The Indian neighbourhood user and designing for mobile internet

Abstract

With a population of over 1.1 billion people, India has an internet penetration of just 3% while mobile phone penetration is above 22% [7]. This paper looks at the potential of mobile internet for closing this gap. With nearly half the population of internet users using the cyber cafe as one of the platforms for accessing the internet, the study focuses on understanding internet usage by looking at the culture of internet use mainly through cyber cafes in various contexts of the Indian neighbourhood. The contexts as locations of the cyber cafes were chosen based on the socio cultural nature of the neighbourhood within the urban fabric. The study also looks into understanding internet non users who may be potential future users. The aim of the study was to arrive at a set of broad design guidelines for mobile internet through user research.