Multi-lingualism in India could be the reason why people don’t care what others think, when they talk on the phone. At a broader level it could be because of the level of tolerance we have as a culture that we put up with this or as Hofstede says India as a culture tends to be far less individualistic than say the Americans. Maybe that explains why people don’t care who is overhearing our conversations.

Talking about privacy, I recall those long train journeys where you start the journey as strangers and end it knowing a whole lot about the people sitting around you.

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Posted on 05/18/2007 16:20

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* In Japan it is considered impolite to talk on the phone in public places like the train.
*Long train commutes as most people have in Japan, gave them enough time to learn & use SMS/text services

Interesting cultural learning that. Looks like it is exactly the opposite in India, where people just shout into and over their phones.

Does this stem from a a psychological construct of a person living in a multi-lingual country with myriad communities and dialects, where the individual (erroneosly?) feels that s/he is the only one who understands the language in question, or is it simply that we just don’t care?

Coming to your question on context, my take is that an inventor/researcher typically invents/researches to create/find something for oneself. At most, the individual/team understands the problem to such a detail that they identify with the needs of the user as their own need. In other words, theyt live the problem. And that’s what differentiates a great invention/finding from just another invention/finding.

Did that turn into a rant? Or is there something in there that holds together and communicates the thought? :-)

Nakul

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Posted on 05/17/2007 11:38

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I think you article is thought provoking and very interesting one. At the same time we must appreciate the fact that government is taking the first step of moving towards e-Gov initiative.

The E-Gov initiative and Universal design / usability is very similar to chicken and egg situation. Which comes first?

And the answer is “from where are you looking at?”

Form a system’s perspective both are equally important. But, that does not necessarily answer what comes first?

The true answer is: build the engine first, with basic concept of usability in place.

If you look back in to the history of computers and software development, you will find that initial tools were not very user centered. With time they evolved and became more user-centered. Initial computer systems / tools were very basic supporting the basic needs and were targeted towards advanced users. From that point the initial focus on documentation, interoperability, network, information security, accessibility, etc. is just as the first step.

But, then can we stop at the first step itself. Of course NOT!

If the E-Gov initiative is useful, it has to be equally usable.

Therefore it is very important to understand “who is this user?” we are talking about. In this context the so called user group is very complex and diverse, with varied technology / educational / experience / cultural background.

This leads to something called Social Design. We must have the basic concept of usability in place. Mind well, it need not be perfect (as there is none!) and ready to quickly learn and improve the usability model as the system is in use / evolves.

We must not forget the fact that users keep evolving with the influence of exposure, new technologies, lifestyles and other factors; such as social, cultural, political, etc. and we must be ready to quickly adopt and improvise. Or else highly usable things of today can easily become unusable and redundant, tomorrow.

Therefore there has to be element of Universal Design and Usability in the overall E-Gov initiative, right from the beginning. Or else this whole initiative may fail in no time. But at the same time we can not be adamant about starting from “user end”, as the end user is a moving and nebulous target, at least at this time.

1. We must accept that fact that whichever comes first, both the chicken and egg are integral part of the system. So, we have to include Usability and Universal Design as integral part of E-Gov initiative.
2. We should be flexible enough to work with quick prototypes, fail early, learn quickly and evolve a Human-Centered, usable and robust system through Social Design principles.

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Posted on 04/12/2007 00:38

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