Products do not exist in a vacuum. Instead, they inhabit a larger technological environment comprised of all the other products, technologies, and tools in their surroundings. Also inhabiting this technological environment are the human beings who own, use, or otherwise interact with these various devices.

Hardware store in Quetzaltenango, Guatemala

Understanding this environment, the array of technologies present and the interactions people have with them, can not only provide great insight as to potential product opportunities, but also increase the likelihood that whatever product you design is readily incorporated into it.

This is the basic premise of our Technological Environment workshop (file download: 128 KB).

Virtually anything created by people can be considered a technology: language, tools, homes, transportation, etc. Learning to identify technologies and their uses, to notice when something stands out, and to realize when something is missing is a valuable skill that all field researchers and designers should cultivate. As one begins to notice technology they start to understand the technological world in which people exist: What are they accustomed to doing with tools? With what technological sophistication are they accustomed to interacting? What might easily integrate into their daily lives without requiring dramatic behavioral change or difficult education?

Hardware store in Ruli, Rwanda

The next step, beyond identifying technologies, is being able to identify what devices are made of and how they were fabricated. This is particularly applicable to artifacts produced regionally, as the observation can provide insight as to local manufacturing capacities and maintenance and repair capabilities. Additionally, recognizing what materials are present in a community’s technological environment allows designers to develop products that can either blend in or stand out, as the situation warrants.

Taken together, these observations can give designers a grasp of how foreign a technology, material, or assembly might be. They can provide a point of reference regarding how much consumers are able, or willing, to spend on a product. And they can steer the design team towards a solution that is more likely to be adopted and effective – the end goal of any product design effort.