Steampunk: A Mobile Device Concept for Rural India
“While conducting research on mobile phone usage in India, Adaptive Path’s lead researcher and project advisor, Natasha Alani, identified that many non-literate research participants ignored the screen when using mobile phone. Instead of engaging with the UI on the screen, participants would engage with the physical interface of the phone. They would leverage their spatial memory and gestures by memorizing patterns (i.e., pressing a button three times, remembering the patterns of numbers) or ask for assistance in dialing a number from a family member. These workarounds underscore a key problem with mobile devices in emerging markets: the interface conventions used to guide people through mobile experiences are largely misunderstood by a large portion of the world’s population.”1 month ago.
