2025 Volume 9 Issue 1 Pages 1_39-1_48
Grassroots innovation represents the community’s endeavor to address disasters by utilizing their assets, creativity, and resourcefulness despite limitations. This highly contextual and effective disaster management method serves as inspiration, providing a foundational premise for design development. However, a comprehensive framework that integrates grassroots innovation as a fundamental component of the design development process has yet to be established. The Grassroots-Inspired Design Narrative is a preliminary framework that illustrates five designerly approaches centered on grassroots innovation that we investigate within workshop settings. Our research indicates that incorporating a grassroots innovation mindset within the design process can cultivate designers' empathy, enhance their proximity to real-world scenarios, and facilitate the development of more thoughtful designs tailored to the diverse needs and challenges prevalent in disaster-prone contexts. Ultimately, our findings will substantially contribute by offering valuable insights to designers seeking to develop community-generated and contextually relevant solutions.
