Mobile Technology for Record Keeping by Women Entrepreneurs in Tanzania: User Requirement Assessment

Abstract

Mobile phone technology is increasingly being used as a tool for communication among women entrepreneurs in Sub-Saharan Africa. However, little has been done in identifying user requirements for record keeping by the mobile applications among women business in Tanzania. The present study applied the design thinking approach in explored women entrepreneurs’ user requirements for a mobile application for keeping record. Data were collected through focus group discussion and interview. The data were qualitatively coded into themes and were analyzed through descriptive statistics. The study established that women entrepreneurs need to keep records for purchases, sales, loan balance, amount due for payment, cost of goods sold, goods purchased, purchase cost, available stock, selling price, day sells information, customers, records, and market network. Similarly, they wanted an application that is easy to operate, using Swahili, a familiar language, outputting symbols and figures and producing specific records and reports. The findings underscore that design thinking can reliably be applied in user requirement definition stage of design science research to anticipate qualities for record-keeping using the mobile technology.