ConnectOS
An operating system for those in the global south and rural communities with low literacy, low technological literacy with limited access to power, and connectivity.
Problem Identify
1. Most electronic mobile devices are not affordable for our targetted users
2. Users have low access to power and data
3. They have few and limited local health facilities
Design Research
Business Opportunity
- Users in the emerging world are more frequent users of social networks.
- In the past 10 years Africa and South East Asia have seen a vast increase in percentage of online people per capita.
- World Bank estimates the number of unbanked people dropped by 20% from 2011 to 2014 in large part due to mobile money platforms like M-Pesa.
- Median mobile phone user in Africa spends more than 15% of his or her monthly income on their phone bill and another 20% on power.
Current Limitation in the Market
- Most electronic devices are not affordable for our targetted users.
- Users have very low access to power and data.
- It often takes users a long time to banks and health facilities.
User Persona
Based on our research insights, we created the user persona.
I am a farmer and recently obtained an older smartphone from a local NGO.
Learning to operate the phone took some time as the icons were unfamiliar and the phone didn’t support my native dialect. Additionally because of local infrastructure constraints I only have access to Wi-Fi 3 hours a day. A lot of features won’t work properly wihout connection. What’s more, smart phone is way more power consuming than my feature phone.
Competitive Analysis
What is wrong with current mobile OSes?
Design Principles
Early Stages
Design
Style Guide
Maps
To keep the application consistency, we add square buttons instead of rounded buttons for navigation. We use the color orange to create high contrast so users are able to navigate even when they are in a low-light environment.
We finally go for the version in the middle because usability is the first priority for our OS. We don’t want our users, who maybe use a smart phone for the very first time, to be confused with the interface.
The map view on the top, together with color lables, makes time difference much easier to understand. Users won’t have any difficulty telling whether a place is ahead or behind of the current time.
Health
For the health app, we mainly focused on educating and making health resources more accessible for users. In addition to graphs and health data, we added the discover feature to provide training videos, health recipes, and articles for users. It also has a chat function where users can directly communicate with a medical professional.
Music
Other Apps
Calculator
Messages
Tasks