Human Computer Interaction / User Experience / Usability Group

There is much to be learned about creating interfaces for non-literate populations. Since this is not a group that most companies target, very little hands-on research has been done with non-literate user groups. Most of what I have learned is theoretical, based on user research on sight-impaired users, or is from very limited case studies. Some of the best information has come from other the projects of RDVP fellows and the work they have done. (Thanks, Aman.)

Here is an excerpt of an interview with David Liddle, whose team developed the Star system in 1978 here in Palo Alto,. The Star system was the forerunner of today's graphical user interfaces (GUIs) like the Mac and Windows.  

In the Intro to HCI (Human Computer Interaction) class I am auditing with Prof. Terry Winograd, project teams have been assigned to perform a "contextual inquiry."

Contextual inquiry involves going out to the field to interview your target users. For those of you who have access to their target users or have people on their team in the field, this is a very good method of starting to gather information with which to build your project requirements.