This forum looks at how the fields of interaction design and HCI can
extend to cover “developing” communities around the world, ones that
are gaining access to digital technology for the first time.
Gary Marsden, Editor
Lessons Learned in
Prototyping Systems in
Developing-World Contexts
Sena Lee Allen
University of Cape Town | [e-mail]
This article was written by a master’s-
level student reflecting on his first year
of research work in a developing-world
project. Captured here is what he wished
he had known before starting. We hope
it serves to better prepare other stu-
dents in the same situation. —Gary
Marsden, Editor

November + December 2011

interactions

Research in ICT for Development
(ICT4D) can be a very rewarding
experience, but it is not without its
challenges. During the course of my
master’s degree, I have witnessed
many events of which I wish I’d had
some foresight to better prepare me
for the long, complex journey of an
ICT4D project.
These challenges are unique and
are almost exclusive to developing
countries. Factors such as fear due
to high crime rates, lack of familiar-
ity with technology, lack of infra-
structure, and political instability
all greatly affected my experience
as an ICT4D researcher. This article
explores some of my experiences
and sheds some light on what sorts
of events can occur during similar
projects—perhaps it will even miti-
gate similar challenges for future
ICT4D researchers and help make
their lives easier by showing them
what to look out for.

My project entails creating and observing the effects of a content-management system with a situated display—a large screen that uses Big Board, a service that transfers data to and from the board and a mobile device via Bluetooth [ 1]. It works by displaying separate images for each data item. For example, there could be a picture of Nelson Mandela representing a file containing images and information about his life. An individual would then take a picture of this image and send it to the board via Bluetooth. The board recognizes the image and proceeds to send all related files to the phone that sent the original picture. The system was envisioned as an innovative way to freely disseminate information to individuals who had access to mobile phones without special client software installed.

There are a number of user groups
within our research environment
that could make use of this technol-
ogy to provide relevant information
to low-income residents. Providing
a system that can manage these
groups’ access to placing material
on the board is the focal point of my
research. One of the major stake-
holders is an NGO that works with
local teenagers (which might want
to put educational content as well as
organizational announcements onto
the board). A second set of stake-
holders is a group of librarians who
can provide educational content,
community news, and perhaps some
entertainment content for the youth
and community to consume (see
Figure 1). The final stakeholders are
the local youth, who represent the
target consumers of all the content
created by the first two groups.

observations

In order to study media usage, we employed a technology probe methodology and deployed a large situated display into the environment during the design phase of the project. It’s interesting to note that when the