Insights curated by Experientia, the UX research and design consultancy
Insights curated by Experientia, the UX research and design consultancy
Ken Banks, creator of FrontlineSMS, writes in PC World on the future of mobile phones and believes that many future mobile innovations will be borne out of the realities of the developing world. “In order to understand what users need…
The number of people using mobile devices to purchase goods and services is expected to more than double by the end of 2012 globally, research firm Gartner Inc. reported. The impact is to be felt most in developing world…
In Asia, Africa, Europe and elsewhere, cell phone technology has always been way ahead of what’s available in the states. Around the world, people use their phones in innovative, creative ways. For example, mobile phones help rural farmers gather information…
In a long article in The Register, Andrew Orlowski looks at the many problems Nokia faced the other day with the launch of its Ovi Store, and criticises the company for a lack of focus on people’s needs: “Firstly, Nokia…
Leading up to the 2009 Mobile Money Summit CGAP, an independent policy and research centre dedicated to advancing financial access for the world’s poor, is running a podcast series with some of the key people involved in the CGAP/DFID Branchless…
Global Post reports on how millions in Ghana are entering the banking system through mobile phone system. “Nobody stands to benefit quite like Africa’s increasingly powerful telecom companies, the conglomerates who built this continent’s cellular towers and enable its calls.…
Stephen Wolak, the brain behind Vodafone’s Betavine community, has launched a new social change community “where we look at how mobile technology and mobile services can bring about positive social change, particularly in developing countries.” The concept, he says, “is…
Nokia Conversations is reporting on a rare behind-closed-doors Nokia design event dubbed The Inside Story. According to a first post, Alastair Curtis, Head of Design at Nokia, shared the design insight that your mobile is becoming more of a “sixth…
Dr Paul Twomey, president of the internet admin body Icann, talks about the net’s potential for change. “The mobile global internet is growing quickly to connect billions of people, devices and things. It offers much greater productivity and lower barriers…
Carl Honoré, author of In Praise of Slow and Under Pressure and a self-proclaimed proponent of the Slow Movement, is the writer of the latest contribution to Vodafone’s Receiver magazine. In his piece, Honoré argues that in a world of…
Erik Hersman reports on his blog White African from the e Fletcher mBanking conference in Nairobi. Talking Mobile Banking in Kenya Notes from the panel “Perspectives on Mobile and Branchless Financial Service” Volume vs Value in Mobile Payment Systems Talk…
The Sydney Morning Herald reports on a study of more than 1000 workers which shows that the mobile phone does not make people any more rushed or pressured for time. An analysis of more than 20,000 calls and texts…
Our friends at Adaptive Path have posted some information on a design and research project that aimed to understand how mobile technology can work more effectively in emerging markets. The company went to rural India to investigate the impact of…
The blog series on New Media Practices in International Contexts, which I announced in January, is now complete. It covers the unique characteristics of digital media user behaviours in very different socio-cultural contexts of China, Korea, India, Brazil, Japan…
Anand Giridharadas, South Asia correspondent at International Herald Tribune, describes what makes the cellphone special in India, and what it means for democracy. “The cellphone appeals deeply to the Indian psychology, to the spreading desire for personal space and voice,…
The latest issue of Vodafone’s Receiver Magazine is entitled “Seizing the Moment”: “Bending and transcending the constraints of time and space has gotten easy for us. With our mobiles and netbooks, we’re about to create a social setting in which…
Steve Wolak is the founder and head of the Betavine, Vodafone’s developer outreach website — recently much heralded by Vodafone’s CEO Vittorio Colao — and he just started blogging. His central question: “Crowdsourcing, open and collaborative innovation, the long tail,…
Today I spent some time looking through the CHI 2009 papers. Here is a personal selection (and you need an ACM membership to access them): A comparative study of speech and dialed input voice interfaces in rural India Neil Patel,…
After a short hiatus, Vodafone’s Receiver Magazine is updated again with a series of articles under the heading “Seizing the Moment”. The first one in the series is by mobile apps thought-leader Paul Golding, who talks about the user experience…
Today was the Africa Gathering in London and ICT4D, an Austrian NGO dealing with ICT for development, has done an excellent job at summarising them: Summaries 1 David Hollow – ICT4D Collective / RHUL * The $100 laptop in Ethiopia…