upfront - Designing apps for tech newbies

Tech newbies? Where does one find them? It’s not easy, even in the developing world, to find people who don’t use a smartphone. But they’re out there, and Ally has been making mobile apps for some of these novice tech users in various West African countries. In this talk she’ll share some of the lessons she’s learnt along the way about how people who’ve been introduced to technology very recently - usually through cheap, second-hand, car-battery-powered devices - respond to new and shiny ways of interacting with machines.

Transcript

1. Hi!
2. I'm Ally @allyelle
3. I’m a product designer and front-end developer
5. We have offices in → Nigeria → Sierra Leone → Liberia → Guinea
15. Designing for tech newbies
16. Who are they?
17. Hardware
19. Android → Huawei → Lenovo → LG → Samsung (if you're fancy) !
20. Condition → scratched up screens → big rugged covers → glare protection films
21. They probably won't always be connected
22. They might be hard to power
25. Interface
26. WHERE'S IT AT? If elements are offscreen, they're not discoverable.
27. Avoid concealed elements
31. Limit amount of options on one screen
32. Affordance → make the buttons bigger, clickier, uglier → combine icons with labels → clear labelling
33. What does this do?
34. Do animations hinder or help?
35. Both!
36. LOL
37. Animations in form elements = !
38. Animations to describe spatial model = !
39. Clicking is better than typing
40. Touch screens are better than laptops
42. Consistency is key
43. Steal!
44. Ok fine. Borrow. → Facebook → Whatsapp → Gmail
46. Thanks!!