Warana Unwired

1
Rural Microfinance and IT
Rural Kiosk Entrepreneurs
Sample Projects
Can computers help existing structures for rural
microfinance?
Study on the challenges and uniqueness of rural
kiosk entrepreneurs
MSR India TEM
Aishwarya Lakshmi Ratan Associate Researcher
Nimmi Rangaswamy Associate Researcher
Warana Unwired
Digital Green
Text-Free UI
UIs without text for users who are illliterate
and may never have seen a computer before
Experiments with SMS text-messaging in a
sugarcane cooperative
Video and mediated instruction for
agriculture extension
Rikin Gandhi Assistant Researcher
Rajesh Veeraraghavan Associate Researcher
Indrani Medhi Assistant Researcher
Government and Kiosks
IT and Microentrepreneurs
Simultaneous Shared Access
The states role in rural kiosk projects, with a
focus on Kerala and Andhra
Information ecology of small businesses in
developing markets
Multiplying the value of PCs by allowing many
users to access.
Jonathan Donner Researcher
Udai Singh Pawar Associate Researcher
Renee Kuriyan Research Intern
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Human Computer Interfaces
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The Five Stages of Design
Good design comes out of deep intuition into the
user.
More time, deeper intuition
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Recapitulation
Cyclical process
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General Lessons?

• Spend time with users.
• Accept simple solution, if it works.
• (Surprisingly difficult for technologists!)
• Spend time with users!

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Thank you!

• kentoy_at_microsoft.com http//research.microsoft.com
  /research/tem