Ecologies of use and design

Abstract

Making technology accessible to low literate users and communities is an important challenge of ICTD research and practice. Past work in the field has addressed the problem of effective UI (User Interface) design under low literacy conditions, exploring graphic or audio alternatives to text-centered interfaces on the basis of studies that take individual users and user-interface interactions as their central unit of analysis. Our study complements this work through an alternative 'ecological' model, in which literacy-based barriers to technology use are encountered not by individual users but embedded social actors who draw on external networks, resources, and infrastructures to manage the problems that literacy poses. Based on a six month ethnographic study of mobile phone use within a low-literate rickshawpuller community in Dhaka, Bangladesh, we explore the literacy-based barriers to use experienced by our study population, and the external networks and connections that users draw on to work around such barriers. We conclude with design and wider research recommendations that may expand the toolkit of researchers seeking to better address these and other ICTD problems.