Internationalisation of User Experience Design

Background to User experience design

The field of user experience design (UXD) within software development is one that is gradually gaining recognition, especially within the developed world. It is broadly defined as the experience that a user has while interacting with a piece of software.

The field is often known by a wide range of definitions, such as the perhaps better known Human-Computer Interaction, User Centered Design, Interaction Design or Goal-Directed Design, to name but a few. Each of these terms has a slightly different emphasis on the subject, but they can all be summed up by the term above. (NB. The field of HCI does differ in some significant ways to UXD - for a start, it has been around longer, and secondly, it looks more into the users brain patterns, and other scientific methods to assess more the users internal reactions to computers, but the two fields now overlap a great deal)

The development of theories around this subject were first conceived back in 1974, but the term ‘user experience’ was not coined until 1993. By the end of the 1990’s the term was broadly recognised within the software industry in the developed world, if not consistently appreciated or applied. The last ten years has again seen an increase in UXD, which has begun to be accepted as a specialist area, with companies creating specific jobs for UXD designers, and the development of UXD companies themselves. Today, although UXD is not in all cases given the same emphasis as visual design and programming are within software development in the developed world, there is clearly an expanding awareness and use of the concepts involved.

Some of the key figures in terms of UXD are Alan Cooper, the ‘father of Visual Basic’, who’s book ‘The Inmates are Running the Asylum’ is considered by many to be an attributing factor to the technology industry’s recent increase in acceptance of the field. Also, Jesse Garrett’s book ‘The Elements of User Experience’, is a must read for anyone starting out in the field. Possibly the best resources available for professionals is useit.com, Jakob Nielsen’s usability resource site.

Why is this relevant to African development?

Over recent years there has been an increased interest, by some specialists in the field of UXD and emerging market development, in the fact that much of the development within areas such as Africa often fails. These specialists have been able to research and conclude that much of the failure, in terms of the technology itself anyway, can be attributed to the lack of application of the ideologies of UXD.

Two examples of the companies or research groups taking this approach to development are:

The VeSel project - ‘Village E-Science for Life’, part of the London Knowledge Lab, UK. Vesel is a:

…’Research project, part of the Bridging the Global Digital Divide network, sponsored by the EPSRC in the UK. The aim of the VeSeL project is to enable rural communities in Sub-Saharan Africa to use advanced digital technology to improve their agricultural practices and literacy levels.’

(taken from the VeSel homepage)

MTech - A Nigerian company, who define themselves as:

A technology firm providing first class services in data communications, focuses on mobile applications technology, using existing GSM networks and state-of-the-art mobile technology.

(taken from the
MTech homepage)

Why should this approach work when others haven’t?

Simply - because the approach considers what the users need.

It aims to find a problem and solve it in the most appropriate way. And the most appropriate way is the way that allows the user to solve that problem as easily as possible. It does not find a technology, implement it, and then figure out what to do with it. It figures out what needs doing, and then figures out what technology (or other method in fact), can best enable it to be done.

Whether the factors blocking this problem from being solved are financial, social, economic or any other, it does not matter, as the process of formative evaluation involved in UXD development uncovers these issues and tackles them from the ground up. It can be described as a bottom-up, needs-led, user-centered, collaborative and iterative process, where potential problems with the development are uncovered during the pre-development stage, to avoid either complete failure, or further costs and time being incurred through adaptation to the completed project.

An important event in 2008

Something that many may not be aware of in terms of African development, is a workshop entitled ‘HCI for Community and International Development‘ to be held at CHI2008. Again, unless you are involved in the field of UXD, you may well not be aware of the CHI conferences.

These conferences have been held every year for the past 25 years, and are the most prominent international conferences in the field of UXD (or Human-Computer Interaction, to be more specific).

The workshop itself is a continuation from a workshop held at CHI2007, which was titled ‘User Centered Design for International Development‘. The summary for this previous workshop was:

This workshop explores User Centered Design (UCD) challenges and contributions to International economic and community Development.
Our goal is to extend the boundaries of the field of Human Computer Interaction (HCI) by spurring a discussion on how existing User Centered Design practices can be adapted and modified, and how new practices be developed, to deal with the unique challenges posed by this context.

(taken from the workshop’s homepage)

The workshop for next year is defined as:

‘…[Continuing] to explore challenges in applying, extending and inventing appropriate methods and contributions of Human Computer Interaction (HCI) to International Economic and Community Development. We address issues of interaction design for parts of the world that are often marginalized by the Global North as well as areas in the Global North that are similarly marginalized by poverty or other barriers.
We will continue to extend the boundaries of Human Computer Interaction (HCI) via discussion on how existing methods and practices can be adapted and modified, and how new practices can be developed, to deal with these unique challenges.’

(taken from the workshop’s homepage)

In summary, the rationale for this article was to raise awareness of this potentially hugely beneficial area of research that is being undertaken (often resulting in great development solutions), and growing, unbeknown to many interested or even involved in African development.

The author will be one of the 30 participants involved in this 2008 workshop, as well as the VeSel project team, and will report back on the event after the conference which is to be held the week of the 5th April. The workshop program is soon to be released, along with the position papers all participates were required to submit, so anyone interested in this area should keep an eye on the workshop site.