User Centered Design and International Development

2007

Abstract User-centred design (UCD) is a well-accepted and useful design methodology for designing interactive systems. In recent years, developing world researchers have attempted to utilise UCD but with mixed results. The results from two developing world, UCD projects, MuTI Mobile and CyberTracker, have shown that the analysis tools and techniques provided by UCD are useful but difficulties arise when interpreting the analysis findings to produce a requirements specification.

CHI '09 Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems, 2009

This workshop continues the dialog on exploring the challenges in applying, extending, and inventing appropriate methods and contributions of Humancentered Computing (HCC) to International economic and community development, borne out of tremendously successful HCI4D workshops at CHI 2007 and 2008. The workshop aims at 1) providing a platform to discuss interaction design practices that allow for meaningful embedding of interactive systems in the cultural, infrastructural, and political settings where they will be used 2) addressing interaction design issues in developing regions, as well as areas in the developed world marginalized by poverty or other barriers. We hope to continue to extend the boundaries of the field of Human-centered Computing (HCC) by spurring on more discussion on how existing methods and practices can be adapted/ modified, and how new practices be developed, to combat the unique challenges posed by this context.

Information Technologies and International Development, 2008

Studies of IT for development have often identiªed the importance of the usability of IT systems and the need for IT systems to be matched to the needs of host communities. These two issues are central concerns for the discipline of Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), or Interaction Design. Within HCI and Interaction Design, user-centered design is just one particular view on how design processes can be organized to achieve such aims. This paper reports on discussions arising from a workshop held at the Computer/Human Interaction (CHI) 2007 conference in San Jose, California. CHI is the largest HCI conference in the world. The workshop brought together a group of 45 interaction designers and development practitioners from around the world and included participants from 17 countries, including many researchers and practitioners based in emerging economies such as India, China, South Africa, Namibia, and Benin. The aim of the workshop was to examine how interaction design could contribute to the success of IT for development. Although many issues were discussed, this is a necessarily selective report focusing on some of the principal themes of the workshop.

CHI '08 Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems, 2008

This workshop explores the challenges in applying, extending and inventing appropriate methods and contributions of Human Computer Interaction (HCI) to International economic and community Development. We address interaction design for parts of the world that are often marginalized by the Global North as well as people in the Global North who are themselves similarly marginalized by poverty or other barriers. We hope to extend the boundaries of the field of Human Computer Interaction by spurring a discussion on how existing methods and practices can be adapted and modified, and how new practices can be developed, to deal with the unique challenges posed by these contexts.

Human-Computer …, 2010

Abstract Recent years have seen a burgeoning interest in research into the use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) in the context of developing regions, particularly into how such ICTs might be appropriately designed to meet the unique user and infrastructural requirements that we encounter in these cross-cultural environments. This emerging field, known to some as HCI4D, is the product of a diverse set of origins.

2004

There is increasing interest in finding ways to bridge the “Digital Divide” by using the techniques, approaches and mindset of human-computer interaction (HCI) or user-centred design (UCD) when developing new technology for use in the so-called “Developing” world. This new sub-discipline, called variously

Interactions, 2003

All around us, information, knowledge, and the use of networked computing continues to revolutionize how we live, work, and play. Although this perspective is obvious to many of us and in danger of becoming hackneyed, important structural changes are indeed occurring. Driven by social, political, economic, and technological factors, these profound changes are having a significant impact on the organization of global society ([3], among others). This article explores briefly the implications of some of these changes. It argues that human-computer interaction (HCI) and user-centered design (UCD) principles are critical to ensuring that both developed and developing countries are able to meet the challenges posed by these changes and harness the opportunities of globalization and the emergence of an information society.

Lecture Notes in Computer Science

The design of ICT products is at present optimized for mass manufacturing in a global scale. Yet local communities and specific users have needs that are in danger of being excluded from the benefits of new technology. We present our experience of co-designing targeted products with local stakeholders embedded in their concrete social and material context and everyday practices. Our claim is such embedded design could be achieved through combining modular global technology with local handcrafts, which contain shared cultural meanings and guaranteed affordance.

1999