Designing local solutions
in multicultural environments

Design in Multicultural Environments

Design in multicultural environments is about engaging in an increasingly globalised world with a special focus on designing products, services and systems together with users in multicultural environments in countries like India, Nepal, Colombia and Brazil.

To be able to do this one must develop competences in intercultural communication and to be able to articulate goals and synthesize ideas aimed at an international context.

The aim is to identify and develop solutions with people, rather than just implementing Western solutions and perspective and expect these to work in another country and culture. In order to design local solutions with people, you need to understand intercultural communication, have knowledge of relevant historical developments and identity of the country at hand.

You learn to work, design and navigate in a multicultural context with many actors, such as people from local communities, NGOs, local companies, local and regional government etc. and to evaluate the vulnerability of projects and handle complex execution processes.