Monsoon Course on HCI 2007

1. Project: Language, Literacy and Mobile Phones Monsoon Course on HCI 2007 Group 3 Members: Kirti Kanitkar, Rajita Bhidye, Viraj Sapre, Pushkar Ingle, Benjamin Lourenco and Manish Sinha Monsoon Course on HCI 2007

2. Presentation Structure • Goal of the project • Focus of the contextual inquiry • User interviewed • Focus changes related to finding • Findings • Top insights from the affinity • User goals, constraints, problems and opportunities • Key design ideas • Primary persona • Final design brief • Target audience • Business goals and feature of the product Monsoon Course on HCI 2007

3. Goal of the project • To design an address book feature for a mobile phone targeted at the illiterate people • Gather user needs • Identify breakdowns • Generate design ideas to make phone usable Monsoon Course on HCI 2007

4. Focus of the contextual inquiry • Users interviewed • User1: Mohammad Waild (Tailor) • User2: Ramvilas (Flower seller) • User3: Mukesh Kumar Upadhyay (Auto driver) • User4: Vinod Kumar Pandey (Auto driver) • User5: Rizvan Fruitwala (Fruit seller) Monsoon Course on HCI 2007

5. Focus of the contextual inquiry • Initial focus • To find and analyse the problems faced by illiterate people while using the phone book feature in mobile phones. • Focus changes related to finding • Illiterate people were found to hardly use the phone book feature and hence the focus was broadened to gain insights in phone use patterns in general. Monsoon Course on HCI 2007

6. Findings • Top insights from the affinity • For people who don’t have a permanent residence, mobile phones are more convenient. • Mainly used for receiving and calling. • Relying on close associates, for acquiring a specific textual understanding. • Users usually kept a specific diary to write down the contact information. • Preference for English language is given despite the understanding of the same is not known. • Numeric/Alphabetic clues used to relate places and people. • Understanding and implementing of tasks, take a longer time periods. • All mobile user’s relying on specific offers/tariff plans. • Language is irrelevant for completely illiterate people. Monsoon Course on HCI 2007

7. Findings • User goals • Incoming and outgoing calls. • Long lasting and sturdy phone. • Added features like camera, colors, radio, hello tunes etc. is appreciated but at affordable cost. • User constraints • Illiteracy. • Language. • Poor learning ability when it comes to learning a new mobile interface. • Users see the phone as a device analogous to the old (1980) phone which is meant only for calling and receiving calls. • There are certain perceived risks involved with reference to past experiences, which the users fear off. (deletion of data if the battery is removed). • Hindi interface is found to be difficult to use. Monsoon Course on HCI 2007

8. Findings • User problems • People find it hard to save numbers and use call register. • Completely illiterate people don’t care much about the language since they are as alien to their native script as they are to the Roman script. • Often they are unable to know the sequences of usage which the educated users know commonly. • Finding difficult to send & read the SMS • Different models of phones have different interfaces that make it hard to use memorised navigational patterns. • Dialing a phone number was easy, but problems can occur when different numerical prefixes needed to be added. • Dialing/saving an incorrect number would need to start the process all over again as editing was not known. Monsoon Course on HCI 2007

9. Findings • Key Design Ideas • A simple mobile phone with a minimal features set. • To design the Text Minimal User Interfaces for illiterate & Semi illiterate users. • Menus with maximum use of Symbolic/ Iconic/Illustrative support. • Hardware buttons/Soft keys representing one button for one task. • Incoming calls are more, so they can be automated to be saved with editing, with the use of colors, associating with a specific caller. • In many cases families are staying separately, so a device which helps to see each other, while having conversation can be introduced, like mobile camera combined with 3G. • Numeric Phone Keypad is immediately familiar to semi-literate & illiterate users. Monsoon Course on HCI 2007

10. Findings • Key Design Ideas • Voice Based input can improve the accessibility of the system for semi-literate & illiterate users. • To design a self illustrative Communication tools that helps illiterate users. • To design the Text-Minimal User Interfaces for illiterate & Semi illiterate users. • A Camera can used to capture information & experience without writing or typing. Big buttons and signs should be emphasized. • There should be walk through for each & every features Monsoon Course on HCI 2007

11. Findings • Primary persona • Name: Mohammad Walid • Age: 38 • Education: 8th pass (Urdu Medium) • Location: Powai, Mumbai • Family Members: 9 members • Nature of work: Sajid is a tailor byprofession and work mainly for showrooms. He uses mobile to communicate with his client and family members and friends. He knows the basic functionality of a mobile phone despite language problem. His nephew and friend helped him to understand the basic functionality. Monsoon Course on HCI 2007

12. Final design brief • Target audience • Illiterates. • English not known. • Business goals and feature of the product • Working continuously for long hours, thus maximum usage of the simplified, mobile device for this specific user group (Illiterate masses) cannot be underestimated. • So also Price minimizing can help in maximum usage of the mobile device. • A simple mobile phone with a specific feature set. • Creating mobile phones, which are easy to use by the illiterate masses. Monsoon Course on HCI 2007

13. Thank You Monsoon Course on HCI 2007