Lessons from the field: Bringing digital products to emerging markets

This talk was given at FrontTalks, Yekaterinburg, 16 September 2017.

In the tech industry, we’re constantly chasing innovation – the new and the shiny, the slickest UI, the latest framework, an immersive user experience. We’re understandably excited about the possibilities inherent in a world of powerful hand-held devices, super-fast connections, and a user base with the means and the know-how to buy into whatever next big thing we put out there.

But there exists another kind of digital landscape – places where conditions are imperfect, where networks are flawed, where technical literacy is low, where kilobytes are precious; a world where our carefully-crafted digital experiences stutter and crawl and obfuscate and perplex, and ultimately fail. There are billions of people around the world that now have access to connected smart phones, but many can afford only a few megabytes of data here and there, have low-cost, low-specced smartphones, unreliable electricity sources to charge them, and are learning to use digital interfaces for the first time in their lives.

So how can we make sure that keeping up with the cutting edge won’t exclude people in these fast-growing emerging economies? In this talk we’ll go through examples from working with novice tech users in West Africa and discover how they navigate and comprehend interfaces, input data, and understand screen flows. You’ll gain some insight into the context and the constraints, learn how certain UI patterns and conventions hinder or help, and leave with an understanding of how to include these millions of new users in your product thinking.

Transcript

1. LESSONS FROM THE FIELD Bringing digital products to emerging markets ! @allyelle
2. Who will be using our products in the coming years?
3. THE NEXT BILLION
4. THE NEXT BILLION
5. Most people in the developed world are already connected consumers.
6. Europe 80% connected
7. USA 75% connected
8. Australia 85% connected
9. Canada 88% connected
10. The Next Billion will connect from cities in emerging economies – Lagos, São Paulo, New Delhi, Nairobi.
11. These markets have much lower rates of connectivity.
12. Mexico & Brazil 50% connected
13. South Asia 24% connected
14. Sub-Saharan Africa 22% connected
15. The rate of connectivity in these resource-poor countries has lagged, but is changing rapidly. The cost of mobile data is decreasing, and the availability of cheap handsets is increasing.
16. Cheap smartphones are widely available from street vendors.
17. In Nigeria, 300MB of mobile data can be bought for around 500 Naira (80 ruble).
18. This is opening up new worlds of knowledge, communication, and opportunity for many people.
19. But the barrier to entry still exists. Many people can afford only a few megabytes of data here and there, have low-cost, low-specced smartphones, unreliable electricity sources to charge them, and some are learning to use digital interfaces for the first time in their lives.
20. What can we do to keep lowering the barriers?
21. So... why is an Australian-born, German-resident person talking about this? ! These are both very well-connected, affluent places.
23. I'm Ally Long @allyelle
24. I’m a product designer and front-end developer.
25. I've worked on shiny brand experiences at creative agencies.
27. But I've also worked with NGOs and non-profits on software for public health and markets in West Africa, with partners like UNICEF, WHO, the Gates Foundation, the Institute of Tropical Medicine, and various West African government departments.
28. I've worked on programs for vaccine delivery, polio eradication, Ebola response, and African Sleeping Sickness.
29. The issues were urgent and grave, and the technical challenges were significant, but fascinating.
30. Mapping un-surveyed areas...
31. Designing mobile data collection tools for novice tech users...
32. The logistical challenges of remote, unconnected locations...
33. And doing a lot of this at scale across various countries.
34. Now I'm working with a company called Field Intelligence.
36. We try to take on big public health problems in Nigeria, Central African Republic and beyond, and to prove that they can be solved with the right technology, the right design, and the right market-shaping approaches.
37. Our approach is on solving problems on the ground, collecting insights in the field, being in touch with real users and real problems in hard places.
38. We're working on tools to get life-saving vaccines...
39. through a cold chain system at various levels of government...
40. ... to the children in remote settlements that need them the most.
41. It’s made challenging by poor infrastructure, unreliable power and connectivity, fragmented processes, and constant states of emergency.
42. How do we begin to approach these problems in our products? Poor connectivity, a resource-constrained environment, and a user base with a large portion of novice users – the scale of these challenges are hard to grasp when working in a European context. This talk will guide you through helping users (no matter what their background) to interact in complex systems by giving them simpler, more intuitive ways of working.
43. The typical tech user in Africa...
44. Of course there isn't one.
45. Tech users in Africa fall across a broad spectrum of experience, resources, education, and tech savviness. Many people in West Africa are masters of technology. There are thriving tech scenes. But there are others who are total novices / newbies, this is what I'm focussing on today.
46. Typical devices
47. Smartphones often look something like this...
48. ... or this.
49. Common smartphone brands ! Mostly Android, mostly cheap hardware. — Huawei — Lenovo — Tecno — Motorola — LG — Samsung (if you're fancy) ! — Apple (if you're reeeeeally fancy)
50. Device condition — scratched up screens — cracked screens — low resolution screens — glare protection films — rugged cases
51. Charging ! Finding a working power source is not always easy – sometimes actually very hard. Even if you have electricity, power outages are frequent.
52. If a building in a community has electricity...
53. ... its power points will be very popular.
54. Charging can be slow — A diesel generator takes around two hours to charge a smartphone — Solar power takes 4-5 hours to charge a smartphone
55. Connectivity !
56. Connectivity ! — remote and rural areas have very little cellular coverage — even in built-up areas and cities, network coverage is often poor — broadband internet / wifi very uncommon — buying mobile data is still expensive for many people
57. Try to make your product as offline-friendly as possible
58. Latency Even when you do have a connection, it can be slooooooow.
59. Optimise for responsive UIs — Don't tie UI elements to long-running operations such as network requests — Don’t block navigation — Loading indicators (spinners, progress bars) should be inline
60. Slimmed-down browsing – Opera Mini is popular
61. Phones are o!en turned off To save battery and data, people often turn off their phones. This means background processes are tricky. You need to be smart about the way you use service workers.
62. Touch screens are easier to use than laptops
63. When trialling a project on laptop and tablet devices, we found that people found the tablet version easier to use because: — a lot of people had never used laptops before — inputs were separate from the screen, which was confusing for someone introduced to interfaces via smartphones — it was harder to carry around and charge
64. Gesture-based navigation... ! Gestures like swiping, pull down, pull up are very unintuitive to a novice tech user. Buttons are easier to understand. People learnt these fairly quickly, once introduced to the concept – but it's safer to use gestures as shortcuts to actions that are also accessible by other means.
65. Where's it at? ! If elements are offscreen, they're not discoverable. Where possible, it can be good to use only the visible area of the screen as your canvas, especially if the user needs to take action on the screen.
66. Rather than having a long form...
67. Try splitting it over several steps.
68. Avoid concealed elements in general A good example here is the select tag. People everywhere find those hard to use.
69. Rather than using select tags...
70. Try out other, more visible, options – like radio buttons.
72. Good affordance is vital — make the buttons and actions bigger, clickier, more obvious — clearly label things — combine icons with labels
74. What does this do?
75. People often tap on everything, just to see what it does. It's usually a good idea to build in confirmation dialogues for destructive actions.
76. Animations Animations can be very illuminating, or they can confuse the hell out of users. Be mindful about where and how you use them.
77. Animations in form elements = !
78. Animations to describe a spatial model = !
79. Consistency is key A consistent UI helps people learn and memorise, and has particular advantages for low-literate or non-literate people learning via rote memorisation.
80. Make it fun There's no need to be boring. Inserting personality into your app makes it fun to use and encouraging to learn. Introducing elements of gamification incentivises people to return to your app.
81. Gamification gives people clear feedback when they're on the right path.
82. Steal!
83. Ok fine. Borrow. There are certain apps that almost everyone in Africa uses. If in doubt, look at the navigation patterns and UI patterns common to those apps and emulate them. — Facebook — Whatsapp — Gmail
85. Test on low-end devices
86. Engage with local tech ecosystems
87. Be curious, have empathy.
88. But do the research.
89. African tech consumers are demanding and informed
90. They want clear and reliable mobile solutions
91. The same things ma!er — Communication — Connection — Information — Opportunity
97. Strip everything back to the essentials
98. Know your users
99. Be resourceful
100. “The Next Billion” is the future of the internet
101. Thank you ! @allyelle