Situating Asynchronous Voice in Rural Africa

Abstract

Abstract. Designing for oral users in economically poor places has intensified efforts to develop platforms for asynchronous voice. Often these aim to assist users in rural areas where literacy is lowest, but there are few empirical studies and design tends to be oriented by theory that contrasts the mental functions of oral and literate users, rather than by local practices in social situations. We describe designing an Audio Repository (AR) based on practices, priorities and phone-use in rural Africa. The AR enables users to record, store and share voice files on a shared tablet and via their own cell-phones. We deployed the AR for 10 months in rural Africa and illiterate elders, who have few ways to use free or low-cost phone services, used it to record meetings. Use of, and interactions with, the AR informed the design of a new prototype. They also sensitized us to qualities of collective sense-making that can inspire new interactions but that guidelines for oral users overlook; such as the fusion of meaning and sound and the tuning of speech and bodily movement. Thus, we claim that situating design in local ways of saying enriches the potential for asynchronous voice.Keywords: Oral users, Rural Africa, Asynchronous voice, Social media. IntroductionMost of the world's 800 million illiterate adults live in economically poor regions; in fact, interpolating Worldbank indicators, in Africa fewer people can read and write than there are cell-phone subscriptions [23]. Cell-phones offer many new opportunities to people in technology-sparse regions but they may also amplify gaps between oral and literate users and this has motivated recent efforts to develop asynchronous voice platforms for rural settings where literacy is lowest. Such efforts include interactive voice applications and services for cell-phones to record and access content produced locally, or by authorities or NGOs [19,27,31,39] or participate in citizen journalism or online social networks [25,29]. However, there are few empirical studies [29] and design tends to be oriented by theory that contrasts the mental functions of oral and literate people, not by practices in social situations. In this paper we describe a system we deployed in rural South Africa to enable users to record, store and share voice files for free. We aim to show that situating design in local ways of saying can inspire new interactions for asynchronous voice; thus, we start by claiming that theory currently orienting design for oral users omits factors that can prompt ideation.

Moving the centre to design social media in rural Africa

“…Bidwell et al 2011a, b;Bidwell and Siya 2013;Bidwell et al 2013aBidwell et al , b, 2014b. Inhabitants devote much time talking to greet, support, learn, gossip or debate and an ambient orality pervades daily life, as they call between homesteads, sing in gardens, whistle to animals and chat whilst they walk to communal resources (Bidwell et al 2013b).…”

“…Thus, LRs routines, problems, values and aspirations shaped data generation and prototype deployment. One LR, Jay, visited Cape Town to discuss with Thomas design issues and first versions of Audio Repository Bidwell and Siya 2013). They spoke of the contrast of the city and Mankosi (Bidwell et al 2013a), of Thomas' experiences in designing and evaluating MDSA (see: Bidwell and Reitmaier et al 2010;Reitmaier et al 2011;Reitmaier 2012) and Jay's experiences in trialling and teaching inhabitants to use MXShare.…”

“…Even in direct transcription, the words of a speaker are signed by their writer (Irobi 2008). I often try to tackle this paradox by authoring with LRs (see : Bidwell et al 2014a;Bidwell and Siya 2013;Bidwell et al 2013a, b;Bidwell et al 2011a). Yet, whilst LRs are integral to my knowledge, the genres of articles reconfigure our experiences in essentializing categories and do not let their bodies speak.…”

Co-designing a Billing System for Voice Services in RuralSouth Africa

“…Communication amongst local people is still mostly oral, so the billing system attempted to replicate oral communication by using IVRs. IVRs are considered to be a limited form of communication, since they do not capture the extra linguistic features of the orality of the Xhosa culture [4]. This may explain why some participants struggle to follow audio prompts, although challenges with IVR have been documented in other scenarios [14].…”

Harambee

“…For some support to that argument see e.g. [46,47,2,35,34,15]. Research on cultural usability evaluation methods suggests that power distance is important for UEMs used in Malaysia [49].…”