{"id":21327,"date":"2022-05-25T12:43:11","date_gmt":"2022-05-25T10:43:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stage-fp.webenv.pl\/blog\/?p=21327"},"modified":"2022-09-02T15:15:49","modified_gmt":"2022-09-02T13:15:49","slug":"inclusive-design-and-human-centred-tech-solutions-the-future-of-software","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.future-processing.com\/blog\/inclusive-design-and-human-centred-tech-solutions-the-future-of-software\/","title":{"rendered":"Inclusive design and human-centred tech solutions \u2013 the future of software"},"content":{"rendered":"\n


Reforming tech<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Digital anthropology means studying how people use and make sense of technology in everyday life, always considering the context of a particular social group and their environments. A boy in Namibia may have completely different digital experiences<\/strong> than a woman in Brazil, yet there may be some universal qualities that bring them together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n


Digital anthropology and the designing of software solutions<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The anthropological study of relationship between humans and digital-era technology has a growing importance in terms of designing software solutions. <\/p>\n\n\n

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\n Trends like human-centred, inclusive, and responsible design became incredibly important \u2013 they are a response to the problem that generic applications don\u2019t quite fit. <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n\n\n\n

In an ironic way, the more advanced the technology<\/a> gets, the more we realise that we have the capacity to finally do something right \u2013 to tailor make and personalise technology. In this context, diversity shouldn\u2019t be looked upon as an obstacle but rather as a market opportunity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n


Implementation of human-centred technology in business<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Creating human-centred technology is a truly buzzing concept<\/strong> and there are several attempts of implementing it in business<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But there are some obstacles, the main one being the fact that we still go by the default normative, which is typically male, white, middle class, living in the Anglo-Saxon context. Looking East, at the audiences that are outside of those circles, seems alien and extremely risky.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\n Staying in this saturated market and ignoring the majority of the world\u2019s users who are now online seems even riskier. <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n\n\n\n

After all, it\u2019s them who have become the new normative.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n \n Our Discovery Workshop\n \n <\/use>\n <\/svg>\n \n <\/use>\n <\/svg> <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\n\n\n


Is universal cross-culture design possible?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

There is a typical point of view according to which if we go universal, it will come at the cost of personalisation. When you look at culture as practice, you may find that the two of them may come in sync. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A good example is the phenomenon of battery life<\/strong>: people living in Africa and South Asia typically don\u2019t have regular access to electricity, so this was an essential criterion for mobile companies to make it in these contexts by creating long lasting batteries<\/strong>. This served other groups as well including commuter groups, teens on the go, and soon this became a universal demand across borders.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\n A lot of investment and innovation was needed but finally they came up with a good solution. And everybody benefited from it. <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n\n\n\n

If we can shift from identity focus to process focus, we can bring the universal in a way that works. Localization doesn\u2019t have to contradict universal design principles but rather, through this cross-cultural approach, can instil resiliency in design.<\/p>\n\n\n\n


The Next Billion Users<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

In my book The Next Billion Users<\/a> I write about our assumptions regarding the users of the Internet in some regions, stating they are simply wrong. For decades, we\u2019ve been designing for a very tiny part of the human population<\/strong>, leaving two-thirds of the world\u2019s population totally neglected.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\n Many Europeans and Americans are surprised to discover that people who live in poor, authoritarian countries use the Internet for similar reasons we do \u2013 to socialise, to entertain, to find their place in the world. <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n\n\n\n

Yet we are used to the fact that it\u2019s us who decide what\u2019s better for them, designing \u201cgood\u201d things<\/strong>, for example healthcare<\/a> and education<\/a> apps, with little focus on the leisurely end that are often the key motivators for adopting new tech. Those are very instrumental ways, which mean we\u2019re constraining the market and the user practise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n


The future of the Internet<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

So, what about the future of the internet? The romance days of the earlier years are over. Today there is much dystopia about its future, filled with rising distrust, fragmentation, censorship, and manipulation. How do we rethink and reimagine a digital space<\/a> that is inclusive, safe, fulfilling, meaningful, joyful \u2013 basically good for our social well-being? How do we ensure that the internet is truly for everyone?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are some things that will stay universal, like the need for leisure or the beauty of storytelling<\/strong>. We all aspire for freedoms, self-actualization, and meaningful connectivity and our digital behaviour generally reflects these aspirations. But there are some aspects like regulations that are different in different countries, and they will shape the way the Internet is used.<\/p>\n\n\n\n