Illiterate Cell Phone Users Rejoice...

Came across the following really interesting bit of research through Bruce Sterling's blog.

Literacy, Communication, Design II

The Motofone is being marketed as a device that amongst other things aspires to "help bridge literacy gaps" including voice prompts to "guide the user quickly and easily through menu navigation, messaging and other functions". It's good to see illiteracy raised to the point where it becomes a marketing feature but I'm also highly aware of the non-trivial challenges that need to be overcome if they are to genuinely meet their stated aims. I've only seen the marketing blurb so I'll make an educated guess to how the feature will be implemented.

If someone can't read or write they'll understand audio prompts right? Well, not quite. Using audio prompts to read out what appears on the screen is unlikely to be the solution because it assumes a general level of technical competency - that what is read out can be comprehended by the listener. To someone without prior experience of using a mobile phone or computer what is a 'folder'? Or 'inbox'? Or 'operator settings'?

That last bit is something that Western culture in general has always been a bit slow to figure out.

Sometimes, people just don't understand what you're trying to do for them.

That is immediately followed by the idea that, sometimes, they really don't need it done.

And then, the hardest thing to accept: Sometimes, they know better than you do.

Is illiteracy a problem in the world? Most definitely. Is a cell phone the illiterate can use going to do much (if anything) to fix that? Nope. But it's a neat usability exercise.

Even the author of the blog, Jan Chipchase, addresses that concept:

Last but certainly not least that it is better to solve the problem (illiteracy), than design work-around solutions for dealing with the problem (illiterate users stumped by text driven device interfaces).

How often do we, as a society and as individuals, come up with a work-around instead of actually solving the problem?

It's all a question of short-term over long-term. Me? I usually try to take the long view (though I'm not always successful).