The Technology for Eemerging Markets Group at Microsoft Research India have identified particular patterns of use, content choice, and learning that accompany the adoption of the Internet connected PC by novice users at the workplace for low-income office workers, (i.e. those who are housekeeping staff, drivers, security guards, maintenance crew).
Their exposure to PCs was unrestricted and unmediated.
These workers have an average class 10 education in the local language often from a rural government school, are aged approximately 26 years, and are male.
In the process of observing their use, the MS research team identified particular patterns of use, content choice, and learning that accompany the adoption of the PC by these novice users.
For example, many users actively prefer to use the PC in a group, either because they consider a peer to be the informal instructor as he demonstrates how an application is used, or because the content accessed is meant for group consumption.
The group usage preference also means that all users are aware of their peers’ usage and abilities.
Applications that have a game-based interactive format, with scores per user, allow for a healthy competitive approach to learning and using that application.
This is especially true for e-learning applications.
Some workers spend several weeks just observing others’ usage before touching the PC themselves.
Music and videos constitute the most popular content accessed, and these are consumed in groups of 4 to 5 at a shared access machine.
The creation of resumes and other documents is also often a group exercise.
Reporter: Aishwarya Ratan, Associate Researcher, Microsoft Research Technology for Emerging Markets Group