Indrani Medhi
Industry: Technology
Title: Associate Researcher
Organization: Technology for Emerging Markets Group, Microsoft India
While more than 1.8 billion people currently use a PC, at least 2 billion more remain unable to due to illiteracy. With the development of text-free User Interface (UI) however, Indrani Medhi believes her work provides a viable solution that will enable such members of developing countries access and benefit from the computer.
"The goal of our research is to make assistance-free and useful interaction possible for any first-time, non-literate user of a PC or mobile phone," she says. To achieve that, Medhi studied over 400 low-income subjects and spent over 450 hours in Indian slums, Filipino fishing villages, and South African farms. To combat the subjects' discomfort around technology, her UIs employ hand-drawn graphics with voiced annotations in the local language as well as looped explanatory videos.
"There was a sense of pride among subjects at having handled a PC themselves even before their children had," recalls Medhi. "Most people were thrilled to hear the computer speak in their native language and had their fears allayed when they saw graphics instead of text, so much so that they would ask us when these applications would be available for them to use."
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Last updated June 17 2010: 5:11 PM ET
