The Vernacular Bharat
News app for rural Indians
SYNOPSIS
About the project
Overview
In this project, we present a news application that solves some of the major problems faced by the rural Indians who wish to consume news in their native language and are not comfortable with the language of English.
Timeline
6 Weeks
My Role
Researcher
UI & Prototyping
Testing
Problem
Vernacular content, in the field of news, is very limited to TV channels and social media. And because of this reason users who lack tech literacy are consuming very less amount of online news. They still have to depend on TV channels and social media even if they own a smartphone.
Solution
The solution proposed is a mobile application that serves as a news aggregator for these users, and the news will be in their native language and in a short video format that can easily be consumable by them without any effort.
RESEARCH & INSIGHTS
Designing for the rural Indians
The research started by interviewing two categories of users: users who are not very familiar with the smartphone and its use, and the users who use smartphones but are not familiar with the language of English.
User interview
We chose a total of 4 members who are in the age range of 30-50 and conducted semi-structured interviews with them in their language. The interview was focused on their technical ability, digital consumption, and news reading behavior. We even asked them to download and explore some of the popular news apps to check their tech literacy. It has given us a better understanding of these type of users.
User type - Interview insights
Tech literacy
They use Android phones that are mostly cheaper
Smartphones are their first computing devices
They take more time to understand digital concepts compared to a normal internet user
Diversity
Age difference doesn’t matter to their technical knowledge
Their income level also varies a lot
Assistance
They seek technical help from others - friends and family members
They always need social proof as a motivator and most of the time it'll be a person
Behavior
They believe in instant gratification
They don’t feel confident enough to experiment on their own within an app
They'll easily get confused, and it'll lead them to guilt
They prefers a non-digital lifestyle over a digital one
Digital consumption
They prefer audio-visual over the textual form of information
They spend more time on social media
Vernacular content will always be their primary choice
They always put less effort to get the preferred information
News consumption
They are always curious about the local news
They mostly depends on Youtube and other social media for online news
Market research
We explored reports from different sources to understand the market landscape, trends, and to identify the gap between the available services and the user needs. We even reviewed the data of some of the big players in the online news market to understand their targeted space and their involvement in the market.
Research Insights
Indians love news
News is here to stay, although the formats will keep evolving, and we’ve seen this evolution in the past.
Vernacular content
As internet access becomes more and more inclusive, vernacular news and content will continue exploding.
Mobile first
Video on mobile is witnessing ever-increasing engagement. The rising of streaming services is the best example.
PROBLEM SPACE
Framing the problem
Limited platforms for vernacular content
More than 50% of web content is currently written in English. Hindi, the fourth most spoken language in the world, but it isn’t even in the top 30 languages for web content. And the next set of internet users will be from rural India who supports a mix of regional, vernacular, and official languages.
Complex digital Apps
Smartphones are the first computing device they have handled. So if digital products lack simplicity, the users in this segment need to put some additional effort to learn and discover new things. But these users are fearful of doing something new, which can limit them from discovering new features within an app and it leads to uncertainty and frustration.
Psychological and emotional problems
They'll encounter a lot of psychological and emotional problems like confusion, guilt, contempt, embarrassment, annoyance, anticipation, awkwardness, etc while using digital products. And sometimes, these emotions lead them to abandon the use of digital products.
Lack of assistance
These users depend on their friends, family, and neighbors for help in the real world. But in some contexts, people may feel embarrassed, or ashamed to ask for help, especially when their question relates to something simple like using their own smartphone.
Trust issues
It can be difficult for them to know whom or what to trust for honest advice and help when they’re facing issues in the digital world, especially when its delivery is less personal. They usually rely on their friends and family.
PERSONA
Understanding the user
Sanjay, 34
Hosur, Auto driver
Sanjay is an auto driver who drives in the town circle of Hosur. He is unmarried and stays with his family. He is originally from a small village in Tamil Nadu. Three years back, he moved to Hosur with his family.
His mother tongue is Tamil and he usually struggles to understand English, but he can speak some of the other south Indian languages. He is also trying to learn Hindi by talking to some of his friends and by watching Hindi movies.
He has very limited technical knowledge when it comes to digital products. But he owns a smartphone that he bought after moving to Mysore. He mostly spends time watching videos on Youtube and Facebook, and he chats with his friends on WhatsApp. He recently started using the financial apps to transfer money, some of his friends insisted and helped him to create and play around with the app. To stay updated he read the news regularly
Goals & Needs
Trustful content
Information in his native language
Effortless experience
Motivation
Utilize his time well
To keep updated
To get information that he can understand
To share valuable content with his friends and family
Fear & Frustration
Not to waste the time
Difficulties in understanding other languages
Reading and sharing fake news
JOURNEY MAPPING
Analyzing behavior and experiences
Journey maps helped us to get an in-depth understanding of our users, their tasks, feelings, experiences, and their mood at different points of time.
BRAINSTORMING & STORYBOARDING
Sketching ideas and use cases
After getting a good understanding of the problems and the opportunities, we started brainstorming and sketching out different ideas and concepts to help our users. Storyboards helped us to decide which functionality suits for our scope and serves best to the users.
THE SOLUTION
Design decisions
The brainstorming session helped us to decide on suitable solutions for our problems. We even decided on the features and functionalities that are going to be used.
Constraints
Solution
News should be in their preferred language.
Regional and vernacular content.
Should be easy to access.
News summary in a short video format.
Users want personalized information.
Personalized AI sync with real-time user data.
Additional details about a news.
News categories.
Social proof.
Showing news views and reactions such as likes and shares.
Showing news views and reactions such as likes and shares.
User training in their language.
Trustful content.
Content from top news providers.
VISUAL DESIGNS
Final solution
Home screen
A home screen that is inspired by the social media platforms which provide enough information about particular news to the user. The users can also show their reactions by liking or sharing the news.
Vernacular content
The app provides the news in a short video format in all major Indian languages, including Hindi, Marathi, Tamil, etc.
Trustable assistant
Asking for help isn’t always easy, so a personal guide option will really help the users to learn and explore the features & functionality of the app in their language.
Discovery
A personalized category center where the users can explore and discover the news topics they like. And along with this, the primary voice search option further elevates the experience seamlessly.
CONCLUSION
Reflection and Learnings
As it was an experimental project with my client, we were not able to finish it as we expected. But I’m amazed by the opportunities and digital space that we have in rural India - The next billion users. The following are some of my key learnings from this project.
There is an enormous need to optimize our websites and mobile apps considering these sets of users.
Trust is a key factor that we have to consider while designing for them.
Mobile-first and mobile-only approach work well.
The contents and scale of the internet aren’t obvious to these users.
