Application of HCI Design Principles in overcoming Information Illiteracy: Case of a M-Health Application for a Rural Community in South Africa

Countries in sub-Saharan Africa played a mere spectator role in the first three industrial revolutions. However, researchers, business community, governments and civil society, acknowledges that these countries have the potential to play an active role in the 4th Industrial Revolution. In the case of South Africa, mobile phone technology will play a critical role to this end. It can be argued that the various phases of Information and Communication for Development (ICT4D) have prepared grounds for this shift. However, as articulated in ICT4D 3.0, most ICT4D implementations have fallen trap to the unsustainable and irrelevant transfer of Northern designs to Southern realities. Putting in mind the implicit elements of the status quo, cultural transfers and mutual learning, this paper presents an adaptive, user-centered approach to development of an innovative Mobile-Health (M-Health) intervention for a semi-literate rural community in Sethakeng in the Northern Cape province of South Africa. This is done in the recognition of the fact that one of the main development challenges currently facing the Country is education, skills development and information illiteracy, which is the inability of users to locate, evaluate and effectively use information and communication technology. To achieve the development and implementation of an M-Health intervention, human-computer-interface design concepts of anthropomorphic and affective design principles were employed because they not only lead to mutual-learning but also aspire to implore an emotional or a positively reinforced sub-conscious reaction from users. Three pilot studies carried out using the resulting intervention illustrated a sustained increase in adoption.