Product Design and Purchasing Decision

Democratic Design

Designing a product is a process of solving problems creatively. Usually it considers not only the aesthetics and technological constrains, but also the user’s needs. A famous Swedish furniture and home accessories retailer applying continuous product development has identified five crucial factors for a democratic design, hence products have to be:

      1.Beautiful

      2.Functional

     3.Affordable

     4.Long lasting

     5.Sustainable

These factors can also be used in modern energy technologies design (i.e. efficient stoves and Pico PV lamps). ‘Products should be designed understanding that people want them to work, and to make life easier (function), that are beautiful (form), demand value for money (quality), care about the environment (sustainability) and are affordable (low price)’. 

Perhaps it is important not to think about low prices as the absolute key factor to ensure low-income households to purchase a certain technology. Nowadays different financial schemes have been deployed in order to facilitate energy access (Financing Mechanisms for Cookstove Dissemination, Financing Models for Solar Home Systems, Use of Microfinance Institutions for Renewable Energy Technologies

Over the decades, continue development in design of stove allowed improved as a result of caring not only about the shape of things, but doing things better according to people’s needs and wishes. This have been possible thanks to the feedback provided by final users and taking a democratic design approach influencing from the conception to the final product.

Photo 1: Example of product design development over time

Source: BioLite Inc. 2017(http://www.bioliteenergy.com/pages/our-story)