Orality-Grounded HCID: Understanding the Oral User

Title:Orality-Grounded HCID: Understanding the Oral User
Authors: Jahanzeb Sherwani, Nosheen Ali, Carolyn Penstein Rosé, Roni Rosenfeld
Pages: 13 pp.
ISSN: 1544-7529
Source: Information Technologies & International Development; Volume 5, Number 4, Winter 2009, 37–49, (Special Issue: HCI4D)
Publisher: USC Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism
Date (published): 17/12/2009
Date (accessed): 18/12/2009
Type of information: peer-reviewed article
Language: English
On-line access: yes (pdf)
Abstract:
While human-computer interaction (HCI) methodologies are designed to be general, they have most often been applied in the context of literate end users in the West. These methodologies may, however, need rethinking for application in HCI for the developing world (HCID) contexts, where many of the basic assumptions that underpin the methods may not always hold true. In this article, we present an overview of one factor that is significantly different in the HCID context—the literacy of the end user—by drawing on the literature of orality, and we offer a framework for HCID methodology that we argue is more appropriate for the HCID context. Based on this framework, we then present guidelines for design and user research methodologies in such contexts, highlighting seminal HCID research that corroborates these guidelines.