Communications of the ACM - Special issue Participatory Design
interactions
A survey of user-centered design practice
Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
PDC 04 Proceedings of the eighth conference on Participatory design: Artful integration: interweaving media, materials and practices - Volume 1
The Challenges of Technology Research for Developing Regions
IEEE Pervasive Computing
Claim mobile: engaging conflicting stakeholder requirements in healthcare in uganda
ICTD'09 Proceedings of the 3rd international conference on Information and communication technologies and development
Human–Computer Interaction and Global Development
Foundations and Trends in Human-Computer Interaction
Experiences with bulk SMS for health financing in Uganda
CHI '12 Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems
The evolving braid: how an organization in Uganda achieved reliable communications
Proceedings of the Sixth International Conference on Information and Communication Technologies and Development: Full Papers - Volume 1
| Hi-index | 0.01 |
This paper looks back at the deployment of Claim Mobile, a smartphone-based data collection application developed for a non-governmental organization (NGO) in Southwest Uganda. This NGO subsidizes health facilities by paying for medical services on the basis of claims submitted after the patient consultation, targeting treatment of 99,000 clients between 2006-2011. I successfully tested Claim Mobile in Summer 2008, processing 35 claims over two weeks, and then discontinued it six months later, when it became apparent that integration and scale-up of the technology would be problematic for the NGO. In addition, many issues we hoped to address through technology had been addressed through program management changes instead. I find that a) the context motivating the technology changed over time, b) simpler solutions can be as effective as new technologies, and c) prioritizing the needs of the NGO required abandoning the deployment of Claim Mobile. Thus this paper presents the value of learning from failure in the process of designing for users in developing regions.