The Ins and Outs of HCI for Development

We present an empirical analysis of HCI for development (HCI4D), a growing research area aimed at understanding and designing technologies for under-served, under-resourced, and under-represented populations around the world. We first present findings from our survey of 259 HCI4D publications from the past six years and summarize how this research has evolved, with an overview of the geographies it covers, technologies it targets, and its varied epistemological and methodological underpinnings. We then discuss qualitative findings from interviews we conducted with 11 experienced HCI4D researchers, reflecting on the ground covered so far Including computing and research trends, community-building efforts, and thoughts about 'development' - as well as challenges that lie ahead and suggestions for future growth and diversification. We conclude by summarizing the contributions our paper makes to HCI researchers inside the HCI4D community as well as those outside of it, with the goal of enriching discussions on how HCI can further benefit populations around the world.

[1]  Alexis Hope,et al.  Adapting collaborative radiological practice to low-resource environments , 2012, CSCW.

[2]  Anirudha N. Joshi,et al.  Supporting treatment of people living with HIV / AIDS in resource limited settings with IVRs , 2014, CHI.

[3]  Thomas N. Smyth,et al.  Tweet to trust: social media and elections in West Africa , 2013, ICTD.

[4]  Emma Brunskill,et al.  Evaluating the accuracy of data collection on mobile phones: A study of forms, SMS, and voice , 2009, 2009 International Conference on Information and Communication Technologies and Development (ICTD).

[5]  K. Toyama,et al.  What Constitutes Good ICTD Research , 2009 .

[6]  Rahmad Dawood,et al.  Supporting the information needs of mobile microentrepreneurs in the developing world: the case of Indonesian food cart vendors , 2010, ICTD.

[7]  Jonathan Donner,et al.  Research Approaches to Mobile Use in the Developing World : A Review of the Literature , 2007 .

[8]  Joyojeet Pal,et al.  ICTD state of the union: Where have we reached and where are we headed , 2009, 2009 International Conference on Information and Communication Technologies and Development (ICTD).

[9]  Rajesh Veeraraghavan,et al.  Warana Unwired: Replacing PCs with mobile phones in a rural sugarcane cooperative , 2007, 2007 International Conference on Information and Communication Technologies and Development.

[10]  Heather Underwood,et al.  The PartoPen in practice: evaluating the impact of digital pen technology on maternal health in Kenya , 2013, ICTD.

[11]  Gaetano Borriello,et al.  Improving community health worker performance through automated SMS , 2012, ICTD.

[12]  Albrecht Schmidt,et al.  Utilizing multimedia capabilities of mobile phones to support teaching in schools in rural panama , 2011, CHI.

[13]  Steven J. Jackson,et al.  Repair worlds: maintenance, repair, and ICT for development in rural Namibia , 2012, CSCW.

[14]  Janaki Srinivasan.  Looking beyond 'information provision': the importance of being a kiosk operator in the sustainable access in rural India (SARI) project, Tamilnadu, India , 2010, ICTD 2010.

[15]  Eric A. Brewer,et al.  The case for technology in developing regions , 2005, Computer.

[16]  Edward Cutrell,et al.  "Yours is better!": participant response bias in HCI , 2012, CHI.

[17]  Kentaro Toyama,et al.  Designing mobile interfaces for novice and low-literacy users , 2011, TCHI.

[18]  William Thies,et al.  Emergent practices around CGNet Swara, voice forum for citizen journalism in rural India , 2012, ICTD.

[19]  D. Holdstock.  Past, present--and future? , 2005, Medicine, conflict, and survival.

[20]  Paul Dourish,et al.  Postcolonial computing: a lens on design and development , 2010, CHI.

[21]  Tapan S. Parikh,et al.  Avaaj Otalo: a field study of an interactive voice forum for small farmers in rural India , 2010, CHI.

[22]  E. Diczfalusy,et al.  The past, present and future , 1999, International journal of gynaecology and obstetrics: the official organ of the International Federation of Gynaecology and Obstetrics.

[23]  Gaetano Borriello,et al.  Field evaluation of a camera-based mobile health system in low-resource settings , 2014, MobileHCI '14.

[24]  Gary Marsden,et al.  After access: challenges facing mobile-only internet users in the developing world , 2010, CHI.

[25]  William Thies,et al.  Utilizing DVD players as low-cost offline internet browsers , 2011, CHI.

[26]  Kentaro Toyama,et al.  Intermediated technology use in developing communities , 2010, CHI.

[27]  Yvonne Rogers,et al.  Understanding sustained community engagement: a case study in heritage preservation in rural argentina , 2014, CHI.

[28]  Andrea Forte,et al.  "Facebook is a luxury": an exploratory study of social media use in rural Kenya , 2013, CSCW.

[29]  Joyojeet Pal,et al.  Play and power: a ludic design proposal for ICTD , 2013, ICTD.

[30]  Cynthia Putnam,et al.  Computer games in the developing world: The value of non-instrumental engagement with ICTs, or taking play seriously , 2009, 2009 International Conference on Information and Communication Technologies and Development (ICTD).

[31]  Matthew Kam,et al.  Human computer interaction for international development: past present and future , 2011 .

[32]  Kathleen Diga,et al.  African ICTD research (or the lack thereof) , 2011, INTR.

[33]  Gary Marsden,et al.  Fair Partnerships - Working with NGOs , 2009, INTERACT.

[34]  Vanessa Frías-Martínez,et al.  Mobilizing education: evaluation of a mobile learning tool in a low-income school , 2012, Mobile HCI.

[35]  George Sciadas,et al.  The impact of public access to ICTs: findings from a five-year, eight-country study , 2013, ICTD.

[36]  Mark Warschauer,et al.  Infrastructures for low-cost laptop use in Mexican schools , 2011, CHI.

[37]  Ilda Ladeira,et al.  Teaching with storytelling: an investigation of narrative videos for skills training , 2010, ICTD.

[38]  Gaetano Borriello,et al.  Integrating ODK Scan into the community health worker supply chain in Mozambique , 2013, ICTD.

[39]  Daniela Karin Rosner,et al.  Designing for repair?: infrastructures and materialities of breakdown , 2014, CSCW.

[40]  John F. Canny,et al.  Mobile-izing health workers in rural India , 2010, CHI.

[41]  Edward Cutrell.  Technology for emerging markets at MSR india , 2011, CSCW '11.

[42]  Alex S. Taylor,et al.  Out there , 2011, CHI.

[43]  Thomas N. Smyth,et al.  Notes from the Field Stories from the Field : Reflections on HCI 4 D Experiences , 2009 .

[44]  Nicola J. Bidwell,et al.  Moving the centre to design social media in rural Africa , 2016, AI & SOCIETY.

[45]  Luis Fernando Baron-Porras,et al.  The changing field of ICTD: content analysis of research published in selected journals and conferences, 2000--2010 , 2012, ICTD '12.

[46]  Neha Kumar,et al.  The mobile media actor-network in urban India , 2013, CHI.

[47]  Yvonne Rogers,et al.  Does he take sugar?: moving beyond the rhetoric of compassion , 2013, INTR.

[48]  Trina Gorman,et al.  Impact of Low-Cost, On-demand, Information Access in a Remote Ghanaian Village , 2010, 2011 IEEE Global Humanitarian Technology Conference.

[49]  Edward Cutrell,et al.  Using automated voice calls to improve adherence to iron supplements during pregnancy: a pilot study , 2013, ICTD.

[50]  Nicola J. Bidwell,et al.  Walking and the social life of solar charging in rural africa , 2013, ACM Trans. Comput. Hum. Interact..

[51]  Rebecca E. Grinter,et al.  HCI4D: hci challenges in the global south , 2007, CHI Extended Abstracts.

[52]  Nitendra Rajput,et al.  Experiences designing a voice interface for rural India , 2008, 2008 IEEE Spoken Language Technology Workshop.

[53]  Gaetano Borriello,et al.  Open data kit: tools to build information services for developing regions , 2010, ICTD.

[54]  Kentaro Toyama,et al.  Numeric paper forms for NGOs , 2009, 2009 International Conference on Information and Communication Technologies and Development (ICTD).

[55]  Edward Cutrell,et al.  How bad is good enough?: exploring mobile video quality trade-offs for bandwidth-constrained consumers , 2012, NordiCHI.

[56]  Susanne Bødker,et al.  When second wave HCI meets third wave challenges , 2006, NordiCHI '06.

[57]  Matthew Kam,et al.  Designing digital games for rural children: a study of traditional village games in India , 2009, CHI.

[58]  Kentaro Toyama,et al.  Human-Computer Interaction and Global Development , 2010, Found. Trends Hum. Comput. Interact..

[59]  Savita Bailur,et al.  The complex position of the intermediary in telecenters and community multimedia centers , 2012 .

[60]  Rajesh Veeraraghavan,et al.  Digital Green: Participatory video for agricultural extension , 2007, 2007 International Conference on Information and Communication Technologies and Development.

[61]  Kentaro Toyama,et al.  Managing microfinance with paper, pen and digital slate , 2010, ICTD 2010.