Factors affecting product design process in traditional societies: a thematic content analysis of novice designers' self-reports

New product design and dissemination in traditional societies have been reported to face resistance. The cause of resistance has not been well reported in literature. Also, in general, the product design processes for traditional societies have not been sufficiently reported in literature. This paper reports findings from qualitative research with ten novice designers who had followed a product design process for a selected traditional society in India. Also, this paper reports the details of the process of design followed. Novice designers had initially immersed in the traditional environment of rural animal husbandry practices by women for about 40 hours where they participated, observed and interviewed the women. Based on the research data, the needs were identified and later studio exercises were done to develop designs for the identified needs. At the end of the product design activity, the designers were interviewed one-on-one, using a semi-structured qualitative interview protocol.