Farmer’s markets are often seen as sustainable and community-oriented. However, not everyone feels equally welcome. Therefore, we explored trough a design research project how cultural biases are manifested in these market environments. We focused on the Kruisstraat Saturday Market in Eindhoven, and aimed to uncover the subtle, often implicit, social dynamics that shape people’s experiences in these spaces.

To do this, we designed a set of cultural probes: exploratory reflection tools that participants used during and after their market visits. The test participants had diverse backgrounds, including both locals and expats. Participants were also clustered by shopping habits, whether they were regular or irregular visitors, and whether they shopped with a plan or explored freely. This revealed small, often unconscious ways how people navigate cultural differences and exposed subcultures within the market that shaped how people experienced the space. For example, expats often described the fish stalls as “intimidating”. Not because of the products, but because of the loud and fast Dutch interactions. In contrast, Dutch participants focused more on the smell or layout of the stalls to form a opinion. These kinds of differences showed how emotional and semantic biases can shape perception. In short, we didn’t find one clear cultural bias dominating the market, but we did uncover many nuanced insights.

This project taught me how design can be used not just to solve problems, but to reveal them. By creating tools that encouraged reflection, we were able to gather data that would have been difficult to collect through interviews alone. It also allowed me to focus on inclusivity and to learn about perceptions and experiences of people from other socio-economic layers of society than the one I am used to.