Merging experiences and perspectives in the complexity of cross-cultural design

While our cross-cultural IT research continuously strives to contribute towards the development of HCI appropriate cross-cultural models and best practices, we are aware of the specificity of each development context and the influence of each participant. Uncovering the complexity within our current project as an international team with experiences from three different continents reveals a set of challenges and opportunities for growing global design communities

"This might be stupid, but...":participatory design with community displays and postcards

We describe our experiences of designing a digital community display with members of a rural community. These experiences are highlighted by the development of printed and digital postcard features for the Wray Photo Display, a public photo-sharing display designed with the community, which was trialled during a popular village fair where both local residents and visitors interacted with the system. This trial allowed us to examine the relative popularity and differences in usage between printed and digital postcard, and offer insights into the uses of these features with community-generated content and potential problems encountered

Making it “pay a bit better”: design challenges for micro rural enterprise

This paper reports on a field study of small market in Wales undertaken as part of broader research project aimed at developing IT solutions to support rural enterprise. The project is predicated on the assumption that the primary challenge facing rural enterprise is that of scale and that IT solutions could and should add value by enabling growth. The study suggests that many rural enterprises are micro in character, that they are not driven by the need to grow, and that value is and can be added in different ways that reflect the social values oriented to and employed by micro businesses and their consumers. The paper elaborates vernacular understandings of supply chains and their coordination, along with business and consumer motivations to consider alternative possibilities for design that place emphasis on making micro rural enterprise ‘pay a bit better’ rather than scaling it up

Making the Link – providing mobile media for novice communities in the developing world

In this paper we investigate the media needs of low-income mobile users in a South African township. We develop and deploy a system that allows users to download media at no costs to themselves, in order to probe future media requirements for similar user groups. We discover that, not only are the community interested in developmental information, but are just as interested in sharing local music or videos. Furthermore, the community consume the media in ways that we did not expect which had direct impacts on their lives. Finally, we conclude with some reflections on the value of media and the most appropriate ways to deliver it in developing world communities