Impact of usability on efforts to bridge the digital divide

Abstract

There is growing efforts to narrow the digital divide both locally and internationally. One such effort is the Digital Doorway project driven by the Department of Science and Technology (DST) and the Meraka Institute of Council for Science and Industrial Research (CSIR). It involves a non-standard computer system housed in a rugged, custom-designed kiosk. The preloaded software applications run on the Ubuntu Linux operating system, but the interface is not standard Linux. The project has mainly focused on providing physical access to computers in underprivileged communities around South Africa, without any formal usability evaluation of the software installed on the system. Our belief is that unless basic usability concerns are addressed in these types of development projects, the dream of the providing effective access may remain just that – a dream. This paper highlights the important role that usability plays in the drive towards narrowing the digital divide. We report on the outcome of a usability evaluation field study conducted on the Digital Doorway. The results suggest that there is a need for in-house usability standards to guide the various developers (in-house or external) who build applications for the Digital Doorway.