Supporting community needs for rural water management through community-based co-design

We set out to support three rural communities in Uganda to manage their water supplies using a locally relevant and fit-for-use technological intervention developed with the Community-Based Co-design (CBCD) method. This participatory and inclusive approach allowed us to introduce Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) to communities that are untrained and inexperienced in technology design. We describe the intervention and identify research learnings for CBCD. Our design experience with the communities highlights the barriers and enablers of using the CBCD method with rural users. We conclude with reflections on the use of intermediaries and the issue of reciprocity in community-based ICT for development researc

Using Activity Theory to Understand Technology Use and Perception among Rural Users in Uganda

Implementing technologies in developing communities often involves working with people that have a very different context from the researcher in terms of lower literacy and less experience with technology. Having worked with three rural communities in Uganda and introduced an Information and Communication Technology (ICT) intervention for water management, we use activity theory to analyse people's activities in relation to the use and uptake of the community-based ICT tool. To understand the contextual factors that influence the use of the tool, we proceed from our activity theory analysis and we unpack the perceptions and attitudes that rural technology users have towards technology. Our findings provide insights into what motivates and demotivates people in rural communities to use ICTs. We use our findings to substantiate the relevance of the intangible impacts of ICTs such as empowerment, social cohesion and improved self-worth for rural technology users. We recommend that technology designers be open to the unintended uses of the technologies they introduce in rural communities

Codesigning with communities to support rural water management in Uganda

The use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) in developing regions has gained momentum due to their increasing affordability, particularly in rural areas where other ICT infrastructures for information management are often non-existent. Giving potential technology users, the opportunity to actively engage and contribute to the design of an artefact increases adoption and sustainable use. In this paper, we illustrate our application of community-based codesign (CBCD) that led to the development of an ICT intervention to support water management in three rural communities in Uganda. The community-based system helps water managers to track water users, payments and expenditures in a bid to improve transparency, accountability and trust. We present research learnings of the method and how engagement with rural communities can be improved through the use of intermediaries and paying more attention to community values as well as exercising ethics of reciprocity in community-based ICT initiatives

A Family Health App: Engaging Children to Manage Wellness of Adults

The pandemic of lifestyle-related chronic diseases has led to an advent of personal health informatics, often using mobiles and gamification to persuade individuals to adopt healthful lifestyles. However, this approach can constrain benefits to younger, more technically literate beneficiaries, despite the higher need for PHI in older populations. In prior work, we proposed that children in the household aid in reaching beneficiaries, targeting intermediated use. This study compares the use of two versions of a nutrition and exercise monitoring app in 14 households. One supported logging and occasional SMS reminders while the other added gamification elements. We measure self-determination with respect to each version using pre- and post-tests, also drawing on observation and interview data. Our findings suggest that virtual rewards can enhance use of such systems through intermediaries, via benefits such as increased perceived competence. We highlight the challenges and design implications involved in fostering engagement in our system