Computers, Communication, and International Development

Since starting this program, I have developed an interest in the role that Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) can play in the context of international development - specifically how conventional user interfaces must be adapted to be usable by people of different cultures.

Several of my classmates were also interested in this fascinating topic, so we approached a professor in the school for International Affairs, Dr. Michael Best, who agreed to create a course to explore the unique HCI considerations of ICT projects for populations in the developing world. In addition to just focusing on the interface issues, we also read about the challenging social, technological, economic, and political context into which ICT projects are deployed.

As our group project, we decided to implement an software prototype that would provide basic ICT functionality (electronic mail, synchronous chat, web browsing) to populations in developing nations. Our intended user base was people of the the Tamil Nadu region in southern India; two of the four members of our project group were from this part of India and could provide insight into our design decisions.

We created specifications for a software system, called Simple Access and Navigation Platform (SNAP), and created a basic proof-of-concept simulation of the system's zoomable user interface (ZUI). Our main considerations in designing SNAP were:

  1. literacy - we could not assume that our populations were literate in any language; thus it was important to develop a text-free, icon-based interface.
  2. access - we could not assume that our populations actually had anytime-access to a personal machine; SNAP is web based, accessible from a web browser, and stores all information on a central server
  3. metaphor - our literature review confirmed that the standard Windows, Icons, Menu, Pointer (WIMP) interface was not suitable for populations who may not be familiar with western-centric metaphors; SNAP has an easy-to-learn, intuitive zoomable user interface.

My role in the project was to develop a suitable iconography to provide access to SNAP's features, and also to create a Flash simulation of the zoomable user interface. Because we didn't have the resources to actually travel to India, icon design relied mostly on secondary research and the advice of the group members familiar with our intended user base.

Here are examples of some of the icons I designed for SNAP. Also included is a description of where the icon is used in the interface, and also some design rationale for choosing specific graphical elements. The full set of icons can be found in this design document.

icon

function

design rationale

wheat, sugar cane, and 100 rupee note
Clicking on this icon will give the user the current crop prices. It depicts sugar cane, and wheat, as well as a 100-Rupee note.
It was important to choose crops that are actually grown in this region. Wheat and sugar cane are popular cash crops in south India.
face of tamil male

This icon represents a contact (male); it appears on the user’s workspace. Clicking on this icon presents the user with several methods for communicating with this contact
In Indian iconography, the moustache is commonly used to denote ‘male’
newspaper

Clicking this icon will bring up a screen presenting the user with additional icons for specific sources of information.
The original design for this icon looked much like a Western newspaper. We conferred with Indian colleagues, who said that Indian papers are much more visually complex, with brighter colors and more columns.
sending mail

Clicking on this icon enables to user to send an email to a contact (see discussion on Asynchronous / Synchronous Communication Icon Conventions for further explanation of our design desicisions)
Western icons used to denote email – such as envelopes, ‘country’ mailboxes, and stamps – don’t hold in this context. For our population, sending mail via post is the most familiar process to sending e-mail – thus we have used an Indian Inland Air Mail –style envelope

You can get an idea of how these icons are integrated into the zoomable user interface by checking out the preliminary SNAP Flash simulation.