The Role of Design Engineering in Shaping a More Inclusive Humanitarian Response
“Bob the Builder Can we fix it? Bob the Builder Yes, we can! Scoop, Muck and Dizzy, and Rolly too Lofty and Wendy join the crew Bob and the gang have so much fun Working together, they get the job done”
This theme song is from the 1998 British animated children's television series
revolving around the adventures of a mason named Bob, along with his friends and equipment, coupled with a group of anthropomorphised work-vehicles, Scoop, Muck, Dizzy, Roley and Lofty. In my opinion, it very well summarises the pervasive reality of humanitarian engineering globally: a) it is dominated by white, middle-aged men; and b) it aims to ‘fix’ things- the focus is on the task at hand without adequate consideration to the long-term consequences for the people, places, and the planet it is being designed for or within.
The number of forcibly displaced people worldwide is inching closer to the 100 million mark every day, propelled by eerie waves of violence, now taking the shape of torrents. These torrents are mushrooming in various corners of the world, firmly establishing their hotspots in places such as Ethiopia, Nigeria, Congo, Burkina Faso, Myanmar, Afghanistan, and Ukraine, among others.
Creating a disaster response strategy for the victims of such catastrophe requires a truly human centric approach that seeks to empower and enable the local community, along with supplying local organisations and local governments with resources they need to respond adequately. It requires asking questions such as: how can we make crisis-affected people the owners of the solution, rather than mere users of a gift in donation? How can we better understand their lived experiences, so we design products and services that are by and for them?
We need to rethink, re-engineer and shift the paradigm of what we consider to be the best practices of humanitarian aid, from short-term delivery of emergency assistance to long-term resilient structural solutions. I believe that best practices are based on stories. What are the stories we are telling every time a hijabi[1] woman struggles to wear protective headgear; a Sikh woman with a turban scuffles to adjust a VR headset around her head while undergoing emergency response training; or a Black woman is unable to use hand sanitizer from an automatic machine designed to curtail the spread of a disease during an outbreak in a war-torn region because it refuses to recognize the color of her skin?
A simple google search of ‘engineers clipart’ is enough to give one a reality check. Pictures of women in flashy smiles with a thumbs up come up alongside pictures of men reading plans on A3-sized papers, giving instructions, and holding equipment. All stories and signs point out that it is a white man’s world and the rest of us are just living in it. These stories and images are often the result of an implicit or unconscious bias, which in turn is a by-product of our life experiences, education, upbringing, personal beliefs, and values.
Engineering is defined as a profession that involves inventing, designing, analysing, building, and testing machines, complex systems, structures. Engineering advocacy consists of a series of macro and micro steps. At the macro level, it comprises of mapping out the root causes of a local or global problem (root) and its consequences (leaves, flowers, and fruit)-both positive and negative; intended and unintended- along with the pathways to those consequences (branches). At the micro level, it urges an individual to zoom in to identify their role in the contributing to the problem (root), their motivations to create positive change, and lastly, the pathway they choose to create change. The latter is in alignment with an individual’s personal experiences and skill set.
Within this wide ocean of engineering, I think that my passions and skills lie in the area of design. Let me start off by telling you why. As a kid, do you remember being in awe of a barista as she gently swirled in layers of milk into the expresso at the base of a cup, creating the most eye pleasing cappuccino latte art? I’m sure I did! And I thought to myself about how brilliant is it that she was so skilfully tuned to creating the best designs, be it as simple as a wheat spike or as intricate as the Eiffel tower, simply by knowing that making magic happen at the point where together the base and the layers meet. And if this doesn’t make you believe in the power of design engineering, I don’t know what will!
Design engineering comprises of various steps assessing the usability, reliability, functionality, and overall experience of a user. It also considers the environmental impact and safety of a design throughout its life cycle. I feel that design engineers are storytellers- every product and/or service they create sends ripples of messages across the city, the country, and the world- messages that criss-cross to weave a story. Don’t you think it is high time we created new stories: where Bob and Bhagyashree [2] learn to retrofit things[3] instead of building new ones; Cinderella builds her own electric carriage to reach home on time; Goldilocks invents an adjustable bed that can accommodate all the three bears, and Gretel helps design a Geographic Information System map to get herself and her brother, Hansel, out of the evil witch’s den.
Well, what is stopping us from building these new stories then? Education in design engineering in the 21st century offers state-of-the-art facilities equipped with advanced 3D printing and other specialist equipment in engine test laboratories. But what it fails to provide its students is the ability to design for people- the ability to see, hear, feel- and most of all- shape inclusivity in products, places, and services. Globally responsible engineering must equip students to truly map user journeys of belonging- what roles, rituals, food, gear, and communication make users of a product, place or service feel included? What needs to change about it? How can it be fostered into the product, place, or service they are designing to foster a culture of care and community?
After reflecting on the problem tree above, as a design engineer and advocate, I hope to create awareness on the presence of micro-inequities in an engineering workplace and beyond. Micro-inequities can manifest in various ways from speaking over someone, not acknowledging their ideas, and not maintaining eye contact, among others.
In order to foster safety and inclusion in the workplace, I will advocate the use of micro-affirmations instead of micro-inequities. It is crucial that as leaders in user experience design, we speak up when a peer or colleague is being sidelined, appreciate unique contributions, insightful comments, and ideas even if they did not end up being framed as the final solution but in some way or the other led to it. I also think that it is equally important that we use positive body language by maintaining eye contact with the person they are consulting with, nodding, or smiling when in agreement.
One of the best ways to remove the presence of unconscious bias is to allow crisis affected communities to become part of the process of design engineering. This not only strengthens local capacity but involving them early on in the process also increases the chances of vulnerability and inequity reduction in a way that paves the way for the accomplishment of long-term community recovery and development goals.
Humanitarian aid and assistance is at a critical standpoint today. We need to design a system that embraces complexity and diversity of thought as an opportunity for growth rather than a challenge that creates confusion. As a humanitarian engineering student, I truly believe in the ability of design engineers to solve the challenges of the 21st century, by challenging the presence of micro-inequities and bringing to the forefront products and services that allows people and planet to thrive, thereby promising abundance and prosperity for all. I would like to use the skills that my postgraduate degree has equipped me with, specifically in engineering and technology, to better design user-centric and circular products and services.
