Nine Principles for Design for the Developing World as Derived From the Engineering Literature

This paper reviews the findings of several engineering researchers and practitioners on the topic of design for the developing world. We arrange these findings into nine guiding principles aimed at helping those who are searching for effective approaches for design for the developing world. The findings reviewed come from the mechanical engineering discipline, as well as from other engineering and nonengineering disciplines. For each principle, we provide references to various studies as a means of supporting the principle. We also provide a detailed example of each principle. Based on our own experience and based on the many papers reviewed, we provide a succinct list of suggestions for using each principle. Finally, we relate these nine principles to traditional design principles. Ultimately, we believe that the principles introduced here help overcome the challenges of design for the developing world, which are often dominated by designer unfamiliarity with poverty and foreign culture and the constraint of extreme affordability.