Small-scale fishing on the Colombian Pacific coast, understood as an economic, cultural, and subsistence activity for many of the communities living in coastal areas, is conditioned by fluctuating environmental factors (among others: pollution and variations in the availability and distribution of marine-coastal resource populations) and socioeconomic factors (poor use practices, limitations in the sector’s value and supply chain, and the high economic and occupational dependence of the communities that practice it), which in turn characterize its physical vulnerability.

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The current fishing capacity and autonomy of the communities on the Nariño Pacific coast suggest limitations in the choice and use of marine-coastal areas for small-scale exploitation, which have in turn affected the safety and availability of the resource in and around the strategic ecosystems associated with the coastline. Furthermore, this situation reveals an urgent need for resource sustainability from an environmental, social, and economic responsibility perspective, through the implementation of strategies that strengthen local installed capacity and the organizational management models of fishing communities, also generating better livelihood opportunities for fishing households and an appropriate contribution to food and nutritional security and sovereignty in the region.

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In this context, small-scale fishing communities have shown the need to move to other marine environments, farther from the coast, in order to achieve the sustainable use of this resource. This situation suggests the need to adapt the Economic Fishing Units in line with technological and safety requirements. Based on this need, we propose this research–creation project, which aims to design—using co-creation tools and techniques—the design concept and basic scheme, including requirements and determinants, for an offshore small-scale fishing vessel as part of a sustainable adaptation strategy to changing climatic dynamics, taking into account the needs of the small-scale fishing community of the Nariño Pacific.

More information will be published soon.

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Design Futures for the territory

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Research funded by the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation of Colombia and carried out with the Science and Technology Corporation for the Development of the Naval, Maritime and River Industry (COTECMAR) from 2024 to 2026.

Principal researcher: Ricardo Mejía.

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The Colombian Pacific is a territory of enormous value associated with its biological diversity—this region contains 10% of the planet’s biodiversity, is located among the 25 regions of the world classified as priorities for nature conservation, and is part of one of the three regions with the highest presence of bird species in Colombia—and its ethnic and cultural richness—notable for its particular political organization, specifically the community councils, and its ethnic makeup, including an invaluable Afro-descendant, Indigenous, and Rom population. Despite this great wealth, this bio-region suffers, among other things, from environmental problems, related to illegal activities that devastate the environment and affect the inhabitants’ quality of life, and precarious health conditions, associated with a widespread feeling of abandonment due to the intensity of poverty and its peripheral situation in a country that has historically been centralist.

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In light of these problems, it becomes important to look to the future in order to seek opportunities and thus chart pathways that outline the sustainable territorial development of this region. For this, in this project we will rely on futures design, a form of design that creates and uses experimental artifacts to explore visions of alternative futures within a creative process that catalyzes change, unlocking people’s imagination and triggering discussions about the future and the present. To facilitate these explorations, within the framework of my doctoral project at Delft University of Technology, I designed DIVE 1.0 (design, innovation, vision, and exploration), a futures design technique that makes it possible to increase innovation in small and medium-sized enterprises; later, within the framework of my technology-based venture, rrebrand Latinoamérica SAS, I developed DIVE 2.0, which reflects on the impact—social, environmental, and economic—of a broader range of organizations, including large companies, NGOs, and governments.

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With the aim of exploring the future of the Colombian Pacific, I joined forces with the R&D&I Department (Research, Development and Innovation) of COTECMAR (Science and Technology Corporation for the Development of the Naval, Maritime and River Industry) and, thanks to the support of the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation, I will be able to (i) evolve DIVE (3.0) from the perspective of sustainable territorial development and (ii) increase COTECMAR’s R&D&I capabilities.

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To implement this project, I will use a research through design approach; an approach that helps researchers tackle design challenges, which aim to solve practical problems, and research questions, which seek to discover new knowledge that contributes to the state of the art—in other words, to discover new knowledge by doing. Research through design encourages me, together with COTECMAR, to iteratively build and test DIVE prototypes in order to explore the region’s opportunities while generating knowledge about sustainable territorial development.

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More information will be published soon.

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Vision Concepts for Small- and Medium-Sized Enterprises: Developing a Design-Led Futures Technique to Boost Innovation

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Research funded by the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation of Colombia and carried out with Delft University of Technology from 2014 to 2018.

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• Full document and propositions: VC4SMEs Compiled

• Full document and propositions (web version): VC4SMEs_Compiled_Web

• Propositions

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Concept cars have long been successfully applied in the automotive industry as a design-led way to envisioning the future. While automotive corporations use this futures technique as a driver for innovation, small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in other industries have not had the benefit of such explorations, largely because concept cars are too resource-intensive and poorly suited to the SMEs’ needs and idiosyncrasies.

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To democratize this design practice and help SMEs, which are essential to social and economic prosperity, we have developed DIVE: Design, Innovation, Vision, and Exploration. It is a design-led futures technique that assists designers in making and using concept cars –as experimental artefacts that act as visions which embody ideas about the future– as ‘vehicles’ for innovation in SMEs, no longer confined to the automotive sector.

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Its development began with an inquiry into concept cars in the automotive industry and concept products and services in other industries. We then combined the insights derived from these design practices with elements of the existing techniques of critical design and design fiction into the creation of DIVE’s preliminary first version. This was then applied and evaluated in seven iterations with SMEs, resulting in DIVE’s alpha version.

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All iterations of DIVE in context show that SMEs can make and use concept cars, tailored to their own domain, to receive some of the benefits of exploring the future using design within the front-end of their innovation strategy. These companies can make concept cars to identify opportunities and threats and to give a sense of direction when they face a significant change. DIVE begins with setting a vision, embedded in an artifact, and then working backward to map a path of ideas, connecting the future to the present. Although the results of these activities might be less flashy than concept cars, these simple prototypes and videos help SMEs internalize and share a clear and concrete image of a preferable future for employees, allies, and investors. Concept cars, prototypes of the future, can also be used at the start of a new product’s design process to combine all the results of investigations on product, market, and technology. Subsequently, it is used to define a design brief and as a criterion to select the most promising ideas.

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Chapter by chapter

• Summary / Samenvatting / Resumen

1. Chapter 1 Introduction

2. Chapter 2 Futures techniques

3. Chapter 3 Concept cars as a design-led futures technique for automotive corporations

4. Chapter 4 Design-led futures techniques used outside the automotive industry

5. Chapter 5 Development of a design-led futures technique for SMEs: DIVE

   • First iteration: The Alchemist Club 2025 for Marlioü (the full case here)

   • Second iteration: Continental Energy 2030 for Continental Boilers (the full case here)

6. Chapter 6 Evaluation of DIVE with SMEs

7. Chapter 7 Application of DIVE in practice: recommendations and considerations

8. Chapter 8 General discussion

• References

• About the author and author’s publications

• Acknowledgements

• Appendices

  • Appendix 2-1 Sample of the interviews with experts

  • Appendix 2-2 Stimuli (cards, template constructs and rating)

  • Appendix 2-3 Raw data

  • Appendix 2-4 Cartesian plane

  • Appendix 2-5 Ratings

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Related publications

• Mejia Sarmiento, J. R., Pasman, G., Hultink, E. J., & Stappers, P. J. (2020). ‘Concept cars’ as vehicles for change in SMEs. In Temes de Disseny, Design Futures Now: Literacies and Making (36). The full document here.

• Mendez, P., Castañeda, S., Bernal, M., Mejia, J. R., Morales, R., Giraldo, J., & Baquero, S. (2020). Participatory construction of futures for the defense of human rights. In Proceedings of the 16th Participatory Design Conference 2020- Participation(s) Otherwise – Vol. 2 (PDC ’20: Vol. 2). Manizales, Colombia. ACM, New York, NY, USA. The full document here.

• Mejia, J. R., Chitiva, A., van Bruinessen, T., & Verhoeff, W. (2018). DIVE in SMEs: a design-led technique to explore product and service futures. In Touchpoint, The Journal of Service Design, 10(2), pp. 56–61. The full document here.

• Mejia, J. R., Pasman, G., Hultink, E. J., & Stappers, P. J. (2017). Developing DIVE, a design-led futures technique for SMEs. In C. Vogel, & G. Muratovski (Eds.). Proceedings of the IASDR Conference Re: Research (pp. 770–787). Cincinnati, Ohio, USA: University of Cincinnati. The full document here.

• Mejia, J. R., Pasman, G., & Stappers, P. J. (2016). Vision concepts within the landscape of design research. In P. Lloyd & E. Bohemia (Eds.), Proceedings of DRS2016: Design + Research + Society – Future-Focused Thinking (Vol. 4, pp. 1659–1676). Brighton, U.K. The full document here.

• Mejia, J. R., Hultink, E. J., Pasman, G., & Stappers, P. J. (2016). Concept cars as a design-led futures technique. In Proceedings of the 23rd Innovation and Product Development Management Conference (Vol. 1, pp. 1–21). Glasgow, U.K. The full document here.

• Mejia, J. R., Simonse, L. W. L., & Hultink, E. J. (2015). Design of vision concepts to explore the future: Nature, context and design techniques. Presented at the 5th CIM –Creativity and Innovation Management– Community Workshop, Enschede, The Netherlands.The full document here.

• Mejia, J. R., & Parra, J. (2014). Strategic PES: Product-experience-service, a visual tool to support SMEs through service-dominant logic. Touchpoint, The Journal of Service Design, 6(3), 80–85.The full document here.