Product designing in remote communities that are developing regions varies due to circumstances such as, but not limited to, housing, sanitation, local policy, and mobile technology intervention. In the content of developing countries, or where there is a significant distance between the user and the product designer, it is difficult to reflect or iterate with the intellectual and visual absence of local context. As a result, it is very complex and challenging to define a consistent product design process in such developing regions. Examples of such regions may include, but is not limited to, South Asia, the Philippines, Latin America, and Africa.
Increased distance between the product designer and the user/client results in minimal useful, if any, feedback to the designer. The typical chain of product delivery includes manufacturer to supplier, supplier to distributor, distributor to vendor, and finally, vendor to customer. Since product designers wish to maintain desire for their products, which often requires measuring product feedback, product designers often look for different means of collecting and processing product information to be embedded iteratively in the product design solution.
Computation has been used as a medium to aid the iterative process of design such that information about the design can be saved, manipulated, reproduced, and “redesigned” expeditiously. Unfortunately, product design in such remote communities where customers are a significant distance away, does not provide sufficient knowledge of the context, client, and environment.
Quite often a customer has the desire to view specific information regarding a product that they have purchased. An example of such information may be the warranty on the product. Obtaining the product warranty from a designer in a remote location, or from any other party along the chain of product delivery, can be a difficult task. A more user-friendly process is needed for obtaining such product information.
Data entered via mobile phones are susceptible to being intercepted. Most forms of data collected through product tracking include personal information that can be traced back to an individual and make the transmission vulnerable. For example, if a certain drug company wishes to register all their patients/users that use a certain drug through mobile phones, the drug used may have certain health implications that may put the identity of the user at risk.
As more and more data are entered via mobile phone, it is important that security measures are put in place to not only protect the privacy of the individual entering the data, but protects the entity compiling, hosting, and extracting the data.
Data in emerging markets is a scarce commodity to make decisions and to design sustainable solutions. Over the years, most data/information is accessed through mobile devices in emerging markets requiring advance processes for managing and securing such data. Traditional methods of data collection do not apply and therefore require interventions from mobile device to remote servers, where most calculations are done. Thus, a heretofore unaddressed need exists in the industry to address the aforementioned deficiencies and inadequacies.