Skip to content Skip to navigation

New technique to extend computer usage for illiterate

A student of design, Indrani Medhi of Assam, India has developed a design process to expand the impact of technology to those who can't read. She has developed text-free user interfaces (UIs). These are design guidelines that would allow any first-time illiterate person, on first contact with a computer, to immediately realize useful interaction with minimal or no assistance. "Through an ethnographic design process involving more than 400 subjects from low-income, low- literate communities across India, the Philippines, and South Africa, I discovered that there were a number of usability challenges which people experienced while interacting with traditional textbased UIs, on both mobile phones and PCs. In addition to the general inability to read text, the other major challenge was the difficulty in navigating hierarchical menus in current information architectures. I developed design recommendations for non-textual UIs for low-literate users that use combinations of voice, video, and graphics," says Medhi. Medhi's applications are based on a few key principles: extensive use of hand-drawn, semi-abstracted cartoons with voice annotation in the local language, aggressive mouse-over functionality, a consistent help feature, and looping full-context video dramatizing the purpose and mechanism of the application. She has applied these principles to design four applications: job-search for the informal labor market, health-information dissemination, a mobile money-transfer system, and an electronic map. "Medhi has painstakingly and methodically conducted research to understand how to design user interfaces for computing devices such that illiterate and semi-literate users can use them. She has spent a lot of time in the slum communities understanding the needs and aspirations of the people of those communities and their daily lives," says Kentaro Toyama, former assistant managing director of Microsoft Research India. "Indrani developed a robust framework for designing user interfaces for illiterate users. The framework includes obvious recommendations such as using images and voice feedback, but also very subtle insights such as the importance of semi-abstract cartoons rather than photographs or simplified icons, or the allowance for numeric digits in some cultures where people can read numbers even though they can't read words. Indrani also discovered that illiterate subjects, because of their previous inexperience with computing, had other barriers to technology use, including intimidation by the technology, fear of breaking technology, and lack of mental models for how the technology worked. She devised the use of 'full-context videos' with content that featured not only instructional material, but a mini-story about how the technology worked in a real-life scenario," adds Toyama. During her research work, Medhi also discovered a host of nuanced issues beyond strict usability which mediate how a low-literate user interacts with computing technologies. "Such issues include cognitive difficulties, collaboration, cultural etiquette, experience and exposure, intimidation, mediation, motivation, pricing, power relations, social standing, and others. These factors can have far-reaching influence on the design of UIs as well as services for low-literate populations," she says. Medhi is now conducting research in understanding characteristics of the cognitive styles of those with little formal education and how that has implications for UI design. Mowsam Hazarika, Editor, Bijnan Jeuti , a popular science megazine of Assam Science Society , congatulated Indrani Medhi for her innovative achievment.



Comments

priyanka's picture

Simply awesome & interactively G8 efforts by Indrani Medhi ! Keep it up as well as informed us too !

Pages

Add new comment

Assamese Translator

Assam Times seeks English to Assamese translators!
Join our volunteer team.
Email editor@assamtimes.org.

Random Stories

Birth anniversary of Guru Govind Singh celebrated in Udalguri

6 Jan 2018 - 12:13pm | Shajid Khan
UDALGURI: The Sikh community of Udalguri and Darrang celebrated the 350th birth anniversary of Sri Guru Gobind Singh with religious fervour at Tangla in Udalguri on Friday. They celebrated the...

The Roots of Hong Kong’s Crisis

1 Oct 2019 - 8:27am | Henry Huang
Hong Kong, the pearl of the East, yet lives in such a turmoil.  The ongoing political crisis and massive protest have drawn a large amount of international concern and attention.  There are...

A newspaper salesman reads a local newspaper during Janata Curfew at Tezpur on 22-03-2020. Pix by UB Photos

COVID19 menace disrupts normalcy

22 Mar 2020 - 2:13pm | AT News
Guwahati: Normal life renmained totally disrupted under the impact of the Prime Minister 's public curfew call across the nation on Sunday to counter the spread of COVID19 virus that took the lives...

Combined Competitive (Prel.) Examination on Jan 3

19 Dec 2015 - 6:39pm | Abdul Gani
The Combined Competitive (Preliminary) Examination 2015 conducted by Assam Public Service Commission (APSC) will be held on January 3, 2016 (Sunday), said a press release. The status of the...

Other Contents by Author

Hundreds of farmers throng Crop Seminar, namely, ‘Amar Pother, Amar Kotha’, organized by the Doordarshan Kendra, Guwahati in collaboration with the Ministry of Agriculture, Government of India, held at Progeny Orchard and Multipurpose Farm, Baitamari, Bongaigaon on February 18 and participated in an intimate interaction programme with the agricultural scientists and agricultural officers. The seminar was telecasted live by the Doordarshan Kendra, Guwahati in DD 1 and DD 13 (North East) Channel from 3pm to 5.30pm. Debendra Nath Das, Director, Doordarshan Kendra and North East Programme Production Centre ; Nauri Kanta Brahma, Joint Director of Agriculture, Assam; Dr. Sunil...
Dr. Udoy Sankar Saikia, who is currently working as the Associate Director of Applied Population Studies Programme at Flinders University, South Australia has been recently selected for “Vice-Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Teaching” for the year 2011. This award is highest award category in teaching in an Australian University and normally awarded to only one every year. Dr. Saikia has been awarded for his sustained commitment to effective and policy relevant teaching through constructivist curriculum design to foster independent learning and empower students to achieve their goals in life. Udoy Saikia’s achievement as a teacher in an overseas university is...
Under the ambitious Mission Double Cropping that seeks to extend multiple cropping to over two lakh hectares of mono-cropping land within the current rabi session, the State Government today formally launched the distribution process of seeds and fertilizers across the 26 districts.A total of 66,548 quintals of potato seed and 4,000 quintals of mustard seed are being distributed under the project besides bringing under vegetable cultivation an area of 60,000 hectares. This is expected to result in an additional yield of over 118 lakh quintals by the end of the current rabi season.As of now, only 42 per cent (11.88 lakh hectares) of the State’s cropland (28.10 lakh hectares) witness...
DR. Pradip Kumar Sarmah, the founder of Rickshaw bank was today named as a laureate of The Tech Awards 2011, one of 15 global innovators recognized each year for applying technology to benefit humanity and spark global change. The Tech Awards, a signature program of The Tech Museum, and presented by Applied Materials, Inc., selected DR. Pradip Kumar Sarmah from among hundreds of nominations representing 54 countries. This is informed by Mowsam Hazarika, Hony. Media Coordinator, Centre for Rural Development (CRD). “The Tech Awards is an incredible honor, recognizing individuals and organizations whose ideas and execution of those ideas are changing the world,” said Dr....
The Agriculture department will be implementing its ‘mission double cropping’ in all the 26 districts of the State from the next rabi season onwards, under the directive of Assam Agriculture Minister Nilamani Sen Deka.The objective of the mission is to enhance cropping intensity, and its initial phase had covered 12 districts. The programme will cover 1,77,835 hectares of cropland, and during 2011-12 it will extend to 63,800 hectares (mustard), 3,181 hectares (potato), 16,140 hectares (summer paddy), 4,714 hectares (pulses), and 90,000 hectares (rabi vegetables). The mission would integrate several other projects such as disaster mitigation scheme, Chief Minister’s...
A special scheme to promote Jatropha (Bhot Era) cultivation in Assam has been taken by the Department of Agriculture, Assam for production of Bio-diesel. Altogether 137.4 ha area will be covered under this crop, covering 9 districts, namely, Barpeta, Kokrajhar, Kamrup, Darrang, Sonitpur, Nagaon, Marigaon, Karimganj and Hailakandi. Moreover, 26 nos. of demonstration will be conducted for motivation of farmers. The cultivation will be done in waste land of the State. In this context, a two day long training programme on Jatropha cultivation concluded on Tuesday at Patherighat . Pratap Singh Bharali, District Agricultural Officer, Darrang attended the programme as chief guest and stress...
The Agriculture Department of Assam has taken several steps to promote Organic Agriculture in the State under State Plan Sector, 2010-11. In this connection, 785 nos. of demonstration programme of Organic Agriculture (Rice) will be conducted with active participation of the farmers in different districts of Assam. Each demonstration will cover 2 bighas of land. Under this programme, free hand operated sprayer will be provided to the concerned beneficiaries. Vermi-compost will also be provided in the programme. In this context, Basanta Das, Minister for Fishary, Printing and Information...
With a aim to create awareness amongst the famers regarding scientific agriculture and providing on the spot solutions to the farmers’ problem, the Assam Agriculture Department started a unique programme, namely, ‘Gaon loi bolok Karjykhushi ’ ( Let us go the village) throughout the State. Under this programme, the agricultural officers try to listen to the farmers’ problems at village level. In this context, such type of programme was held at Arimari L P School, under Kopati ADO circle, Darrang on 12 July last. Large numbers of farmers participated in the programme, where officers from Agriculture Department explained about on going schemes like, National...
Under food grains (Category II), the Union Agriculture Ministry has given the best performance award for the year 2010-11 to Assam. This was informed by the ministry to Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi through a letter. The award will be given away by the Prime Minister at a function to be held in New Delhi on July 16. It carries Rs 2 crore. Gogoi and State Agriculture Minister Nilomani Sen Deka will receive this award. Last year, that is in 2010-11, Assam was able to produce 52.31 lakh metric tonne foodgrain as per third advance estimate. Likewise during the year, Assam produced a record all time high production of 50.86 lakh metric tonne of rice. The source said that this achievement has...
A special scheme to promote Jatropha (Bhot Era) cultivation in Assam has been taken by the Department of Agriculture, Assam for production of Bio-diesel. Altogether 137.4 ha area will be covered under this crop, covering 9 districts, namely, Barpeta, Kokrajhar, Kamrup, Darrang, Sonitpur, Nagaon, Marigaon, Karimganj and Hailakandi. Moreover, 26 nos. of demonstration will be conducted for motivation of farmers. The cultivation will be done in waste land of the State. In this connection, a State Level Workshop on Biodiesel Production Technique from Jatropha Crop was held at R...