Giving children voice in the design of technology for education in the developing world

Of the numerous projects that involve ICTs to solve the problems of the developing world, many are unsuccessful. Reasons reported in the literature include lack of attention to how the human and social systems need to adapt to the new technologies, problems with the intent of the initiators, and lack of user involvement. Focusing on the design of ICT for education and acknowledging the range of complex reasons for possible failure, this article focuses on the lack of involvement of end users (specifically children) in the design and development of ICT solutions. Children in the developing world are not given voice when it comes to the design of technology aimed at providing them with better education. Through examination of the concept of \children's voice" as well as through discussion of a practical design case to support underprivileged children in South Africa, this article shows that 1. listening to children requires that adult co-designers have the correct attitude towards their child partners and that they are committed to really hearing them 2. power relations and context play an important role in the contribution children can make, 3. South African children have the ability to provide essential input into the design of technology for education. The exploration of disciplines such as youth development, the cultural politics of education and childhood studies alongside ICT for development, provides an enriched view on the role of participatory design in the latter field.http://www.journals.co.za/ej/ejour_comp.htmlam201

The value of comparative usability and UX evaluation for e-commerce organisations

The objective of this paper is to investigate the possible value of comparative user experience (UX) or usability evaluations for e-commerce organisations. Poor website usability has been identified as one of the main reasons why users abandon potential transactions. Appropriate evaluation of these sites is therefore essential. A problem with usability and UX evaluation is the lack of trust designers have in the evaluator’s recommendations due to the subjective nature thereof. This paper investigates the possible enhancement of the objectivity of such evaluations through cross-company comparative evaluations, so that designers can assess their design success against that of direct competitors in the market. We conducted an empirical, comparative evaluation of three similar organisations’ e-commerce websites using eye tracking as the primary data collection mechanism, and then demonstrated the potential value and usefulness of the outcomes

Why designers responsible for websites of large organisations disregard basic web design principles

When a large organisation spends a notable proportion of its budget on creating a positive web presence, one would assume the web site to be well designed, usable and to provide a good user experience. This is not always true. In this case study we investigated a large telecommunications organisation based in Africa to determine the value it places on usability and user experience. We evaluated a core function of the web site through an eye tracking usability study and found severe usability problems. This led to an investigation into the reasons for this. Through interviews with web designers in the organisation, we discovered how they view the design process and why they believe that basic, documented design guidelines are not worth following. The results will help management of large organisations understand why web sites fail to achieve their goals and provide pointers on how to address this

TitanTutor : an educational technology solution co-designed by children from different age groups and socio-economic backgrounds

Children should be included in the design process when developing new technology solutions for child users. Involving children from different age groups as well as diverse socio-economic circumstances in participatory design is an unexplored field. In this article we discuss TitanTutor, an educational technology solution that was designed by such a combination of children using cooperative inquiry (CI). Six children aged nine or ten from a disadvantaged community and nine teenagers from privileged circumstances together designed the web-based application that would be used to provide after-school homework support to young children who lack such support. Two distinct user groups are involved—teenage tutors from privileged educational backgrounds and young tutees who live in circumstances where educational support is limited. Our aim was to investigate how existing participatory design methods such as CI should be implemented to successfully design with these groups. We describe the design-evaluation iterations that produced the TitanTutor system. The results show that designing with a mixed team of children has clear benefits but that there are obstacles that have to be overcome to reach successful design outcomes.http://www.elsevier.com/locate/ijcci2019-03-01hj2018Informatic

Contributions from visitor research to CI and ICT4D theory and research methodology

The case study involved the evaluation of a single science centre exhibit in a number of different science centres in a developing country. This illustrates the lessons that Community Informatics and ICT for Development researchers can learn from “Visitor Research” theory and methods. The three contexts identified in The Contextual Model of Learning are seen to shed light on the research process as well as to its original purpose, free-choice learning. A multi-methodological research approach was used and each science centre was described separately so that the different levels of context could be taken into account.http://www.ci-journal.netam2016Informatic

Using eye tracking as a tool to teach informatics students the importance of user centered design

In this article the authors describe how they incorporate eye tracking in a human-computer interaction (HCI) course that forms part of a postgraduate Informatics degree. The focus is on an eye tracking assignment that involves student groups performing usability evaluation studies for real world clients. Over the past three years the authors have observed how this experience positively affected students’ attitude towards usability and user experience (UX) evaluation. They therefore believe that eye tracking is a powerful tool to convince students of the importance of user centered design. To investigate the soundness of their informal observations, the authors conducted a survey amongst 2016 HCI students and analysed student course evaluation results from 2014 to 2016. The findings confirm that students regard the eye tracking assignment as a mind altering experience and that it is potentially an effective tool for convincing future IT professionals of the importance of usability, UX and user centered design.https://www.igi-global.com/journal/international-journal-information-communication-technology/1082am2018Informatic

A blended learning approach for teaching computer programming : design for large classes in Sub-Saharan Africa

The challenge of teaching programming in higher education is complicated by problems associated with large class teaching, a prevalent situation in many developing countries. This paper reports on an investigation into the use of a blended learning approach to teaching and learning of programming in a class of more than 200 students. A course and learning environment was designed by integrating constructivist learning models of Constructive Alignment, Conversational Framework and the Three- Stage Learning Model. Design science research is used for the course redesign and development of the learning environment, and action research is integrated to undertake participatory evaluation of the intervention. The action research involved the Students’ Approach to Learning survey, a comparative analysis of students’ performance, and qualitative data analysis of data gathered from various sources. The paper makes a theoretical contribution in presenting a design of a blended learning solution for large class teaching of programming grounded in constructivist learning theory and use of free and open source technologies.NORAD project of Hawassa University from the third phase of a Norwegian Government-supported project.http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/ncse20hb201