UCD Based Research And Design For Mobile Phone User In Rural China

The project that is discussed in this article was originated from user study on mobile phone user in rural China initiated by Nokia Research Center in Beijing. As a part of the project, the research was focused on the study and design for rural low-income user. The main purpose and content of the research was to acquire demands of rural people based on the field study and figure out some kinds of new mobile phone concepts, paper prototypes and high-fidelity prototypes. The primary technique path was user study based on combination of design and anthropological method which can help to acquire elementary statistics and key findings of rural user and finish the shape and prototypes. The dificulity of the research was how to maintain the coherence of date transfer in the process from user study to design result.This article starts from the definition of user center design, in virtue of the design thinking of UCD to analysis rural user in new context. Particular field studies were carried throuth in Shannxi and outskirts Beijing, then we bring forward three core user features which are child care, family frovider and rural youth. Furthermore, we advanced a particular existing mode of mobile phone in the rural context– family phone. The date and information refered before together engendered key findings of rural mobile phone design. In our study we found that the formal UCD methods are restricted on the demand digging of rural people which depend on a sort of visualization of process optimization and case based methods that come from design flow, however in the anthropological study, participation and interaction are more emphasized. So, in order to get an authentic result we count in the method of anthropology especially some methods of quick ethnography. Furthermore, some emends have been made to adjust to the design process. It is an important innovation point to combine design with anthropological methods together to accomplish a new process that adjust to design study and actual design projects. Another point of this article is to find a conglutinate method in a case whose study and design courses are close attached with each other, which can promote the research to better reflect in the actual design projects.