Our cells, ourselves
The Washington Post reflects on what it means that there is now one cellphone for every two humans on Earth. “From essentially zero, we’ve passed a watershed of more than 3.3 billion active cellphones on a planet of some 6.6…
Insights curated by Experientia, the UX research and design consultancy
Insights curated by Experientia, the UX research and design consultancy
Category Africa
Africa’s portal to the internet
Nicole Ferraro investigates in a long article in Information Week if cell phones and other inexpensive wireless devices can close the digital divide in the world’s poorest countries. “For the developing world, the Internet experience is going to be a…
The practice of beeping – making intentional missed calls
Nokia researcher Jan Chipchase reports on just published research from Microsoft Research India‘s Jonathan Donner that explores the practice of beeping – making intentional missed calls. The paper draws on field research from Rwanda in 2004, categorising three different types…
User research informs design of Nokia phones for emerging markets
Nokia announced today that it unveiled two handsets that offer a range of useful features and colours aimed at consumers in emerging markets. Interestingly they have each been designed based on extensive user research. Nokia 2600 classic for personalisation The…
Cellphones bring a :-) to remotest Africa
Stephanie Hanes, a correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor, reports on how Namibia’s plucky fix-it industry can handle all manner of disaster with your phone. “Cellphones are in the deepest rural areas in Africa,” says Saadhna Panday, of South Africa’s…
What happens when the $100 laptop actually gets used?
All kinds of things apparently, as described by this revealing story on the BBC, commented on by Bruce Nussbaum of Business Week: “Clearly, children love the machine. Most of them had never seen a computer before and the great design…
Jan Chipchase at TED conference
The TED conference has published its video of the talk by Nokia’s “user anthropologist” Jan Chipchase in March this year: Nokia principal researcher Jan Chipchase’s investigation into the ways we interact with technology has led him from the villages of…
Nokia predicts that you will control 25% of entertainment by 2012
Nokia’s latest study, ‘A Glimpse of the Next Episode’, predicts that within five years a quarter of all entertainment will be created, edited and shared within peer groups rather than coming out of traditional media groups. Trend-setting consumers from 17…
The mobile web is NOT helping the developing world… and what we can do about it
According to Niti Bhan, Nathan Eagle‘s post on the limitations of the current perception of the mobile internet experience for the developing world are “spot on and the most insightful I have come across to date”. Here is a quote…
Mobile web: so close yet so far [The New York Times]
An article in the New York Times cites recent surveys challenging the notion that smartphones are ready for primetime: Surveys by Yankee Group, a Boston research firm, show that only 13 percent of cellphone users in North America use their…
A mobile revolution is taking place in the developing world
The ancient tradition of Moroccan storytelling threatened by entertainment technology
Design for the other 90% controversy
Design for the Other 90%, the much lauded exhibition at the Cooper-Hewitt Museum in New York on how design can address the basic challenges of survival and progress faced by the world’s poor and marginalised, has been severely criticised by…
Nokia design director on emerging markets
Antti Kujala, a design director at Nokia’s headquarters in Espoo, Finland, spearheaded Nokia’s strategy and design development. He spoke to Nandini Lakshman of Business Week in New Delhi about the nuances of designing for emerging markets and about future mobile…
Rich ethnographic reports about the uses of ICT in low-income communities
The UK Department for Development has published a long study, written by a number of researchers from British and Australian Universities, about the social and economic benefits of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in low-income communities in Jamaica, India, South…
BBC News speaks to Jan Chipchase of Nokia Design
BBC News has just published a feature on Jan Chipchase, principal researcher at Nokia Design and frequently featured on this blog. “Jan Chipchase tours the world looking at how people use mobile phones in their everyday lives and, more broadly,…
CHI 2007 – Can user-centred design be harmful?
Researchers and practitioners meeting at CHI 2007 produced the surprising argument that user-centred design is a bad idea, writes Andy Daerden on Usability News. Instead, a range of alternative approaches were proposed for projects in developing countries such as “community…
The Vodafone journey
GE’s user-friendly healthcare concepts for Africa [Business Week]
GE Healthcare sells $15 billion a year worth of big X-ray machines, CAT scans, and ultrasound testing equipment. The healthcare division of General Electric (GE ) usually differentiates its products by getting better and faster readings from its instruments—”feeds and…
Advanced programme of CHI 2007 available
The CHI 2007 organisers have published an “advanced programme” of the conference, which will take place 28 April – 3 May in San Jose, California. Some highlights: Opening plenary: “Reaching for the intuitive” by Bill MoggridgeBill will attempt to show…