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Social dynamics of early stage co-design in developing regions

Published: 29 April 2007 Publication History

Abstract

Technology arguably has the potential to play a key role in improving the lives of people in developing regions. However, these communities are not well understood and designers must thoroughly investigate possibilities for technological innovations in these contexts. We describe findings from two field studies in India and one in Uganda where we explore technological solutions in the domains of communication, microfinance and education. Two common underlying themes emerge from these studies: (1) local stakeholders can contribute cultural information relevant to design such as needs and practices through interaction with technology artifacts and (2) unique social network structures embedded within communities are crucial to the acceptance and potential adoption of technology. We end with a synthesis of the three experiences that draws some practical lessons for ICT designers to elicit meaningful feedback and participation from local stakeholders in developing regions communities.

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      cover image ACM Conferences
      CHI '07: Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
      April 2007
      1654 pages
      ISBN:9781595935939
      DOI:10.1145/1240624
      Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than ACM must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected]

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      Published: 29 April 2007

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      Author Tags

      1. ICT4D
      2. developing regions
      3. digital divide

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      View all
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      • (2022)Community-based Co-design across Geographic Locations and Cultures: Methodological Lessons from Co-design Workshops in South AfricaProceedings of the Participatory Design Conference 2022 - Volume 110.1145/3536169.3537786(120-132)Online publication date: 19-Aug-2022
      • (2022)Understanding Power Differentials and Cultural Differences in Co-design with Marginalized PopulationsProceedings of the 5th ACM SIGCAS/SIGCHI Conference on Computing and Sustainable Societies10.1145/3530190.3534819(165-179)Online publication date: 29-Jun-2022
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      • (2022)Designing DevelopmentundefinedOnline publication date: 17-Mar-2022
      • (2021)Exploring the Applicability of User-Centred Design Practices in Rural YemenCross-Cultural Design. Applications in Arts, Learning, Well-being, and Social Development10.1007/978-3-030-77077-8_22(277-288)Online publication date: 3-Jul-2021
      • (2020)Attenuated Access: Accounting for Startup, Maintenance, and Affective Costs in Resource-Constrained CommunitiesProceedings of the 2020 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/3313831.3376587(1-15)Online publication date: 21-Apr-2020
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