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"If god gives me the chance i will design my own phone": exploring mobile phone repair and postcolonial approaches to design in rural Kenya

Published:07 September 2015Publication History

ABSTRACT

This article focuses on "fundi wa simu," (mobile phone repairers) in rural Kenya and their ideas about mobile phone design. Our study design and analysis were guided by ideas from postcolonial computing; we use our qualitative findings, and outcomes from a drawing exercise, to show existing flaws in mobile phone design, and to explore how repairers' knowledge can lead to handsets that are better suited for rural Kenyans. Our argument is that, by engaging with repairers "[on] their own terms," technologists can expand conversations around designing for the 'developing' world that go beyond building novel smartphone applications. In fact, such conversations can also include reimagining mobile phones, and supporting local repairers' efforts to manufacture them. We conclude by discussing ways to improve upon postcolonial approaches to technology design.

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    • Published in

      cover image ACM Conferences
      UbiComp '15: Proceedings of the 2015 ACM International Joint Conference on Pervasive and Ubiquitous Computing
      September 2015
      1302 pages
      ISBN:9781450335744
      DOI:10.1145/2750858

      Copyright © 2015 ACM

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      Publication History

      • Published: 7 September 2015

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      UbiComp '15 Paper Acceptance Rate101of394submissions,26%Overall Acceptance Rate764of2,912submissions,26%

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