User Experience and the Smartphone
The objective of The GSMA mWomen Design Challenge: Redefining the User Experience is to meet the needs of resource-poor women by improving the smartphone user experience.
Designers, programmers and innovators of all kinds are invited to consider the user experience of resource-poor women to reimagine a smartphone’s core user interface to be more intuitive and accessible. The more a woman can use her phone, the more value she’ll be able to realize from the pre-installed apps, widgets, and other functionality that can enhance her and her family’s lives.
Before I was in the dark, now I am in the light!
New female mobile phone owner, Papua New Guinea
Today, most mobile users in developing markets rely on basic feature phones, which generally offer little beyond basic voice and SMS functionality. But smartphones will drive the next stage of the mobile revolution, offering access to more phone features, as well as being the primary tool for internet access for many in the developing world. As competition grows and the phones become more popular, manufacturers will realize economics of scale and will reduce prices, creating a cycle that will ultimately lead to affordable smartphones throughout the developing world.
http://designchallenge.mwomen.org/en/challenge/mwomen-design-challenge