SIMPLIFYING USER EXPERIENCE TO ACCELERATE ADOPTION

 

The challenge before us is to simplify User experience to the point that it gets adopted virally. The need to address Digital Inclusion at the Bottom of the Pyramid is well established. Along with this, there are also numerous groups working to address the problem. In spite of so many interest groups, a large number of pilots, large budgets the problem continues to evade a solution.

 

In this context here are 5 considerations to keep in mind.

 

1. Innovative Solutions: Google has become a household name for both computer literate as well as those who donot use computers everyday. Google has become synonymous with Internet or search. The point to note is that Google is only 11 years old – but became a global phenomenon virally – it exploded by word or mouth and solved a large problem of "Search". The most important point is that it is "easy to use" – it needs no education. A 3 year old can start using it. Today you can use it from the computer or cell phone. Google is available in most countries globally and supports most languages. Today, it supports several Indian languages.

85% of Bihar's villages has no electricity –yet cell phone adoption is significant in Bihar. In fact people download music and ringtones on phones and use it for entertainment. They have found an innovative solution to charging their phones. They send the phone with the local bus to the nearest point where electricity is available, have it charged and then returned – they pay a fee to have this done.

Today 62% of all prepaid recharges are for Rs. 10/-. These are coming from people in bottom of pyramid (BOP), and a large number from rural India. People are spending precious Rs. 10/- on cell phone recharges ahead of vaccination for their kids, or education. The point is it provides entertainment and is easy to spend.

 

2. Inclusion – Today there are 500 million phones. These are growing at 10 million phones a month. In the next 2 years there will be 700 million phones in a country of about 1.3 billion. More than 50% of the people will have phones – a large number in BOP. This is INCLUSION – where it has been mass adopted and people are paying to keep the  service active at least once in 6 months. The point is there is far greater MOBILE INCLUSION than DIGITAL or FINANCIAL Inclusion.

 

3. Customer Need -In Kenya MPesa has acquired 7 million customers for money remittance in 3 years. This is because it serves the important need of Money Transfer and it is easy to use on the cell phone – it does not involve cumbersome setup or KYC norms.

 

We need to understand customer requirement – which is of remittance or bill payment and not create hurdles first – KYC, authentication and the where withal which goes with it are just speed breakers to adoption

 

4. Information Asymmetry: The problem lies in uniform access to information. The cost of information in services is especially high – such as education, healthcare, governance, energy and business transactions. Today with the cost of SMS much below 5 paise – a significant part of the imbalance can be addressed using the mobile channel effectively. The need of the hour is process simplification – a sashe based process – which is effective and easy to explain.

Hybrid model – For rural India the number of transaction in any given service may not be very large but the problem in most services is of Information Asymmetry – if all these can be clubbed together it can create a viable business model.

 

5. Its not about Technology: Finally there is a huge mis conception that the problem will be solved by Technology. Technology will certainly be an enabler however whatever Technology is required, exists today – in fact for the last few years. The need is for Adoption by Customers – and this will happen through process simplification and user adoption. Both Google and cell phone adoption happened virally than by any other means – they solved a problem and were simple to use.

 

Since January 1, 2010 the profession of Letter Writers (at post offices), will become history. Post Offices are no longer renewing the profession since most people have started using mobile phones instead of letter writing. Similarly there are 61 lakhs PCOs (Public call offices) and entrepreneurs going out of business. The point is there is an established network of public workers and entrepreneurs which today reaches all part of the country – Can they be productively used to service a customer need like money remittance or bill payment without making it too complex.

 

 

The challenge before us is to reduce the process to 10% of what it is (simplify it by at least 90%) to increase velocity of adoption. The challenge is velocity and adoption, not regulation. This will make a difference – not setting up newer complex processes.

 

Simply User Experience to Accelerate Adoption.