Adebesin, FKotzé, PaulaGelderblom, H2010-12-062010-12-062010-11Adebesin, F, Kotzé, P and Gelderblom, H. 2010. Impact of usability on efforts to bridge the digital divide. 4th International Development Informatics Association Conference, Cape Town, South Africa, 3-5 November 2010, pp 21978-0-620-47590-7http://hdl.handle.net/10204/45984th International Development Informatics Association Conference, Cape Town, South Africa, 3-5 November 2010There 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.enDigital divideField evaluationICT for developmentUsability evaluationDigital doorwayConference PresentationAdebesin, F., Kotzé, P., & Gelderblom, H. (2010). Impact of usability on efforts to bridge the digital divide. http://hdl.handle.net/10204/4598Adebesin, F, Paula Kotzé, and H Gelderblom. "Impact of usability on efforts to bridge the digital divide." (2010): http://hdl.handle.net/10204/4598Adebesin F, Kotzé P, Gelderblom H, Impact of usability on efforts to bridge the digital divide; 2010. http://hdl.handle.net/10204/4598 .TY - Conference Presentation AU - Adebesin, F AU - Kotzé, Paula AU - Gelderblom, H AB - 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. DA - 2010-11 DB - ResearchSpace DP - CSIR KW - Digital divide KW - Field evaluation KW - ICT for development KW - Usability evaluation KW - Digital doorway LK - https://researchspace.csir.co.za PY - 2010 SM - 978-0-620-47590-7 T1 - Impact of usability on efforts to bridge the digital divide TI - Impact of usability on efforts to bridge the digital divide UR - http://hdl.handle.net/10204/4598 ER -