Designing for Different Tech Realities

Peter Rukavina

Designing for Different Tech Realities:

While cultural and socio-economic backgrounds sculpt different technological needs across the globe, de la O argues that many tech developers today live in a bubble where only one specific reality — one that consists of being western and wealthy — is taken into account at the ideation stage. Considering different contexts is problematically overlooked in design and development.

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Submitted by Jarek on

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I think this article has a weakness in not addressing the business angle.

Maybe I'm taking the term "developers" more narrowly than what the authors of the article intended, but in my experience, it's mostly not the developers who are the cause of not considering needs of non-Western audiences. It's business considerations.

For example, Peter is a developer for Almanac.com. That site is only available in English and only has information for locations in Canada and the United States. This means it can be used by people in Arizona or in New Hampshire, but not people in Sonora or in Quebec. Is this because Peter doesn't take non-English audiences in mind while developing? Or is it because the company publishing the website has made the United States their business focus, and they don't want to spend money supporting non-English languages and non-US locations because they don't think they can make a profit doing so?

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Photo of Peter RukavinaI am . I am a writer, letterpress printer, and a curious person.

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