Richie Moalosi

Integration of Culture in Product Design: the Case of Botswana Richie Moalosi

This book explores the relationship between cultureand design, a topic on which there is littleprevious research. Evidence from the literatureshows that users around the world are no longersettling for standardised products and they wantdifferentiated products and services. The pinnacleof good product design innovation is when it isgrounded on the sensitive cultural analysis ofusers culture. A culture-orientated design model hasbeen proposed to assist designers and designeducators to consciously integrate culture in theirdesign practice. The framework demonstrates how tospecify, analyse and integrate socio-culturalfactors in the early stages of the design process byadvancing local thought, content and solutions. Itadvances a new approach to design education, theory,research and practice. It emerged that culture canbe used as a resource of information and a source ofinspiration for product innovation that connectswith users traditions. The findings show thatculture-orientated products have meaningful contentthat reflects users lifestyles, provides them withsymbolic personal, social and cultural values tofacilitate product acceptance.