Small Display (200 pixel x 200 pixel)
Try browsing the Sauder Africa Initiative website on this "mobile phone". Drag the scroll bars with your mouse!
Website designers and SE101 teachers have something in common: to be successful, they both adapt their content delivery to the needs of their audience. Websites that target mobile phones use simplified content and choose ease-of-use over fancy graphics; SE101 teachers employ a similar strategy, paring down business issues to the bare bones thereby revealing the key ideas for their students. One could say that through a small "window", mobile phone users are presented with a world of opportunity; likewise for SE101 students.
Viewing internet content through the small display of a mobile handset can be a frustrating experience. Not everyone, least of all an average Kenyan, can afford a "smartphone" equipped with a large, high-resolution screen. A small display requires excessive scrolling and it's difficult to "see the whole picture" (try scrolling with the browser in the mobile phone to the right). A high resolution screen might display the whole page, but the elements will appear so tiny that the zoom function will be required ... and then you're back to the same problem: scrolling.
Clever designers have made their websites more phone friendly as mobile web-browsing has become more popular. In Kenya, 67.2% (Sept 2011) of the population have a mobile phone and the penetration rate is increasing at a staggering rate according to the Communications Commission of Kenya (CCK). In addition, the CCK estimates that 75% of the roughly 14 million internet users access the web via mobile phones rather than computers. Globally, many companies have added secondary mobile-dedicated websites to meet increased demand. For a company like Twitter, mobile phone users are its raison d'être. The key to a good mobile site is a logically laid out, minimalist design that allows easy interactions without the regular "tools" (ie - without a normal mouse, full sized keyboard & monitor). Having less web content saves mobile users money and time because both costs and page-load times are proportional to the amount of data being transferred. Smaller, simplified menus that allow mobile users a great deal of functionality are needed. No frills. Cut to the chase.
At the Mathare SE101 site, we had very limited classroom "tools": no computers, no whiteboards, no electricity, no desks. We operated on a short, 15-day schedule and a tight budget. Our students did not have the benefit of a Canadian-style basic education. Distractions were numerous in this filthy, noisy slum with some students leaving class to check on their businesses and others -single mothers - checking on their children. Chickens wandered into and out of the classroom nearly as often. Clearly, a no frills strategy that cuts to the chase was in order.
Over the years, the Sauder Africa Initiative team has honed its "mobile" education platform to present the fundamentals of business to entrepreneurs in African slums. I won't bore you with the details of the curriculum. However, in my next blog post, I will share with you a couple of success stories from Mathare in which our team played a role.
Viewing internet content through the small display of a mobile handset can be a frustrating experience. Not everyone, least of all an average Kenyan, can afford a "smartphone" equipped with a large, high-resolution screen. A small display requires excessive scrolling and it's difficult to "see the whole picture" (try scrolling with the browser in the mobile phone to the right). A high resolution screen might display the whole page, but the elements will appear so tiny that the zoom function will be required ... and then you're back to the same problem: scrolling.
Clever designers have made their websites more phone friendly as mobile web-browsing has become more popular. In Kenya, 67.2% (Sept 2011) of the population have a mobile phone and the penetration rate is increasing at a staggering rate according to the Communications Commission of Kenya (CCK). In addition, the CCK estimates that 75% of the roughly 14 million internet users access the web via mobile phones rather than computers. Globally, many companies have added secondary mobile-dedicated websites to meet increased demand. For a company like Twitter, mobile phone users are its raison d'être. The key to a good mobile site is a logically laid out, minimalist design that allows easy interactions without the regular "tools" (ie - without a normal mouse, full sized keyboard & monitor). Having less web content saves mobile users money and time because both costs and page-load times are proportional to the amount of data being transferred. Smaller, simplified menus that allow mobile users a great deal of functionality are needed. No frills. Cut to the chase.
At the Mathare SE101 site, we had very limited classroom "tools": no computers, no whiteboards, no electricity, no desks. We operated on a short, 15-day schedule and a tight budget. Our students did not have the benefit of a Canadian-style basic education. Distractions were numerous in this filthy, noisy slum with some students leaving class to check on their businesses and others -single mothers - checking on their children. Chickens wandered into and out of the classroom nearly as often. Clearly, a no frills strategy that cuts to the chase was in order.
Over the years, the Sauder Africa Initiative team has honed its "mobile" education platform to present the fundamentals of business to entrepreneurs in African slums. I won't bore you with the details of the curriculum. However, in my next blog post, I will share with you a couple of success stories from Mathare in which our team played a role.
