Frugal Design for Marginal Contexts: Formulating a Systematic Approach and a Design Toolkit

Abstract

This thesis examines the subject of ‘Frugal Design for Marginal Contexts’ to forward the scope of product design in marginalised socio-economic scenarios and equip designers with necessary tools. ‘Frugal design’ is defined as a low-resource intensive design process for developing affordable, optimised, performant and holistic products, and ‘Marginal Contexts’ (MC) are defined as social scenarios with poor socio-economic conditions where people lack freedom and capabilities.