016, Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories, an Indian multinational pharmaceutical company, collaborated with IDEO to redesign its syrup bottles and blister packs and make them more convenient for patients, especially the elderly. The new blister packaging came with stubs at both ends mentioning the medicine’s name, dosage, and manufacturing and expiry dates — ensuring that this key information would remain readable even after the pills had been popped out of the strip. The new syrup bottles had easy-to-hold measuring cups and necks to reduce spillage. A similar approach was taken by the laundry detergent companies Ariel and Tide, whose detergent bottle designs incorporate an innovative cap that functions as both a measuring cup and a no-drip pour aid.
yadaysrdone
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