Becky Hurwitz

One class I’m taking this term is in UX Research method and practice.  Some useful resources from class and for the next phase of my work on the VT — writing requirements.

Jacob Nielson, Usability 101: Introduction to Usability
http://www.useit.com/alertbox/20030825.html

What (Definition of Usability)
Usability is a quality attribute that assesses how easy user interfaces are to use. The word “usability” also refers to methods for improving ease-of-use during the design process.

Usability is defined by five quality components:

* Learnability: How easy is it for users to accomplish basic tasks the first time they encounter the design?
* Efficiency: Once users have learned the design, how quickly can they perform tasks?
* Memorability: When users return to the design after a period of not using it, how easily can they reestablish proficiency?
* Errors: How many errors do users make, how severe are these errors, and how easily can they recover from the errors?
* Satisfaction: How pleasant is it to use the design?

Surprisingly useful, usability.gov; includes decent descriptions of methods.

UX Phases from the Usability Professional’s Association

Analysis Phase
• Meet with key stakeholders to set vision
• Include usability tasks in the project plan
• Assemble a multidisciplinary team to ensure complete expertise
• Develop usability goals and objectives
• Conduct field studies
• Look at competitive products
• Create user profiles
• Develop a task analysis
• Document user scenarios
• Document user performance requirements
Design Phase
• Begin to brainstorm design concepts and metaphors
• Develop screen flow and navigation model
• Do walkthroughs of design concepts
• Begin design with paper and pencil
• Create low-fidelity prototypes
• Conduct usability testing on low-fidelity prototypes
• Create high-fidelity detailed design
• Do usability testing again
• Document standards and guidelines
• Create a design specification
Implementation Phase
• Do ongoing heuristic evaluations
• Work closely with delivery team as design is implemented
• Conduct usability testing as soon as possible
Deployment Phase
• Use surveys to get user feedback
• Conduct field studies to get info about actual use
• Check objectives using usability testing

Curious about who is working to build capacity in IT. Found some organizations/projects in the country and hope to speak with people involved.

Bar Camp, Oct 3-4, 2009

(http://barcampphnompenh.org) was held at Pannasasstra University (PUC); there are 1100+ people registered on the site as attending; sponsored by local and international companies.

Conical Hat Software

(http://www.conicalhat.com) Based in Phnom Penh, produces software in Khmer Unicode.

Digital Divide Data
(http://www.digitaldividedata.org/) NYC based, operates internationally. Socially responsible, digitization, data entry and conversion, digital publishing content to XML, building digital libraries.

Grameen: Village Phone
(http://www.villagephonedirect.org/contents/) same program as in Uganda; Grameen offers Village Phone as a microfranchise — they help people purchase a phone and run a business of selling airtime/phone use to other people.

InSTEDD: Mekong Collaboration Program
(http://instedd.org/mcp) I’ve mentioned InSTEDD before — they do disease and disaster reporting work; develop software, systems, teams, for doing this internationally.

InSTEDD: iLab

iReach

Informatics for Rural Empowerment and Community Health (http://www.ireach.org.kh/).

NiDA
National Information Communication Technology Development Authority (http://www.nida.gov.kh/index.php?language=en). Est. 2000 to:

• develop and implement IT policy
• monitor and audit all IT projects in the nation
• has 6 different concentrations: 1. policy and strategy coordination, 2. infrastructure, 3. human capacity, 4. policy environment, 5. content and application, 6. enterprise development

The English version of the website has a call for input with a due date of 2004. I’m not sure if this is true of the Khmer version of the site also.

Open Institute

(http://www.open.org.kh/en) Involved in various ICTD projects in Cambodia including

• Khmer Software Initiative, http://www.khmeros.info
• Open Schools Program, http://osp.open.org.kh
• Women’s Empowerment for Social Change, http://women.open.org.kh
• Open Learning (E-Learning) Program, http://elearning.open.org.kh
• Lexicography
• The River of Knowledge
• Mirror Publication, http://cambodiamirror.wordpress.com

Robib “is one village but also every village in the world”

(http://www.camnet.com.kh/cambodiaschools/villageleap/intro.htm) Robib is a group of 6 villages in the north-central Cambodia. And is the pilot for a project to build 200 schools in rural Cambodia. Apple-Japan, the MIT Media Lab, and Deutsche Bank have donated computers for these schools. Private donors pledge about $14,000 to build a school. The website for Robib indicates that this project is meant to help in many sectors — not just education. Computer and internet access is meant to provide market linkages between local artisans and foreign patrons, also, the telemedicine services are provided using the computers/internet. sounds a bit like the Millennium Village projects. The last thing written on this site seems to be from 2005. I’m curious about the status of the village now.

Samasource
(http://www.samasource.org/) Mentioned in blog postings before — Samasource is based in the Bay; they do great work in socially responsible outsourcing/tech capacity building. K and Southgate did some scouting for them while they were in Uganda, and Eric is now working for them in SF. They’ve done work in Cambodia.

Yejj
(http://www.yejj.com/) Phnom Penh based. Web production.

Trying to get a sense of who among and how large a sector of the population could use a tool that is (a) written (b) computer-based. So, digging for numbers about literacy and telecom ownership, usage, access. I’m not just interested in computer and internet ownership/access. I’m also interested in radio, tv, newspaper. There is already successful KR/ECCC programming on radio and tv. It might be a good idea to build on those existing successes. The following stats are basic demographic and specific educational stats — from the National Institute of Statistics (http://www.nis.gov.kh/index.php/home).

GDP per Capita: $739 (2008)
Population: 13,395,682 (2008)
Male: 48.6%, Female: 51.4%
Population growth rade: 1.54%

Cambodia Socio-Economic Survey 2004 (http://www.nis.gov.kh/index.php/statistics/surveys/cses/cses2004result)
Educational attainment and enrollment
43 percent of women aged 25 and over have none or only some education (not completed first grade). The corresponding figure for men is 20 percent. Only 0.4 percent of women have post-secondary education, and 1.8 percent of men. Adult literacy rate, population aged 15 and over, is 60 percent for women and 80 percent for men. Some 3.7 million (55 percent) of the population aged 5-24 years were enrolled in the formal school system in 2004. The share has increased from 46 percent in 1999. Of the 20-29 year old in the labor market in 2004 some 17 percent have completed lower secondary school.

Educational expenses
Educational expenses per student for one school year include school fees, tuition, textbooks, other school supplies, gifts to teachers, and contribution to building funds. Households estimate educational expenses to below riels 50,000 (US $10) for pre-school and primary school students, for upper secondary to riels 393,000 (just below US $100), for technical/vocational riels 1.1 million (just above US $250), and for university riels 2.1 million (just above US $500).

Lonely Planet guide to Cambodia, 6th ed, 2008, introduction:

“For every illegal eviction of the city dwellers or land grab by a general, there will be a new NGO school offering better education, or a new clean-water initiative to improve the lives of hte average villager. Such is the yin and yang of Cambodia, a country that inspires and confounds. Like an onion, the more layers you unravel, the more it makes you want to cry, but these are spontaneous tears, sometimes of sorrow, sometimes of joy.”

S-21 or Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum (http://www.tuolsleng.com/) was a Phnom Penh school turned into a prison by the Khmer Rouge, now preserved as a genocide museum.  It is estimated that as many as 20,000 people may have been detained at S-21 where they were torchered and killed. The map of Cambodia made of skulls and the thousands of headshots of KR victims are at S-21. There are only 12 known survivors of S-21. Of those 12, 4 are still alive,Vann Nath is one of them.

Vann Nath (http://www.vannnath.com/) is famous as a survivor and also as a painter.  His paintings hang around S-21, depicting scenes of torcher, killing fields.

I met up with Sovannith, Vann Nath, and a group of high school students at S-21 this morning. On Saturdays, S-21 invites a school group to visit. The group tours the museum and then gathers to watch a slide show narrated by Vann Nath and the museum head.

We spoke with Vann Nath about his impressions of the conference the day before (he was on the panel) and about what he thinks victims need and want going forward. We observed him speaking with students and spoke with their teacher afterwards.

Some observations/questions:

• the students’ school was selected by S-21
• how many student groups pass through S-21?
• how far do these groups travel?

Each student is given a feedback form and asked to discuss the experience with their families, to fill out the form, and to return it to their teacher.

• What does the museum do with these forms?

The teacher told us that the students have been studying Democratic Kampuchea in school and will continue to discuss it in history class. Need to talk to more school teachers and students.

• What materials are they using to teach?
• do they travel to S-21? to the ECCC?
• do they have computers in school?
• do they have net connections in school?
• what languages are classes taught in?

I attended the Center for Justice and Reconciliation (CJR, http://www.cjr-cambodia.org/) National Conference on Victim’s Participation, “Moving Forward, Together: Transforming Killing Fields to Living Fields.”

A panel of ECCC officials from various branches of the ECCC and victims’ association representatives answered questions from an audience estimated at about 200+ at Pannasastra.

Some observations:

• victims want to share their personal stories
• victims want to comment on and suggest reparations
• ECCC officials want to describe how the ECCC works
• part of describing how the ECCC works is to explain “rule of law” and how that differs from the current system in Cambodia
• victims associations are new
• victims include people who file as civil parties, people who serve as witnesses, and people who do neither

I received a pile of materials produced by NGOs. This included a Center for Social Development (CSD) and German Development Service (DED) produced Understanding Trauma in Cambodia — a substantial guide to understanding and working through trauma, written in both Khmer and English, colorfully illustrated with photos and drawings. Also included publications by the Cambodian Human Rights and Development Association (ADHOC), Transcultural Psychological Organization (TPO), and The Youth Today Magazine.

• there are a lot of organizations discussing trauma
• there are a lot of organizations trying to do outreach

a press release about the event (pdf)

This morning, I met with Phoung Pham from the UC Berkeley Human Rights Center. The HRC conducted a survey, published in 2009, to assess the general public’s awareness, impressions, and interests in the ECCC. They are back now to conduct a follow-up.

Our work intersects — the initial report suggested that both the ECCC and ngos work to increase awareness about the court. We are a longterm outreach project of the court.

There is other intersection. After Uganda, I worked with some of the students who had been in East Africa on the Gates Grant to develop an idea/business/project around a data collection service. We proposed building on ODK. Berkeley HRC is using ODK, having switched from EpiSurveyor. Some interesting collaboration in the future.

I met with Michelle Staggs and Sovvanath Ngeth when I arrived on Tues, got a light overview of the court and people I might try to meet here.

Sovvanath will be my partner and translator for some of this research. He is a monitor for the court, a graduated law student in Phnom Penh.

East-West Center Trial Monitoring program link:
http://www.eastwestcenter.org/research/asian-international-justice-initiative/current-projects/cambodia/

Pol Pot’s Shadow, a Frontline World story about Cambodia and the Khmer Rouge.

http://www.pbs.org/frontlineworld/stories/cambodia/

Includes a broadcast story from 2002 with interviews from Cambodia and more recent updates from the field.  Also some useful graphics about the history of the country.

http://www.pbs.org/frontlineworld/stories/cambodia/history.html

The East West Center of Berkeley is co-producing a weekly television show in Cambodia “Duch on Trial” — a show that recaps and explains the week’s events in the ECCC.  This show is averaging 5million viewers each week, meaning that 1 in 5 Cambodians sees this show.  This is encouraging, especially in light of the HRC report that the ECCC should reach out more to explain its proceedings to the general public.
http://forum.eastwestcenter.org/Khmer-Rouge-Trials/

A recent Time Magazine article about the show, “Cambodia’s Trial of the Century, Televised” http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1921755,00.html?iid=tsmodule

This is a project of the same people who are overseeing the Virtual Tribunal.  I think the popularity of the television broadcast show indicates that television may be a good way to continue conversations about the court’s legacy and/or future discussion of past wars and current society.

A couple of articles about the TV as an apt communication channel in for development:

Technology and the developing world, Public Radio International. Nov 9, 2009.

http://www.pri.org/business/global-development/technilogy-developing-world1716.html

Kenny, Charles. Revolution in a box, Foreign Policy. Nov 19, 2009.

http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2009/10/19/revolution_in_a_box?page=0,0