Design for the BOP and the TOP: Requirements handling behaviour of designers

Abstract

The base (BOP) and the top (TOP) of the world income pyramid represent the people living in poverty and the people from developed countries, respectively. In the approach of business development combined with poverty alleviation, the design of products for the BOP plays an important role. There is an urgent need to develop an understanding of the process of designing products for the BOP. Requirements handling is an important ingredient of a design process. This research, using a protocol study, examined the differences between the requirements handling behaviour of designers when they design a product for the BOP and TOP markets. We found differences between their requirements handling behaviour in terms of their attention to different topics of requirements, and their handling of solution-specific and solution-neutral requirements.