A framework for technology design for emerging markets

The process of the creation and dissemination of a research-led framework for designing for emerging markets, at Google and externally is reviewed. A small group of researchers wanted to enable teams to increase their awareness of global communities and think deeply about designing technologies for them. They first tied together disparate themes into a holistic framework that took into account the complexities of emerging markets, from mobile Internet connectivity to locally. Their next step was to create actionable guidelines, examples, and guiding motivations. The research team partnered with the design community of practice to create design specifications and metaphors for the various principles. Each technology dimension was provided with design counterparts. They commoditized their framework into posters, tech talks, and digestible principles that were shared widely across the company. The team encourages the HCI community to synthesize digestible insights, translate these into the languages of the various communities of practice, and enable various disciplines around us to build empathy and become human-centered advocates themselves.