design with maya communities

design for development:

Participatory Design and Contextual Research

with Indigenous Maya Communities

Maria Rogal

University of Florida

GLIDE ’10 Conference

October 27, 2010

DESIGN FOR DEVELOPMENT

ABSTRACT

design for development (d4d) is an initiative where, I, along with my graphic design

students, work together with people in marginalized indigenous communities—in the

southern Mexican states of Quintana Roo and Yucatán—and other disciplinary experts to

develop solutions to problems we mutually identify and research in context. Our research

process compels us to learn about the context of our project—most importantly about our

project partners, all highly skilled Maya who historically lacked access to capital required to

bring their products to a cosmopolitan regional market. Learning about context also

necessitates learning about cultures, the economy, and the environment. We begin this

process at the partner site in México as part of a participatory and responsible design

research practice. The $ieldwork component empowers all participants to connect,

exchange, collaborate, innovate, and create which contributes to developing sustainable

solutions.

KEY WORDS

Maya, Yucatán, Graphic Design, Design for Development, Ethnography

DESIGN FOR DEVELOPMENT 3

INTRODUCTION

Among other aspects of how the development of communication technologies affects

traditional global divides, GLIDE ’10’s (www.glide10.org) website states the conference

intends to look at “how designers use technology to facilitate interactions with global

communities—particularly indigenous ones.” To contribute to this dialogue, I share key

aspects from several collaborative projects over the past six years. These projects—with

marginalized indigenous people in rural communities in central and southern México, US

and Mexican graphic design students and faculty, and disciplinary experts—provide the

framework to explore ways design processes and products can contribute to fostering

sustainable economic, social, cultural, and environmental development. Taking place as part

of the design for development initiative (d4d) I founded, projects are designed to be

continuous and dynamic learning interactions that originate with local partners and are,

therefore, relevant to local needs.

I began working in México’s Yucatán peninsula because of its historical, conceptual,

practical, and theoretical messiness: the history of subjugation and rebellion of the Maya,

the passive and assertive resistance found in Maya customs, ways of life, language, the

commodi&ication of the Maya regionally and nationally to foster tourism, and the con*lict

between the concepts of ancient and modern Maya and how all of these aspects combine,

interact, and play out in this space.

Figure 1. (Left) Using Google Maps, we identify our project sites in Quintana Roo, and (Right) detail of tourist map of region.


My interest in exploring the visual culture of the Yucatán peninsula and exploring

alternatives to stereotypical representations of Maya people—used to sell the Yucatán to

tourists—overlapped with the needs and goals of people in rural indigenous communities

who I would come to know.

Figure 2. The wrap on this tour bus depicts a man dressed as an ancient Maya warrior/ball player and, on the other side, a tourist couple embracing before the pyramid at Chichén Itzá. Both sides of the bus show tourists at play.

Two different organized groups of people—beekeepers and farmers seeking to bring their

respective products to the Maya Riviera market—proposed projects which led us to

collaborate with people in their own environment, thereby learning from different

worldviews and perspectives to expand our thinking, and stretching our capabilities to

develop what would be new and innovative.1 Involving graphic design students in these

projects seemed appropriate for two reasons: 1) projects had a built-‐in complexity

demanding a team approach; and 2) it was an opportunity for students to gain 7irst-‐hand

experience working in another cultural environment, compelling them to think and learn

about development and other global issues in strategic and tactical ways.


Figure 3. Students from the University of Florida observe beekeepers harvest honey in Santa Elena, Yucatán.

My goal in writing this paper for GLIDE ’10 is to contribute to the body of knowledge for

those working in development with indigenous people in rural contexts. Communication

technologies are directly related and dependent on interconnected social, economic,

cultural, and political factors. In order to adequately describe the aspects of our d4d

projects that speci&ically address technologies, I omit detailed descriptions of projects,

directing the reader to our project website, www.design4development.org, for further

information.

The %irst part of this paper provides background on the Maya Riviera and Yucatán peninsula

region of México so the reader has some context to frame our (d4d’s) project work. I

continue by describing select activities, approaches, considerations, and ,indings. The

initiative itself is a process and so what I write is based on thoughtful evaluation of my

experiences working up until now.

CONTEXT

The Yucatán peninsula, speci1ically the southern Mexican states of Yucatán and Quintana

Roo, is considered the northernmost settled territory of the ancient Maya civilization in

Mesoamerica. Today the majority of inhabitants of small towns on the eastern side of the


peninsula are self-‐identi&ied Maya, although not all people speak, understand, or read

Maya.2 This region was geographically, politically, economically, and, in many ways,

culturally separated from México as a nation state until the early 20th century. To build a

uni$ied national identity, the Mexican government conceptually embraced indigenous

cultures as a way to lay claim to all of México, which meant its history and native peoples

while, at the same time, it promoted the use of only one language—Spanish—and modern

western values over traditional practices. In this context the Maya were relegated to a

position as the “other.” While the imaginaries of Maya culture are embraced, Maya people as

individuals with agency are not. Plainly speaking, they are kept down by their ethnicity. For

example, Maya people, and those whose physical features resemble the Maya, are employed

primarily in the service industry and rarely, if ever, have an opportunity to rise to a

managerial level.

DAILY LIFE

In rural areas, women are responsible for taking care the home, including children, and men

are responsible for providing for the family. If men are still living in the community and

have not immigrated, most will farm and often have another small business to bring in cash

income. People live within the town boundaries while farmland lies on the periphery,

ranging anywhere from two to 20 miles from town.3 Most families have a milpa, a small plot

of land where a variety of symbiotic edible plants, including corn, black beans, jicama,

peppers, and yuca grow together with little need for tending. For centuries the milpa fed the

family and remains both culturally and economically meaningful. It is a way that families

survive despite economic dif0iculties—with a milpa you can still eat even if there is no cash

income. The milpa remains important because, despite the bustling tourism industry, the

Yucatán peninsula is one of the poorer regions of México, with the minimum wage for an

eight-‐hour day set at just under US$5.00. Of course, minimum wage does not apply to

everyone because not everyone earns an income. For example, farmers, the self-‐employed,

and informal sector workers would not necessarily earn this much money in a day. The

combination of low wages, lack of opportunity, and the perception of “fast money” have

been the major motivations for people to immigrate to the US and urban centers on the

Maya Riviera. Immigration dramatically in3luences the social fabric of the region as well as

the economy (Until the recent recession in the US, which reduced the number of jobs in the


US and tourists to the Maya Riviera, great numbers of people immigrated for opportunities,

real or imagined and their remittances have been an integral part of the Mexican economy).

Figure 4. This “Welcome to Santa Elena (Yucatán)” sign commissioned by the town’s municipal

government uses the great pyramid at Chichén Itzá, approximately 200 kms/125 miles away,

to denote its Maya heritage and the Golden Gate Bridge to indicate its binding ties to the city

where most residents immigrate—San Francisco. Both are uni-ied by Santa Elena’s catholic

church, pictured in the center.

The peninsula is a very complex space—one in which ancient and a romanticized

contemporary Maya culture are commodi1ied to attract and maintain tourism. Yet, despite

being one of the faces of tourism, it is precisely these modern Maya who 8ind they are not

able to directly bene.it—or bene'it on their own terms—from tourism.

DESIGN FOR DEVELOPMENT OBJECTIVES

A three-‐fold goal of d4d is to work directly with people in communities where we have been

invited to explore how we can use a participatory or co-‐design model to 1) use

communication technologies so people can have a role in how they, as Maya people, are


represented in the public space; 2) develop innovative and sustainable (i.e., long-‐term)

solutions to problems we mutually identify; and 3) learn to think in creative and strategic

ways and test our concepts as they apply to behaviors, actions, and things. Short-‐term

objectives are to teach all participants how to apply participatory design methods to

stimulate local economies and generate new employment. Long-‐term objectives are to teach

people to co-‐design with each other and to develop sustainable solutions. The latter is one

reason that working from the ground up within the community is so critical—we are

working on problems people in the community identify and want to work on themselves,

regardless of our participation.

Figure 5. Brainstorming at the workshop of Enrique Mendoza in Noh-Bec, Quintana Roo.

CONSIDERATIONS: COMMUNICATION & ACCESS

Because both access and ability to use contemporary communication technologies is rapidly

changing and dependent on place, I share my observations on those that are the most

relevant to our collaborations and project work at this writing. These are intended to frame

access, use, and provide a basic, understanding of these technologies in rural indigenous

communities in Yucatán and Quintana Roo.


Mobile phones: Almost every teen and adult I know, regardless of their socioeconomic

status, owns a mobile phone. The price of a new non-‐smart phone is approximately US$35

and phones are generally not locked to providers. Monthly mobile phone plans are still

relatively new and most people use pay-‐as-‐you-‐go plans that are easy to recharge in small

increments. At US$0.10/minute for a phone call, most people opt for texting that is only

US$0.10/message.

The Internet: Many families, especially if they have teenage children, own a computer, even

families one might consider living at the poverty level. Children learn to use them in school

but most adults are not as adept. It is still very rare to have Internet access at home because

the cost is prohibitive and service is most likely slow. Cyber cafés4 are ubiquitous, have fast

connections, and typically costs US$1/hour. For many, this cost prevents people from using

the Internet recreationally or from checking their email accounts on a regular basis. Many

adults (35+) view the Internet as a tool for younger people to use. Mexican graphic design

students I taught at the Universidad Autónoma de Yucatán (2006–2007) af(irmed they are

at least a generation behind the US, if not two, as a way to explain why they are more

technologically savvy than their parents. Often project partners don’t use email and will ask

me to send messages through their sons or daughters.

Online Transactions. Banking can be problematic because of5icial status (for businesses) and

credit must be established. To do this, one must navigate through an often-‐cumbersome

Mexican bureaucracy. Paperwork and of3icial forms are costly and sometimes dif3icult to

understand—no matter what level of formal education one has. Services one might expect

to simplify a process in some countries, such as online bill paying, are out of reach for most

people. Culturally, people do not trust the Internet to complete online transactions,

although the federal government is beginning to promote this type of interaction with

public kiosks.

Open Source Software. Learning, teaching, and using open-‐source software allows us to

collaborate across physical borders as well as computing platforms without a heavy


!inancial investment. We have been successful using Joomla! and WordPress for website

and blog development and Google Sketch Up for product design and 3D modeling. Our

rationale is to provide people with tools that are both economical and relatively easy to

learn so they can communicate using their own words and images instead of having others

speak for them. Once people learn software and respective practical applications, they can

transfer these skills to other projects and areas of their lives.

Financial capital: While not a communication technology per se, capital directly in6luences

development and communication. Lack of it is an obvious obstacle to begin a new venture.

Without collateral, it is dif1icult to obtain cash or credit to invest. In many countries land or

home ownership functions as collateral but in these rural areas neither possess market

value to warrant loans. This leaves people with few options: borrow money from family or

friends, immigrate for employment opportunities, or seek funding from government

programs, which is often a political exchange.

PROJECT WORK / DESIGN RESEARCH

In Design Activism, Alastair Fuad-‐Luke writes, “the inherent nature of design as

a human activity is that it is, in general, deeply socially orientated, involving

a variety of actors in the chain of events from contextualizing the

problemátique, ideation, conceptualization, detailed design, making or

construction, operation or use, and after-‐life or re-‐use. Moreover,

participation emancipates people by making them active contributors rather

than passive recipients.”5

Our strategy is to begin each project in the partner community. By the time I arrive with

students, I would have already visited the town, met with project partners, and discussed

the problems they’re looking at and want to collaborate on. In contemplating working

together—and making a commitment—we all have some time to consider the parameters of

the project and if our goals, timing, and expectations are realistic and compatible. All of

these considerations will be discussed again at the beginning of project work. If I do not

already know the project partner, I am usually engaged with someone the partner knows. I


note that I am received and perceived is based on a large part of who introduces me. If I am

with someone who has earned a partner’s trust then I can expect that trust will transfer to

me. The role of social capital—“the sum of the actual and potential resources embedded

within, available through, and derived from the network of relationships possessed by an

individual or social unit. Social capital thus comprises both the network and the assets that

may be mobilized through that network”—cannot be underestimated.6 Practitioners and

researchers are invested with social capital by virtue of their work as well as their

institutional af+iliations that facilitate linkages to broader social, intellectual, and economic

resources.

Since the late 1800s, foreign researchers and tourists, and later missionaries, have traveled

to the Yucatán—for example, the Carnegie Foundation sponsored some of the 6irst

excavations of Maya archaeological sites in the early 20th century—which points to the

complex history of foreign and domestic involvement, agendas, and investments. As a

(foreign) designer working in this context, it is integral for collaborators to understand the

role of design, our approach, attitude, and what we can, and cannot, bring to the project. Our

!irst meeting allows us to establish a basic understanding of the project, rapport, and trust,

which will grow with the project, to communicate our attitudes and understand our

approaches. Following this initial meeting, we are in communication via email, telephone, or

Skype. Rural culture values face-‐to-‐face communication that is also ef(icient and divorced

from the usual bureaucracy one encounters.7

Working with graphic design students, project partners, and others on-‐site to co-‐design, we

must &irst dismantle the traditional and stereotypical notions of culture, economy,

discipline, social status, and privilege. In order for us to be effective partners, we have to

respect each other’s worldview and perspective. For me, this means placing all participants

on equal footing so we can learn from and teach each other. As I have done throughout this

document, we refer to people we work with as “partners” and not as “clients.” We want to

leave a traditional, but still often used, client-‐designer paradigm behind because it is a

learning and growth experience for all involved. We are careful to articulate that this—what

we are all doing here—is an exchange and not charity. We do not give anybody anything—

instead, we create something together. The expectation is that all sides contribute to the


project. In fact, we don’t work for but with—also an important distinction. It is only when

we are on equal footing that we can all contribute to build a smart and healthy project.

As Fuad-‐Luke elaborates on co-design, it is “a commitment regarding inclusion and power,

as it contests dominant hierarchically orientated top-‐down power structures [and] requires

mutual learning between the stakeholders/actors.”8 Co-‐design is an open process that

encourages participation. This is true even in the design discipline whereby student

designers are empowered to actively participate and contribute rather than rely on a more

experienced designer or teacher to lead the way. An example of this is the Ak Kuxtal Sian

Ka’an9 project where eight graphic design student-‐participants were charged with

conceptualizing, designing, and leading a workshop to share design resources, processes,

and open-‐source software applications with master woodworkers. Students, working as a

team, conceptualized the workshop in Florida, talking to woodworkers and 7inding

resources online that they found of interest, hoping the woodworkers would feel the same.

Even though Enrique Mendoza, one of the woodworkers, owned an Internet café, the

practice of identifying resources and learning about the competitive landscape in that space

was not yet a part of his creative practice. Although their work was exquisite technically,

their tendency was to copy what they saw in a store, magazine, or book, or make a product

based on a customer’s speci1ications. We conceived of a workshop to support the Ak Kuxtal

project mission and empower the woodworkers to create high quality, natural products of

their own design to sell in luxury boutiques and hotels on the Maya Riviera. The purpose

was to elevate the work through thoughtful, informed design. To do this, we had to explore

what design is and can be, as an activity and a product. Further supporting the notion that

access to information is one of the key obstacles to development, was their interest in

learning what others were making in the US, Europe, and Asia.

As part of sharing our design process, we created resource cards with key design concepts

and examples. Of all the materials we presented, it seems the artisans were the least

interested in these— they were static instead of dynamic and seemed daunting in the

amount of textual information they contained.


Figure 6. Design resource cards.

Figure 7. Listening and learning about the process and products from Enrique Mendoza in Noh-Bec.


Figure 8. Presentation of online resources during our creativity workshop in Noh-Bec.

Other ways we fostered dialogue were with a demonstration of Google’s Sketch-Up where

Abby Chryst shared how they could mock up three-‐dimensional product designs and alter

them with ease. Later that night she drew up one product using Sketch-‐Up so they could

work on it the next day. Morgan Slavens developed a presentation to take people through a

general design process based on a recent packaging project she completed. As she explained

her process—showing her research from the library and Internet, myriad sketches, and

several iterations and explained what was happening in each before she arrived at the /inal

product—we noted how their interest was piqued. Articulating the iterative process, as a

visual and verbal narrative, allowed the woodworkers to connect with the process and the

work. The process revealed the importance of research and iteration to arrive at a /inal

solution. In summary, we found we had the most animated responses from what was

dynamic rather than static, including very positive responses from design process activities.

For the design students, who had grown up with the Internet and regularly browsed the

web for resources, connecting with our woodworker-‐partners was enlightening and

motivated the students to continue developing their ideas for sharing the design process.

One result of this activity was to develop an online community where the woodworkers

could post work in progress, obtain feedback (from the students and others close to their

target market).


INTERACTIONS: THE USER

The Yucatán peninsula is cosmopolitan space—with a consistent in,lux of international

tourists, workers, students, researchers, and Mayan/Mexican culture a)icionados. Because

there is such a visibly constant mix of people, it is easy to take for granted that people

understand each other’s cultures, motivations, and lives.

Figure 9. Vendors work in the informal economy at the Chichén Itzá archaeological site.

During our discussions with the woodworkers, it became clear that, although they made

products to sell to tourists, they did not know what motivated people to purchase

something or the context in which it might be used. For example, who would buy a toy made

from wood? Who would they buy it for? Why? Where would it be used? Exploring various

different user scenarios and reviewing other people’s work shifted us from making work in

a vacuum to start thinking about use and developing criteria. In our hands-‐on design

workshop the second day, we discussed user scenarios.


Figure 10. University of Florida graphic design students Laila Simonovsky and Mike McVicar work on idea generation with Enrique and Mirsta Mendoza using discussion and sketching methods. Ariella Mostkoff records the process.

Creating user scenarios as short /ilms would have served us better than me playing the role

of a tourist because it would show someone in their multiple environments. Seeing how and

where a product will be used builds a more tangible understanding in the mind of the

artisan. This has proven true with other projects. For example, I have led beekeepers

through a virtual tour of an upscale supermarket in the US so they could get a sense of

where their product could be placed and how it would be viewed by the consumer.

Demonstrations such as these serve to make the product real and subsequently motivate

participants when they can tangibly see a positive future. In addition, creative processes

such as brainstorming and sketching are transferable skills and appropriated in ways that

work within community contexts. Articulating and critically considering macro and micro

project issues allowed us to collectively establish a dialogue, buy-‐in, and further focus on

the artisans’ strategies. The workshop, demonstrations, and materials I described were

speci&ic to the project with woodworkers and artisans, but the value of sharing visual and

verbal information extends beyond this project to inform others.


Figure 11. Carpenter Gabriel Aguilar sketches during the brainstorming workshop.

Consistent throughout my work in México is our integration of ethnography into our d4d

research practice. It can serve to inform designers about people and the environment, and

function as a way to generate content. Thinking ethnographically, we are asked to observe,

interact, and document without making premature judgments. This is particularly valuable

in this complex environment because it positions us to learn and research and in order to

understand the needs, goals, desires, and abilities of the project partners and the project

context in order to make informed assessments. Photographs, sketches, video and audio

recordings, notes all served as a way to document thoughts, interactions, observations, and

questions. Our documentation is both for the present and the future. We use these materials

to learn, remember, see patterns, analyze, and understand the people, project, and

environment—including ourselves. The outcomes of our projects are directly informed by

the value of the interactions we have with our project partners and each other.

Ultimately, it is this process of 2ieldwork and collaboration that is necessary to develop

long-‐term, responsible, and appropriate solutions that empower all participants as we

engage design for every one’s development. The value of our work is greater than the

products we produce—it is the collaboration, exchange, and learning that is embedded in

each experience and the possibilities that emerge. There is no substitute for direct


involvement and “being there”—it is in these personal interactions that we built deeper,

more meaningful relationships and reveal our potential and the potential of design.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Fuad-‐Luke, Alastair. Design Activism: Beautiful Strangeness for a Sustainable World. 2009.

London: Earthscan.

Nahapiet, Janine and Sumantra Ghoshal. “Social Capital, Intellectual Capital, and the

Organizational Advantage. Academy of Management: The Academy of Management Review

23,2 (April 1998): 242–266.

PHOTO CREDITS

All photographs were taken between 2005 and 2010 during design for development project

work and used by blanket permission of project participants. A list of participants is online

at www.design4development.org (see contacts > designers).

1 Beginning in 2006 I began working with Cooperativa Lol-‐Bal Ché, a honey cooperative in Santa Elena, Yucatán.

2 There are many Maya languages. Yucatec Maya, spoken throughout the peninsula, is the most widely spoken Maya language. Maya living in southern Quintana Roo speak a slightly different dialect but originated from Yucatec Maya.

3 An ejido is communal land and requires a commitment to the community, including attending meetings and participating in community decisions. It is usually parceled out to individuals and so these function as small plots of land used for subsistence farming, raising animals, and beekeeping.

4 A cyber café is a store with anywhere from two to 20 computers with Internet access available for rent. A cyber will typically offer printing, sell 6lash drives, CDs, and DVDs. They sometimes offer private booths for long-‐distance phone calls.

5 Fuad-‐Luke, 146-‐147. 6 Nahapiet and Ghoshal, 243. Other de6initions of social capital are online at

http://www.socialcapitalresearch.com.


7 Author’s YouTube page: Link to a short video on Maya pronunciation. 8 Fuad-‐Luke, 147. 9 Ak Kuxtal Sian Ka’an, (Ak Kuxtal —Maya—that which gives us life; pronounced kush-‐

tol), is a network of artisans established to counter the systemically low value, low wages, and low expectations of and by artisans and simultaneously promote environmental stewardship by fostering an economically, culturally, socially, and environmentally sustainable craft industry. Speci3ically, Ak Kuxtal, as a socially and environmentally committed business, would promote this new, equitable concept. As a grassroots organization, Ak Kuxtal was established in 2008 as a collaborative initiative between two local conservation NGOs—Amigos de Sian Ka'an (Amigos) and U'yo'olche—and a small group of diverse, skilled, and experienced artisans living in close proximity to the Sian Ka’an Biosphere Reserve. Since people in Amigos and U'yo'olche worked closely with local artisans prior to the inception of the Ak Kuxtal project, the needs that emerged from these cumulative interactions inspired this project.

design with maya communities

Documents

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participatory design

ethnography design

development d4d

ways design processes

environmental development

maya customs

skilled maya