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User Experience Research... in India, for India

User Experience Research... in India, for India. Kentaro Toyama Assistant Managing Director Microsoft Research India Usable Software Interface Design June 18, 2007 – Hyderabad. Outline. The Challenge of India The Five Stages of Design Three Projects from MSR India Warana Unwired

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User Experience Research... in India, for India

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  1. User Experience Research...in India, for India Kentaro Toyama Assistant Managing Director Microsoft Research India Usable Software Interface Design June 18, 2007 – Hyderabad

  2. Outline The Challenge of India The Five Stages of Design Three Projects from MSR India • Warana Unwired • MultiPoint • Text-Free User Interfaces The Last Stage?

  3. Outline The Challenge of India The Five Stages of Design Three Projects from MSR India • Warana Unwired • MultiPoint • Text-Free User Interfaces The Last Stage?

  4. India People • ~1.1 billion people • Over half under 25 years old • 22 languages • Annual incomes $100-$100M+ • 28 states Area • ~1/3 the area of United States Technology • ~20M PCs, installed base • ~140M mobile subscriptions • +7M each month Roads in India Sources: CIA Factbook, TRAI, CNN

  5. India, a Personal View My first trip to India (2004)

  6. India, a Personal View People • ~1.1 billion people • Over half under 25 years old • 22 official languages • Annual incomes $100-$100M+ • 28 states Area • ~1/3 the area of United States Technology • ~20M PCs, installed base • ~140M mobile subscriptions • +7M each month but, power held by few tremendous energy and optimism incredible diversity, EM microcosm reminiscent of European Union impact of weather (ubiquity of agriculture) huge interest in PCs, by everyone mobiles, mobiles, everywhere Huge potential opportunity for computing industry. But, there are new challenges that neither India nor the industryhave ever faced before.

  7. Infosys campus, Bangalore

  8. A small Internet café on a market street in a town near Bombay

  9. Rural village with a VSAT Internet connection near Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh

  10. Technology for Emerging Markets Microsoft Research India Understand potential technology users in economically poor communities: • E.g., urban domestic labourers • E.g., rural entrepreneurs Adapt, invent, or design applications of computing that contribute to socio-economic development of poor communities worldwide. Computer-skills camp in Nakalabande, Bangalore (MSR India, Stree Jagruti Samiti, St. Joseph’s College)

  11. Interdisciplinary Research Aishwarya Lakshmi Ratan – Public Administration and International Development Society Society Jonathan Donner – Communications Nimmi Rangaswamy – Social Anthropology Group Group Rajesh Veeraraghavan Impact Impact Understanding Understanding – Computer Science and Economics Indrani Medhi Design – Individual Individual Kentaro Toyama – Computer Science Randy Wang – Computer Science Technology Technology Udai Singh Pawar Innovation Innovation – Physics Rikin Gandhi – Astrophysics

  12. Outline The Challenge of India The Five Stages of Design Three Projects from MSR India • Warana Unwired • MultiPoint • Text-Free User Interfaces The Last Stage?

  13. The Five Stages of Design Good design comes out of deepintuition into the user. Deeper Intuition

  14. “Kids in the developing world need the newest technology, especially really rugged hardware and innovative software.” – Nicholas Negroponte, from the One Laptop Per Child website (2005) Exuberance

  15. “The world's poorest two billion people desperately need healthcare, not laptops.” – Bill Gates (WRI Conference, Seattle, 2000) Realization

  16. Outline The Challenge of India The Five Stages of Design Three Projects from MSR India • Warana Unwired • MultiPoint • Text-Free User Interfaces The Last Stage?

  17. Warana Unwired Rajesh Veeraraghavan

  18. Agriculture in India Over 60% of population in agriculture Mostly small and marginal farmers with 1-3 acres of land Average income of $1-2 per day Wonder

  19. “Warana Wired Village Project” Sugarcane cooperative 70 villages, 70000 farmers Asia’s first “Bridging Digital Divide” pilot (1998) Wonder

  20. Rural PC Kiosks Factory FTP PC Landline phone FTP PC enabled Kiosks Standard PC network FTP Warana Farmer DB Weigh stations 54 kiosks in 54 villages Cost: Rs.2.5 crores (US$500,000) Exuberance

  21. Original Goals Allow farmers to… • Check market price information • Provide agricultural advice to farmers • Conduct land-record transactions • Surf the Internet • And, do it all with a private business model! Exuberance

  22. Original Goals Allow farmers to… • Check market price information • Provide agricultural advice to farmers • Conduct land-record transactions • Surf the Internet • And, do it all with a private business model! Realization

  23. Actual Use Internal account MIS: • Issue harvesting permit • Buy fertilizer through credit • Get paystub • Query quantity of sugarcane harvested Realization

  24. Mounting Challenges High maintenance cost Intermittent power Network flaky PC not optimally used! Realization

  25. The Problem Can we preserve the functionality of the existing PC based system while making the entire system cheaper and more effective? Realization

  26. The Solution: Warana Unwired! PC-based kiosks SMS-enabled mobile phones Adjustment

  27. Original PC-Based Set-Up Factory FTP PC Landline phone FTP PC-enabled kiosks Standard PC network FTP Warana Farmer DB Weigh stations Adjustment

  28. GSM/CDMA SMS network New Mobile-Based Set-Up Factory SMS PC Windows Mobile Remote APIs SMS SMS-enabled phones Standard PC network SMS Warana Farmer DB Weigh stations Adjustment

  29. Warana Unwired – Results 24-hour access to services • 6000 SMS processed 80% of requests for getting sugarcane output 1238 unique farmer requests Response time on harvesting data. • Original: 15 days PC: 2 days  Mobile: immediate Telcos’ interest has perked up. Neighboring cooperatives have expressed interest. Adjustment

  30. Warana Unwired– Estimated Cost Savings Costs COST DETAILS: Common cost: Kiosk rent, Kiosk salary SMS cost: 50 paise/SMS GPRS per byte cost: 7000 times cheaper than SMS cost High Maintenance cost: UPS battery, Hard disk, printer, monitor Units: Rs Savings over PCs 1 million Rupees /54 villages/1 year ($22,000) No GPRS coverage Low end phones do not support GPRS SMS data plans are dropping Adjustment

  31. Qualitative Results – Solution Truly Mobile Adjustment

  32. Farmer Response Farmer from pilot village expresses initial disbelief… Once he sees it on the phone, he gets excited and says, “Barabar hai, eh tho bahuth accha hai.” “The information is exact and it is very good.” Farmer from another village demands access… We tried to tell them that we were in a testing phase, to ensure that the system worked; the farmer replied, “I saw messages are coming on the mobile phone. There is no problem. So where is the question of success?” Adjustment

  33. Status So far… • Successful replacement of kiosks in seven villages. System in operation since October 2006. • Expansion to other villages in cooperative To do… • Analysis of feedback and surveys for concrete impact • Pilots with other cooperatives Adjustment

  34. Outline The Challenge of India The Five Stages of Design Three Projects from MSR India • Warana Unwired • MultiPoint • Text-Free User Interfaces The Last Stage?

  35. MultiPoint Udai Singh Pawar, Joyojeet Pal (UC Berkeley), Kentaro Toyama

  36. Education in India 300M children aged 6-18; 210M enrolled in school; 105M actively attending. Mostly small and marginal farmers with 1-3 acres of land Teachers poorly trained and frequently absent Rural school in Chinhat, Uttar Pradesh Wonder

  37. Rural Education: Problems Child labour Teachers multitasking Parents uninvolved Frequent maintenance of PCs required No toilets No permanent building No textbooks Irrelevant curriculum No walls Intermittent electricity Poor pay for teachers No supplies Terrible student-teacher ratio UPS broken Heat Caste discrimination Teacher absenteeism Poor retention rates Teachers not computer literate Many children per computer Religious discrimination Student illness Students hungry Wonder

  38. Rural Education: Problems Child labour Teachers multitasking Parents uninvolved Frequent maintenance of PCs required No toilets No permanent building No textbooks Irrelevant curriculum No walls Intermittent electricity Poor pay for teachers No supplies Terrible student-teacher ratio UPS broken Heat Caste discrimination Teacher absenteeism Poor retention rates Teachers not computer literate Many children per computer Religious discrimination Student illness Students hungry Exuberance

  39. PCs in Rural Education 5-10% of primary schools in India already have a PC. PC classrooms generally used to “babysit” students as teacher teaches other classes. Typically, 2-6 PCs per primary school. Exuberance

  40. At school after school… One PC, many children. Realization

  41. MultiPoint: Solution Provide a mouse for every student • One cursor for each mouse, with different colours or shapes • USB mice • Have tried up to 20 • Content modified • Game-like environment Adjustment

  42. MultiPoint: Demo Adjustment

  43. MultiPoint: Results Preliminary user studies [ICTD2006] • Questions • Can students understand MultiPoint paradigm? • How do children interact with MultiPoint? • Does MultiPoint increase engagement? • Methodology • Trials: • 20 min single mouse • 20 min MultiPoint • 10 min free play • 3 trials of 6-10 children Before Adjustment

  44. MultiPoint: Early Results • Everyone wants a mouse. • Girls more likely to share than boys. • Kids understand MultiPoint immediately. • All students more engaged for longer periods of time. • Even children without mice engage longer. • Self-reporting is positive. • Exception: one student didn’t like MultiPoint because of competitiveness Before After Adjustment

  45. MultiPoint: Advantages Incentives aligned • Cost effective: One computer + 5 mice comes to ~$100 per child. • Content authors can adapt to paradigm • Government / administrators can claim better use of computers • Teachers can keep more students entertained • Students have more fun (cf., multi-player computer games) Adjustment

  46. MultiPoint: Current Work Current work • Software SDK for content writers to be released in August 2006 • Technical features to maximize educational value of MultiPoint • More user studies to test pedagogical value • Pilots with NGOs in India • Hoping to disseminate beyond India New hypothesis: Better for primary education than one PC per child? Adjustment

  47. Outline The Challenge of India The Five Stages of Design Three Projects from MSR India • Warana Unwired • MultiPoint • Text-Free User Interfaces The Last Stage?

  48. Text-Free User Interfaces Indrani Medhi, Kentaro Toyama

  49. Illiteracy 1-2 billion illiterate population in the world. 98% live in developing countries. India’s rate of literacy (optimistically) estimated at ~60%. Wonder

  50. Target Users Women from several Bangalore slums Informal sector jobs Income range: INR 800-2500 (USD 20-50) per month Illiterate or semi-literate Most have never seen a PC (those who have seen, only in their employers’ homes; but, not allowed to touch) Wonder

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