Stirring appetites in design : a user centered product design approach to improve environmental health in remote Indigenous communities in Australia

A case study uncovering the impact of use patterns of electric domestic indoor cook stoves leading to a user centered product design approach towards improving nutrition in Australian Indigenous Communities. This paper describes the research methods used to identify and uncover patterns of electric domestic indoor cook stove use and the resulting stove life expectancy in remote Indigenous communities. It highlights in detail user interactions with the appliances and identifies use, user and design assumptions being made when designing, specifying, ordering and installing mainstream appliances into non-mainstream environments. The level of infrastructure quality and maintenance & repair support play an important role in influencing the performance delivery and lifespan of the product, in at times unexpected ways. The relationship and interplay between use, environment and product performance is presented as a vital, important consideration in the design process. The discrepancy of expected versus actual product performance can in these cases have a direct impact on the users lifestyle and health that might not be apparent in a more conventional urban domestic setting. Currently this results in a 17 year gap in life expectancy between the average Australian and the Indigenous population (Dart 2008). This highlights the important role design can play in the delivery of improved environmental health outcomes, in this case improving nutrition. The more remote the location, the more mission critical the design becomes in supporting a healthy lifestyle.