Africa has the fastest growing mobile ecosystem in the world, growing by more than 40% each year for more than a decade, according to the GSMA, a global organization of cellular operators. On top of that, more than half of the web traffic in Zimbabwe and Nigeria comes from a mobile device – the highest level of mobile internet use in the world (the average percentage of web traffic coming from mobile is 10%). The continent as a whole now has 475 million mobile connections, as reported in a recent Washington Post article.
Many people in Africa are embracing the mobile boom, in both urban and rural areas. GSMA reports that 50 innovation centers have popped up and large companies like Google and Nokia are actively encouraging mobile development by African companies and organizations. As a result, apps, services and mobile websites have been appearing in recent years designed to help everyone from those living in large cities to rural cow herders and fisherman. From Washington Post:
Across sub-Saharan Africa, technology, particularly mobile technology, has transformed the lives of digital-savvy entrepreneurs. While many are forging successful high-tech businesses in urban centers, others are finding ways to help people such as [rural cow herder] Wanjiku prosper in more traditional, low-tech professions such as farming and fishing. Digital tools are also being used to overcome the continent’s obstacles to growth, such as corruption and weak health care, social services and education. …
Mobile technology is improving the lives of some of Africa’s poorest people, in some of the continent’s most remote areas.
A key factor to making sure this mobile surge remains successful is understanding the target audience for each new app. Someone living the the middle of the city (presumably with a decent network connection) who is looking for news about an election is going to have very different needs and wants than a farmer in the middle of nowhere who needs to find a local vet, get information about disease outbreaks or look up the fair market price for livestock. Testing apps designed for rural use inside those new innovation centers is going to leave some glaring holes. Rural Africa is very different than a lab and will present a slew of factors developers (who might not have ever been a fisherman or lived in a rural area) won’t be able to anticipate. In-the-wild testing is the only way to ensure these new apps not only work where they need to work, but are understandable, usable and useful to those who will ultimately be using them on a daily basis. Usability testing, especially when targeting a group of users so different than the developers, is essential. Something may seem easy and useful to you, but you’re not standing next to a river or in a cow pasture trying to access information (that has never been at your fingertips before) on the fly. Listen to your users (or, if you’re using crowdsourced testing, people who closely represent your users) to understand what they want and need and to find out how they naturally interact with mobile apps. (And don’t forget to pinpoint which devices, operating systems, versions and mobile carriers are the most prevalent in your target area.)
Beside physically functioning in rural regions, developers will also need to pay close attention to the culture of the area their app is designed for. Africa has many different tribes that have a strong cultural influence on areas and there are many different languages and dialects that developers might need to account for. For example, iCow, one of the apps highlighted in the Washington Post piece, sends messages in English. While that was surely a conscience decision and hasn’t hindered the app considerably (it’s extremely popular and well-received) it does isolate some farmers.
There also are some drawbacks, [Wanjiku] said. The text messages are in English, but her 74-year-old grandmother speaks only Swahili and her tribal tongue.
The article also reports that farmers in Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, Malaysia, Russia and China are requesting the app. As the developers of iCow consider expanding to other regions and countries, and as they work to get more farmers in their current target area to adopt the app they are going to have to heavily invest in localization testing. When an industry is expanding so quickly, competition certainly isn’t far behind. An app launched in a quickly growing market will only succeed if developers thoroughly test their apps and make sure they are worth using.