Sumak kawsay: Social Empowerment through Participatory User-Centred Design in Ecuador

Abstract

The aim of this article is to direct the social design debate to constructivist approaches to design education in the Global South. This article provides insight into the process of participatory user-centred design involving Ecuadorian third year graphic design students and cocoa cultivators of limited resources in Ecuador. The students and cacaoteros become codesigners of a brand identity for the farmers’ association by means of an extensive review of literature on cocoa cultivation and commercialisation in Latin America, in-depth interviews with community members on the traditional farming practices of cocoa growing communities in Northern Ecuador and the data collected from the students’ participation in and observation of the lifestyle within the community. This article illustrates the ‘wicked’ problems faced by these design students and the relevance of their experience to the study of social design practices and design education in developing countries.