Good design is inherently local. And it needs work.

Since our inception in 2008, Catapult Design has been committed to improving lives in underserved communities through innovative design. We’ve emphasized a localized approach to ensure that solutions are sustainable, culturally relevant, and transformative for the communities they affect.?

We employ a human-centered design process to accomplish this, encompassing the mindsets, skill sets, and processes to successfully invite the people using the product or service to the center. These participants are the experts in their own lives and are the ones who can and do make for good design.?

We are committed to sharing our work and bringing out important conversations. You can read news and updates from our entire team on our website at catapultdesign.org/news.

Up until about four years ago, the participants in Catapult Design's projects typically weren't based in the same locations as the designers. Even when they were, they often didn't have lived experience of the challenges being addressed. We knew that if we wanted to work more strategically, we would need more designers and innovators in the countries where we work, as well as a better understanding of the critical markers that make for good design there. Finally, we would need processes to ensure that the participants in the design process and the designers in the countries all had the same definition of good design.?

Below is an outline of what we are trying, what we have learned, and how we intend to continue:

1. Working with Our Local Design Network

In 2023, USAID shared the importance of working with local partners and a call for international agencies and social impact firms like ours to prioritize this strategy. Our network of local partners is at the heart of Catapult Design’s approach. Local designers and innovators possess invaluable knowledge and insights about their communities, and they can meet many of the challenges in healthcare, climate adaptation, education, and entrepreneurship, to name a few. Our local partners are not just stakeholders nor implementing partners; they are co-creators who play a critical role in every stage of the design process.?

This collaborative approach fosters trust, encourages community buy-in, and enhances the sustainability of our solutions. We don’t have a Catapult Design Kenya, Senegal, Ethiopia, or Navajo Nation. Instead, we work with partners with already well-established firms or even support design startups! This approach has led to a rich web of unique cultures coming together around a challenge.?

After spending the past four years working this way, we will undoubtedly continue. Some ideas we are looking to change are around how we scope projects. At this point, funders or clients come to us with an idea, and then we scope it with the relevant partners. In the future, I would like to have at least 50% of our work originate locally and be scoped with the design partners to ensure that we are helping to solve the correct problems that will have the most local impact.?

2. Time

A funder told me recently that we don’t move fast enough. I was thinking almost simultaneously that another partner didn’t move fast enough either. How much time something takes in the design world is hard to get right. I’ve gotten it wrong before, and almost everyone around us has too. The pace of work is different due to various capacities and expectations. When I was leading a team in Monrovia, Liberia, my boss at HQ in New York was getting frustrated with the pace of progress. He had no idea what we were facing then and was ultimately out of touch. What I know to be true are two things that are hard to remember, but they are so key. The first is that we should move at the pace of the design partners and participants. Local pace has to lead. Pushing communities into areas that could hamper good work isn't fair. Not that I want to burn a budget and lose money on a project, but we have a responsibility to be sensitive and flexible while ensuring that everyone has the capacity to do great work.?

The second is that cascading communication is also essential. In the Monrovia example, we designed ways for HQ to understand what was happening (which might’ve slowed things down) just to give a real sense of the issues faced. There is something about bringing everyone along for the ride (especially the bumpy parts) that is crucial. Catapult Design has been thinking this through quite a bit, and in the next six months, we will be releasing a NEW PRODUCT to help with communication during projects.?

I always look back at our recent Indigenizing Design work for inspiration on ways to improve in this arena. Our Navajo partners told us how, and we are listening.?

3. Employing a Design and Cultural Indicators Method

To ensure that our designs are deeply rooted in local culture, we employ a method we call Design and Cultural Indicators (DCI). This approach integrates cultural insights into the design process, ensuring our solutions are functional and culturally resonant.

DCI involves identifying key cultural markers and values the community prioritizes and then incorporating these elements into a design, ensuring that the solutions reflect the community’s identity and heritage. This method helps us avoid cultural missteps and ensures the community embraces our designs. By respecting and honoring local culture, we create solutions more likely to be adopted and sustained over time.

This has been quite successful as a methodology, but scaling it has been challenging. The Indigenizing Design method, which led to DCI, is meant for a group we worked with. While there are some universal aspects to it, sewing in DCI to large projects in many countries has been cost-prohibitive thus far. However, we are working on a DCI-lite version for our upcoming projects, so please stay tuned.?

4. Design Data Collection?

Transparency and rigor are essential components of our approach to design and innovation. We collect deep data and analyze it throughout the project lifecycle to achieve this. This rigorous approach ensures that our designs are based on accurate and comprehensive information, leading to more effective and impactful solutions.

Designers collect a lot of data locally. Another development for Catapult Design has been in data collection, accessibility, and transparency. Thanks to a few partners who saw the benefit here, we are now collecting design data in a structured way. This Open Knowledge Framework database (run by the fantastic people at Oolio Labs) is helping us collect data in areas where little or no data has been collected or shared prior.?

The Open Knowledge Framework (OKF) is a configurable system enabling dynamic programs to connect and share knowledge and data. With the severity of design gaps (outlined by colleague Trevor Zimmer in his recent blog post) and the great possibilities for AI, we want to ensure that underserved communities are well represented in the datasets that AI pulls from. Currently, there are many data deserts, and we can help here. Immersion 1A from our women’s health gender equality labs has included 7 focus groups and 28 individual interviews. These teams transcribed, translated, cleaned, tagged and reviewed transcripts representing women in 5 pathway vulnerability segments in three languages. We’re looking forward to further learning and data in two additional countries. The pathway vulnerability segments refer to distinct areas where women face heightened risks or challenges, particularly related to health and social outcomes. These segments typically include economic insecurity, limited access to healthcare, educational barriers, exposure to violence, and social or cultural marginalization, all of which contribute to unequal treatment and outcomes in women's health and well-being.

Catapult Design has been prototyping and experimenting with accessible design data. Now, we need to ensure that the subsequent design research continues to incorporate sustainability, timeliness, and the data's continued usefulness.?

Localization is a fundamental philosophy that guides our work in creating social impact. As we continue to design for social change, we are dedicated to leading local, partnering with communities to transform ideas into impactful solutions that improve lives and foster sustainable development.

Does this topic spark an idea or highlight a challenge you’re facing? I invite you to reach out to collaborate or share what you’re doing and learning within your community. Perspectives and experiences are invaluable in co-creating solutions that drive meaningful and lasting social impact.?Send me a personal message, or reach out at catapultdesign.org.