Date: 20 February 2013
Time: 13.00-14.00
Place: tba
Rainfed farming provides the bulk of the world’s food supply and has tremendous potential to increase its productivity. Most rainfed farms are operated by farmers from the bottom of the pyramid who lack information about novel agricultural techniques, what their peers are doing and in many developing areas have high illiteracy rates. Illiteracy does not feature in accessibility guidelines and its implications for interaction design are poorly understood. Most of the research on illiterate users in the ICT for development (ICT4D) literature has hitherto focused on mobile phones relying on keypads for input. Research methods of human computer interaction honed for lab settings need to be re-assessed and modified to conduct studies ‘in-the-wild’. In this talk I will reflect on the lessons learned from two applications for illiterate users designed within the scope of an ICT4D project, covering design implications, methodological pitfalls and the role text can play in multi-modal interfaces for illiterate people.
Bio
Hendrik Knoche holds an MSc (UoHamburg) and PhD (UC London) in computer science. His research interests include human-centered design, design thinking, mediated experiences, proxemics, and ICT for development along with methods for prototyping and evaluating applications and their user experiences “in the wild”. Since October 2012 he is working at ADMT in Aalborg.