skip to main content
10.1145/1978942.1979153acmconferencesArticle/Chapter ViewAbstractPublication PageschiConference Proceedingsconference-collections
research-article

Adapting usability testing for oral, rural users

Published: 07 May 2011 Publication History

Abstract

Traditional usability methods are of limited use when evaluating systems designed for distant, diverse populations. In this paper, we describe a study conducted in two Ghanaian villages that evaluated an audio computer designed for people living in oral cultures. Informed by ICTD and orality-grounded HCID, we modified existing usability testing practices and we reflect on the utility of these adaptations. We found that conducting a culturally appropriate study often meant forgoing more traditional approaches in favor of flexible, opportunistic methods. We acknowledge the challenges of adapting traditional usability methods for oral, rural users. However, we found that by implementing strategic modifications led by local staff, our study produced valuable, actionable results.

References

[1]
Putnam, C., et al., "Adapting User-Centered Design Methods to Design for Diverse Populations," Information Technologies & International Development, vol. 5, 2009.
[2]
Dumas, J. and Redish, G., A Practical Guide to Usability Testing. Exeter, UK: Intellect, Ltd., 1999.
[3]
Barnum, C., Usability Testing and Research. NewYork: Longman, 2002.
[4]
Winschiers, H., Fendler, J., "Assumptions Considered Harmful," in Usability and Internationalization, ed Berlin: Springer, 2007, pp. 452--261.
[5]
Sherwani, J., et al., "Orality-Grounded HCID: Understanding the Oral User," Information Technologies and International Development, vol. 5, pp. 37--49, Dec 16 2009.
[6]
Medhi, I., Sagar, A., and Toyama, K., "Text-free user interfaces for illiterate and semiliterate users," Information Technologies and International Development, vol. 4, pp. 37--50, 2007.
[7]
Sambasivan, N., et al., "Intermediated technology use in developing communities," Proceedings of the 28th international conference on Human factors in computing systems, pp. 2583--2592, 2010.
[8]
Medhi, I., Prasad, A., and Toyama, K., "Optimal audio-visual representations for illiterate users of computers," Proceedings of the 16th international conference on World Wide Web, p. 882, 2007.
[9]
Medhi, I., Gautama, S., and Toyama, K., "A comparison of mobile money-transfer uis for non-literate and semi-literate users," Proceedings of the 27th international conference on Human factors in computing systems, pp. 1741--1750, 2009.
[10]
Putnam, C., Kolko, B., Rose, E. & Walton, R. (2009)., "Mobile phone users in Kyrgyzstan: A case study of identifying user needs and requirements," in Proceedings of International Professional Communication Conference (IPCC '09), Honolulu, Hawaii, 2009.
[11]
Kolko, B. E., Wei, C, and J.H. Spyridakis., "Internet Use in Uzbekistan: Developing a Methodology for Tracking Information Technology Implementation Success," Information Technologies and International Development, vol. 1, pp. 1--19, 2003.
[12]
Schmidt, C., Gorman, T., Gary, M., Bayor, A. "Impact of Low-Cost, On-Demand Information Access in a Remote Ghanaian Village." Information Technologies and International Development 2010. London.

Cited By

View all
  • (2024)Griot-Style Methodology: Longitudinal Study of Navigating Design With Unwritten StoriesProceedings of the 2024 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/3613904.3642682(1-14)Online publication date: 11-May-2024
  • (2024)Cultivating Spoken Language Technologies for Unwritten LanguagesProceedings of the 2024 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/3613904.3642026(1-17)Online publication date: 11-May-2024
  • (2020)Utilizing Participant Voice in Volunteer TrainingProceedings of the 2020 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/3313831.3376208(1-14)Online publication date: 21-Apr-2020
  • Show More Cited By

Index Terms

  1. Adapting usability testing for oral, rural users
      Index terms have been assigned to the content through auto-classification.

      Recommendations

      Comments

      Information & Contributors

      Information

      Published In

      cover image ACM Conferences
      CHI '11: Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
      May 2011
      3530 pages
      ISBN:9781450302289
      DOI:10.1145/1978942
      Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than ACM must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected]

      Sponsors

      Publisher

      Association for Computing Machinery

      New York, NY, United States

      Publication History

      Published: 07 May 2011

      Permissions

      Request permissions for this article.

      Check for updates

      Author Tags

      1. audio technology
      2. ictd
      3. illiteracy
      4. methodologies
      5. oral cultures
      6. standards
      7. usability testing
      8. user-centered design

      Qualifiers

      • Research-article

      Conference

      CHI '11
      Sponsor:

      Acceptance Rates

      CHI '11 Paper Acceptance Rate 410 of 1,532 submissions, 27%;
      Overall Acceptance Rate 6,199 of 26,314 submissions, 24%

      Upcoming Conference

      CHI 2025
      ACM CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
      April 26 - May 1, 2025
      Yokohama , Japan

      Contributors

      Other Metrics

      Bibliometrics & Citations

      Bibliometrics

      Article Metrics

      • Downloads (Last 12 months)21
      • Downloads (Last 6 weeks)0
      Reflects downloads up to 15 Feb 2025

      Other Metrics

      Citations

      Cited By

      View all
      • (2024)Griot-Style Methodology: Longitudinal Study of Navigating Design With Unwritten StoriesProceedings of the 2024 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/3613904.3642682(1-14)Online publication date: 11-May-2024
      • (2024)Cultivating Spoken Language Technologies for Unwritten LanguagesProceedings of the 2024 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/3613904.3642026(1-17)Online publication date: 11-May-2024
      • (2020)Utilizing Participant Voice in Volunteer TrainingProceedings of the 2020 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/3313831.3376208(1-14)Online publication date: 21-Apr-2020
      • (2018)The talking bookProceedings of the Second African Conference for Human Computer Interaction: Thriving Communities10.1145/3283458.3283462(1-10)Online publication date: 3-Dec-2018
      • (2017)Community-Based User Experience: Evaluating the Usability of Health Insurance Information with Immigrant PatientsIEEE Transactions on Professional Communication10.1109/TPC.2017.265669860:2(214-231)Online publication date: Jun-2017
      • (2017)UX Metrics: Deriving Country-Specific Usage Patterns of a Website Plug-In from Web AnalyticsHuman-Computer Interaction – INTERACT 201710.1007/978-3-319-67687-6_11(142-159)Online publication date: 21-Sep-2017
      • (2016)Designing evaluation beyond evaluating designProceedings of the 28th Australian Conference on Computer-Human Interaction10.1145/3010915.3010965(472-477)Online publication date: 29-Nov-2016
      • (2016)Iterative Design of an Immunization Information System in PakistanProceedings of the 7th Annual Symposium on Computing for Development10.1145/3001913.3001925(1-10)Online publication date: 18-Nov-2016
      • (2016)Moving the centre to design social media in rural AfricaAI & Society10.1007/s00146-014-0564-531:1(51-77)Online publication date: 1-Feb-2016
      • (2014)Research at the marginProceedings of the 13th Participatory Design Conference: Short Papers, Industry Cases, Workshop Descriptions, Doctoral Consortium papers, and Keynote abstracts - Volume 210.1145/2662155.2662188(49-52)Online publication date: 6-Oct-2014
      • Show More Cited By

      View Options

      Login options

      View options

      PDF

      View or Download as a PDF file.

      PDF

      eReader

      View online with eReader.

      eReader

      Figures

      Tables

      Media

      Share

      Share

      Share this Publication link

      Share on social media