people, and that textual literacy is often low. Other common issues that come with working in developing regions include low disposable income, intermittent power supply, little technology exposure, and low Internet connectivity (both mobile and fixed line).

In addition to these common points, there are many other challenges that are not so immediately apparent. India is strange and bewildering to us! This is a cliché, of course, and it is important to avoid the dangers of being seduced by the strangeness of new and different places [ 5]. But it is also hugely important to appreciate the cultural and behavioral differences of people from environments so drastically different from our own. It’s easy to underestimate how much time and effort it takes to begin living and working in such unfamiliar surroundings.

Rather than the obvious issues, then, here we will focus on our own experience conducting research in this different environment. Through living and working in India, we’ve had to radically alter our research practices (and day-to-day lifestyle!). We are used to developing high-end prototypes for use by technology-savvy, literate, and comparatively wealthy users. In this new environment, where we cannot rely on these assumptions, our usual approach is bound to fail.

 

Differences

We are traditionally taught to
build something based on gaps in
knowledge, problems with current
systems, or feedback from probes;
however, all of these approaches
are predicated on people’s knowl-
edge of existing infrastructure,
or their ability to use a particu-
lar technology. In new devices,
common interaction paradigms,
such as swipe to scroll or pinch
to zoom, are often accepted as
standard and put into interfaces
on the assumption that people
will intuitively understand their
usage. After all, we all have expe-
rience with existing models, so
an incremental change that uses
standard functions for another
purpose is relatively easy to
understand. However, this is often
not the case in the situations we
have been encountering in India.
We can’t just design something
based on our, or even the users’,
perception of “easy to use” and
expect it to be fit for purpose [ 6].

Positives

All these points could be read to suggest that HCI for developing regions is a near impossible, and perhaps even futile, task for newcomers. This is a naive and defeatist attitude to take. While there are indeed challenges, they are not by any means insurmountable. There are also several things that make development in these regions extremely worthwhile, offering huge opportunities for genuine, perhaps even life-changing, benefits.

In our particular research area, there are many positive aspects. For example, there is already a large infrastructure of low- and middle-end mobile phones, mobile charging centers, and cell coverage within India as a whole [ 8], which makes telephone-based services relatively easy to deploy. There is also a large sense of community and an overwhelming eagerness and willingness to help in the design and implementation of new

March + April 2013