The design of accessible and usable mobile services for low literate users

The purpose of this paper is to assert that there is a need to design mobile services that are accessible and usable to low literacy user groups. There is currently an abundant availability of mobile phones supporting mobile services in the general population. However low literacy user groups have limited or no access to these mobile services. One of the challenges affecting access by these users is text and numeric intensity inherent in current mobile applications. Visual interfaces in terms of icons and widgets can provide a solution by minimizing the text intensity of the resulting mobile applications in support of mobile services. The standardization of the design of mobile applications geared for low literacy user groups is incomplete and poses challenges to the design community. Designing a sample mobile application satisfying the needs of low literacy users groups can form a working template which can facilitate the standardization process of mobile services for low literacy user groups. User centered approaches in the design of such an application are necessary for underpinning the needs of low literacy users. Further, a research approach supporting the creation of innovative artifacts enables variety in terms of the building blocks for providing a solution for the research problem. The design science research approach facilitates this requirement and further provides the necessary grounding for the research and as such it is adopted in the research process.