Need to strengthen social usability of mobile technology

Sep 19, 2008

Need to strengthen social usability of mobile technology

Indian Scenario / Article 8.

Sept 2008, HCI Vistas Vol-IV

Author: Dr. Dinesh Katre

How best can mobile technology support social causes?

USID Foundation must be thanked and applauded for selecting such thought provoking topic for the panel discussion during the conference at Bangalore. Through this brief article, I share with you the information gathered during my study for this panel discussion. I also wish to share my insights with you, as the revelations of this study indicate many opportunities for user experience professionals. Design and engineering students along with NGOs can take up exciting projects to help the social cause and enhance the social capabilities of mobile technology.

This article focuses on ’social usability of mobile’ in terms of social development and constructive use of mobile for a positive social change. Let us first understand the difference between personal and social usability.

Personal Usability- Focuses on addressing the needs and concerns of an individual. It pays great dividends to the company in terms of business and customer satisfaction!

Social Usability- Focuses on addressing the needs and concerns of society at large, in terms of impact across masses. It may or may not make business sense.

Rural Mobile Penetration

This topic is very relevant to India, as there are plenty of burning social issues needing solutions. India is witnessing exponential growth of mobile subscribers, from 300 million this year to 560 million by 2012, as projected. However, 65% of rural geography of India is still waiting to be tapped by mobile service providers. As per the report of Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), rural subscribers form only 21% of the total mobile subscribers in India. On the whole, rural mobile penetration is less than 5%.

Improving the reach of mobile in rural areas should be our top priority, as most of the social issues like illiteracy, epidemics, natural calamities, poverty, unemployment, water scarcity, female foeticide, superstitions, etc. are faced prominently by the rural population. You must be wondering what has mobile to do with all this?

As per the GSM Associations report, our planet has over 3 billion mobile subscribers. If you consider the total population of world i.e. 6.6 billion, mobile phones are spreading very rapidly. Mobile phone, like a trusted companion walks along with us in the most private and public places! It is the most powerful source of information and a medium of communication. The fusion of mobile telephony with multiple gadgets (computer, internet, television, radio, camera, variety of sensors, and what not) makes it a fairy tale magic wand cum cristal ball! The biggest challenge is how innovatively can we use its immense potential for a desired social transformation.

Lack of value bias

Whether you wish or not mobile technology is impacting our lives. But there is no way to ensure whether this impact is constructive or destructive. I sincerely believe that-

Any technology is born barbaric until we humanize it, socialize it and civilize it!

During our discussion at USID conference, Kentaro Toyama aptly interpreted my standpoint as €˜lack of value bias in mobile technology€™. I have already elaborated this point of view about technology, as part of my article titled ‘prism of user experience design’ earlier. He added further that mobile technology is like a gun, which can be used for self-defense or to kill somebody. Use of mobile technology too manifests in both socially responsible as well as irresponsible ways. Let us consider the examples of its constructive and destructive use.

Constructive social use

Mobile has been helpful for rescue operations during floods, cyclones and disaster management. Blood banks in Kenya send SMS updates about the stock to local hospitals. There are examples of using SMS for sex education, HIV awareness creation, sending weather updates to fisherman and market information to farmers, etc. PDA phones are also used for capturing medical data of villagers. There are reports that discuss how mobile phones are helping in poverty alleviation. SMS polls by television game shows and news channels are rooting the democratic values even deeper. These examples are eloquent enough to tell what cell phones are capable of.

Destructive social use

At the same time, hoodlums are also busy circulating bomb hoax SMSs and pornographic MMSs to cause social havoc. Mobile communication has given boost to all types of business activities. But we can€™t ignore that drug dealers, prostitutes, burglars, terrorists and other dangerous anti-social elements are also causing tremendous social nuisance using the power of mobile technology. Due to absence of value bias the technology is empowering angels and evils equally! There is a need to build socially responsible mobile applications that are embedded with human values. It is also important to note the psychological impact on mobile users (such as social alienation), camera-phones invading the privacy of people, accidents caused by cell phone distraction, health hazards due to electromagnetic radiation of mobile stations, neck problems, and the recent BlackBerry Thumb (Repetitive Stress Injury). In the following deliberation, some case studies are presented from usability perspective.

Social usability of ‘condom a capella ringtone’ (HIV awareness campaign)

At the beginning of the panel discussion, I carried out a quick survey on the much hyped up ‘condom ringtone’, the HIV awareness campaign produced by BBC World Service Trust and funded by Melinda Gates Foundation. Out of the 100+ conference attendees, we found that only 3 persons (including myself) had downloaded this ringtone, though almost all of them were aware of this campaign. Out of these three persons none was actually using this ringtone on their mobile device. The ringtone consists of musical recitation of the word €˜condom€™ in western and stylized accent, which is not understandable to an average Indian.

Secondly, I doubt to what extent the conservative society in India will accept the idea of breaking out with a condom ringtone in public places. Many would find it extremely embarrassing. It is against the socio-cultural mindset of Indians, which can not be changed overnight. I feel that a deeper study of social psychology of Indian population is necessary to understand the socio-cultural values that make them so conservative and apprehensive about this topic. Seemingly, the television advertisement of this campaign has generated more hype than the use of actual ringtone. The ad is quite obscure and indirect. I understood this advertisement only after reading an article about this campaign in Times of India. I am yet to see anyone using this ringtone in public.

This communication is reaching the educated urban population, which is mostly aware of HIV disease and its prevention. HIV awareness is required more in the lower economic strata, where mobile penetration is very poor. The message does not seem to be reaching where it should. The campaign is surely helping Microsoft in goodwill creation and establishing a socially responsible brand for their business. The creative campaign designers will surely bag an award amidst an elite gathering. But how much has this campaign actually helped the social cause is a matter of investigation. Serving a social cause through mobile technology needs much more serious impact analysis.

Idea’s education-for-all campaign

Idea’s ‘education for all’ campaign focuses on education of girl children, an important social issue. It presents a dreamy vision of how mobile technology is helping this cause. Great brand building strategy! is what we can say about this campaign. e-learning and interactive multimedia has been around for last two decades. The technology providers always talk in terms of possibilities. Effectiveness of learning through electronic media is still debated and doubted by many. Use of mobile for education is undoubtedly a very imaginative concept but there is a need to focus on actual impact.

Use of mobile technology during Bihar floods and Gustav hurricane

I also tried to observe the difference in use of mobile phone for evacuation purpose during the recent Kosi flood in Bihar, India and Gustav hurricane in America. There are news reports on how cell phones turned savior in flooded Bihar. But what we find is that cell phones were used only for making phone calls and sending SMSs to seek help. Aid for flood victims is also being raised using SMS. Is that all one can do using mobile technology? Let us see how mobile was used during Gustav hurricane.

During the fury of Gustav hurricane the mobile companies offered special services, free SMS, free phone calls, text message charity for collection of funds and much more. Callers were also helped with mobile alerts, GPS positioning, emergency services notification, emergency calls and emergency directions. Mobile service providers strengthened their networks to ensure that their subscribers face no communication failure in the time of emergency.

I feel that evacuation plans, precautionary guidelines, dos and don’ts for flood hit villages, weather forecasts, and other helpful information could have been circulated through SMS to Bihar flood victims. The rescue operations could have been synchronized more effectively. Mobile service providers could have played a more proactive role to help their customers in Bihar. Even before I finish writing this para, there is a news of floods in Nashik and coastal areas of Orissa. Lessons need to be learnt faster, as it is costing us lives of people.

Need to strengthen social usability of mobile

If the flood affected villagers are to be helped / guided through mobile messaging, which language would they prefer? English? The villagers in Bihar would have understood the evacuation plans in English? Is Hindi SMS well supported on Mobile handsets? No! Would illiterate villagers understand SMS instructions in Hindi? No! How would the illiterate villagers send SMS? Pictorial language? Have we defined a pictorial SMS script for illiterate villagers? No!

Present mobile handsets require multiple keystrokes to type the desired Devnagari letter. While standing on the rooftop of a sinking hut, do you think it is possible to type a rescue SMS in Hindi or any other Indian language? Seems very difficult!

Socially useful applications with basic technological extensions given below are essential for enhancing the social usability of mobile. Translators from English to regional languages- It will help those people who do not understand English. Text-to-speech for regional languages- Illiterate people can be helped with reading the text in regional languages. Speech-to-text-for regional languages- Illiterate people can be helped with converting their thoughts into text.

Could there be specially enabled mobile handsets for the people who live in flood prone areas or cyclonic regions? A handset with a big SOS (Save Our Souls) button? Why not?

The collective efforts between mobile service providers, handset manufacturers, technology developers, government agencies, non-government social service organizations, social scientists and user experience practitioners are essential to create constructive social impact using mobile technology. But who wants to work for a social cause? There is no money in social service. Therefore, innovative business models are needed to address the motivational and sustainance requirements, if social usability of mobile technology had to improve.