Mobile Literacy: Designing Mobile Technology for Emerging Markets
How do you use a mobile phone if you’ve never learned how to read or write? How do you use a mobile phone if it’s one of the first pieces of technology you’ve ever interacted with? In late 2008, Adaptive Path went to rural India to investigate the impact of mobile technology. Based on our research findings, we created concepts that depict a product and service to meet pressing needs of people in these areas. During this session, Brian Cronin and Natasha Alani will share the process Adaptive Path used to gather information about how people currently use mobile phones in rural India. They’ll also share the design criteria we believe are important, for designing mobile phones for people in rural areas of emerging markets, and the Steampunk Phone and Mobilglyph design concepts that show how a product and service, designed for the needs of people in rural areas of emerging markets, could significantly impact people’s information sharing and use of mobile phones.