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Doug Avery: Mele Avery, Design, illustration, Viget Labs, photos, old time religion, indie rock, survivalist food, brown clothes, ambient music, cats.
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Long post, longer list of comments, fascinating and complex and difficult to resolve. My addition is that of course Kiva doesn’t work the way you think it does — the product they seem to sell (direct, transparent microloans from lender to entrepreneur) wouldn’t be scaleable at Kiva’s growth rate and a per-lender amount of $25. The key to their success is also what some commenters here take offense with: Kiva simulates a shopping environment, a mechanic where people select their favorite stories, countries, and projects to support, which is an abstract layer above the fact that Kiva has already disbursed these loans to the best of their judgment. The creators of France’s Babyloan comment that this process, if accurate, would just be a “microcredit reality show” where first-world donors pick fashionable-sounding projects without any grasp of field realities. I agree — any research or personal feeling I have about “what’s needed” in these communities is a fantasy, and should take a rightful backseat to what field lenders and the local economies require. (Fun note: Kiva has a byzantine process chart here, immediately followed by a request for a better design. Any designers/UXers feel like helping?)
