digital illiteracy among smartphone puerto rican middle class users
DESCRIPTION
The author’s design firm launched a limited inquiry concerning comprehension and use of Smartphone in middle class users in Puerto Rico upon detecting an apparent level of illiteracy in digital functions in various projects developed for their clients. The inquiry primarily aimed to answer if these users are exposed to social exclusion because of their lack of comprehension of digital interaction. If such were true, what does it imply in the social contract? Structured interviews were done to local User Experience (UX) designers as well as an online anonymous questionnaire survey about the use of Smartphone. Through scenario testing the authors highlight the users’ digital literacy from a limited group. Four instances in the firm’s projects that revealed the incongruence in the use of Smartphone, which prompted the authors’ inquiry, are described briefly. The paper focuses on issues of digital literacy but discusses some aspects of the digital divide to contextualize the study. Research concerning cultural differences and mobile affordance in Iran is used to explore another perspective on the subject of use and comprehension of Smartphone. The authors understand that digital illiteracy poses a problematic situation because of: 1) the relationship between citizen rights and digital literacy, 2) the impact it can have with 21st century necessary skills like co-location teamwork, quick access to information and content creation, among other technology inter-relationship activities, and 3) the importance of this matter to UX designers and their awareness of this possible situated occurrence, especially if they are value-driven and concerned with issues of democracy. Further research in the Caribbean is needed to understand the cultural dissonance in the HCI design and its impact on Functional Digital Literacy (one of the three strands needed for critical transferring).TRANSCRIPT
![Page 1: Digital Illiteracy among Smartphone Puerto Rican Middle Class Users](https://reader033.vdocuments.site/reader033/viewer/2022042703/55cf9dcf550346d033af4bc5/html5/thumbnails/1.jpg)
María de Mater O’NeillArthur L. Asseo
2013 SME Digital Forum, San Juan, Puerto Rico
May 16, 2013
Mobile Telephony in the Developing World,University of Jyväskylä, Jyväskylä, Finland,
May 24 - 25, 2013
LASA 2013 – XXXI INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS,Towards a New Social Contract?
Washington, D.C., United States,May 29 – June 1, 2013
Session: Aspects of Poverty and Income Distribution
Digital Illiteracy among Puerto Rican Middle Class Smartphone Users
![Page 2: Digital Illiteracy among Smartphone Puerto Rican Middle Class Users](https://reader033.vdocuments.site/reader033/viewer/2022042703/55cf9dcf550346d033af4bc5/html5/thumbnails/2.jpg)
Apparent digital illiteracy among our design firm’s clients and their users that could not be explained by the digital divide concept.
THE TRIGGER
(Martinez, 2011, Pineda, 2012)
![Page 3: Digital Illiteracy among Smartphone Puerto Rican Middle Class Users](https://reader033.vdocuments.site/reader033/viewer/2022042703/55cf9dcf550346d033af4bc5/html5/thumbnails/3.jpg)
million mobile phones
Population of million
PUERTO RICO
(United States Census Bureau of 2010)
(Estudios Técnicos de Puerto Rico and Brand Science, cite in Grafa, 2012, Asociación de Ejecutivos de Ventas y Mercadeo de Puerto Rico 2013)
3.13.7
2.7 from
78% Smartphones(Asociación de Ejecutivos de Ventas y Mercadeo de Puerto Rico, 2013)
![Page 4: Digital Illiteracy among Smartphone Puerto Rican Middle Class Users](https://reader033.vdocuments.site/reader033/viewer/2022042703/55cf9dcf550346d033af4bc5/html5/thumbnails/4.jpg)
Puerto Ricans paid for long distance, text messaging and phone insurance.
Accessed the Internet via mobile broadband
Accessed the Web by their mobile phone
Connect to the Internet by their mobile phone daily
(Connect Puerto Rico, 2012)
(Asociación de Ejecutivos de Ventas y Mercadeo de Puerto Rico, 2012, 2013)
(Connect Puerto Rico, 2012)40%
57%
28%
70%from
![Page 5: Digital Illiteracy among Smartphone Puerto Rican Middle Class Users](https://reader033.vdocuments.site/reader033/viewer/2022042703/55cf9dcf550346d033af4bc5/html5/thumbnails/5.jpg)
LATIN AMERICA
(Zokem and the Groupe Speciale Mobile Association, 2011)
(Estadísticas del uso de los móviles en América Latina, 2010)
Smartphone use is for Mobile Web browsing
Of the new phones will be Smartphones [by 2014]
37%
32%
![Page 6: Digital Illiteracy among Smartphone Puerto Rican Middle Class Users](https://reader033.vdocuments.site/reader033/viewer/2022042703/55cf9dcf550346d033af4bc5/html5/thumbnails/6.jpg)
Of Web searches were initiated from a Smartphone
Connect to the Internet by their mobile phone every day
UNITED STATES
(Think with Google, 2012)
(Connect Puerto Rico, 2012)
65%
55%
![Page 7: Digital Illiteracy among Smartphone Puerto Rican Middle Class Users](https://reader033.vdocuments.site/reader033/viewer/2022042703/55cf9dcf550346d033af4bc5/html5/thumbnails/7.jpg)
Exclusion and inclusion in the realm of technology by:
Gender
Economy
And other social factors
DIGITAL DIVIDE
New questions: How do we define the problem?
![Page 8: Digital Illiteracy among Smartphone Puerto Rican Middle Class Users](https://reader033.vdocuments.site/reader033/viewer/2022042703/55cf9dcf550346d033af4bc5/html5/thumbnails/8.jpg)
LEVELS OF THE DIGITAL DIVIDE
Access to technology:affordability, accessibility and availability
Use and appropriation:depth and quality of use of new technologies
(Pineda, 2012)
![Page 9: Digital Illiteracy among Smartphone Puerto Rican Middle Class Users](https://reader033.vdocuments.site/reader033/viewer/2022042703/55cf9dcf550346d033af4bc5/html5/thumbnails/9.jpg)
OTHER FEATURES OF THE DIGITAL DIVIDE
Country’s Infrastructure
Cost of Service
Comprehension of Technology
(Martinez, 2011)
![Page 10: Digital Illiteracy among Smartphone Puerto Rican Middle Class Users](https://reader033.vdocuments.site/reader033/viewer/2022042703/55cf9dcf550346d033af4bc5/html5/thumbnails/10.jpg)
PUERTO RICO
Of households do not have a computer
Of households' speed connectivity is lower than the US national standard
Of rural population have no broadband or do not know where it is available
(Communications Workers of America and Connect Puerto Rico cited in Ruiz Morales, 2011)
50%38%90%
![Page 11: Digital Illiteracy among Smartphone Puerto Rican Middle Class Users](https://reader033.vdocuments.site/reader033/viewer/2022042703/55cf9dcf550346d033af4bc5/html5/thumbnails/11.jpg)
ON DIGITAL LITERACY & EXECUTIVE FUNCTIONSWE CONNECT DIGITAL LITERACY TO EXECUTIVE FUNCTIONS
New questions: What is the role of comprehension in a meaning-making practice?
How the user:Comprehends [content]Organizes [content]Executes [content]Generates [content]Accesses [content]
![Page 12: Digital Illiteracy among Smartphone Puerto Rican Middle Class Users](https://reader033.vdocuments.site/reader033/viewer/2022042703/55cf9dcf550346d033af4bc5/html5/thumbnails/12.jpg)
How the user carries out Executive Functions in the digital realm by digital artifacts that allow sharing, networking and interaction in co-location communities.
WE CONNECT DIGITAL LITERACY TO EXECUTIVE FUNCTIONS
![Page 13: Digital Illiteracy among Smartphone Puerto Rican Middle Class Users](https://reader033.vdocuments.site/reader033/viewer/2022042703/55cf9dcf550346d033af4bc5/html5/thumbnails/13.jpg)
Literacy is understood in situated contexts, in how users process and negotiate meanings.
How comprehension of technology depends on how designers and the mobile market have standardized mobile interfaces.
![Page 14: Digital Illiteracy among Smartphone Puerto Rican Middle Class Users](https://reader033.vdocuments.site/reader033/viewer/2022042703/55cf9dcf550346d033af4bc5/html5/thumbnails/14.jpg)
Always changing because of the constant negotiation and influence between user and context
All literacies (multiliteracies, business literacy, social networking literacy, software literacy)
interact with each other
(Leu, Kinzer, Coiro, & Cammack, 2004)
(Leu, Kinzer, Coiro, & Cammack, 2004)
LITERACY AND TECHNOLOGYNew Literacies Perspective: framework of social principles related to educational issues
New questions: How do we learn to be digital?
![Page 15: Digital Illiteracy among Smartphone Puerto Rican Middle Class Users](https://reader033.vdocuments.site/reader033/viewer/2022042703/55cf9dcf550346d033af4bc5/html5/thumbnails/15.jpg)
Speed counts for connectivity and intelligibility
Learning collectively
Understanding of different modes of communication (visual, acoustic &
spatial)
Ability to understand encoded messages
(Leu, Kinzer, Coiro, & Cammack, 2004)
LITERACY AND TECHNOLOGYNew Literacies Perspective: framework of social principles related to educational issues
![Page 16: Digital Illiteracy among Smartphone Puerto Rican Middle Class Users](https://reader033.vdocuments.site/reader033/viewer/2022042703/55cf9dcf550346d033af4bc5/html5/thumbnails/16.jpg)
OUR DEFINITION OF DIGITAL LITERACY:
A. The ability to “read” the design elements (i.e., interface) in order to do a given task
B. The comprehension of actions done through digital communication technology (consequences and responsibilities of
a digital citizen)
![Page 17: Digital Illiteracy among Smartphone Puerto Rican Middle Class Users](https://reader033.vdocuments.site/reader033/viewer/2022042703/55cf9dcf550346d033af4bc5/html5/thumbnails/17.jpg)
Digital literacy in this inquiry is the metalanguage of multiliteracies, which is having the skills of a meaning-making practice that can be critically transferred to other social domains through digital communication technology.
We are analysing the digital
language. This is the way
a user has the capacity
to understand different
literacies like business,
software, social networking
and their possible
interactions between them in
order to generate
critical content.
In other words
![Page 18: Digital Illiteracy among Smartphone Puerto Rican Middle Class Users](https://reader033.vdocuments.site/reader033/viewer/2022042703/55cf9dcf550346d033af4bc5/html5/thumbnails/18.jpg)
(AN)OTHER PERSPECTIVECultural Aspect: The case of Iran and India
Usability problems are not necessarily caused by digital illiteracy but due to cultural differences that translate into different activities in the use of mobile devices.
New questions: ...and in other places?
![Page 19: Digital Illiteracy among Smartphone Puerto Rican Middle Class Users](https://reader033.vdocuments.site/reader033/viewer/2022042703/55cf9dcf550346d033af4bc5/html5/thumbnails/19.jpg)
social networking tool
Iran (most used):
Calls Text messaging
Puerto RicoCalls Text messaging
India Multiple mobile phones
gender based system
CULTURAL USE
![Page 20: Digital Illiteracy among Smartphone Puerto Rican Middle Class Users](https://reader033.vdocuments.site/reader033/viewer/2022042703/55cf9dcf550346d033af4bc5/html5/thumbnails/20.jpg)
The design of the mobile devices that rule the global market are made from a central viewpoint and do not consider the perspective of peripheral nations.
WE CONNECT DIGITAL LITERACY TO CULTURAL PERSPECTIVE
![Page 21: Digital Illiteracy among Smartphone Puerto Rican Middle Class Users](https://reader033.vdocuments.site/reader033/viewer/2022042703/55cf9dcf550346d033af4bc5/html5/thumbnails/21.jpg)
OUR RESEARCH
Limited inquiry:49 participants
July, 2012 - January, 2013
![Page 22: Digital Illiteracy among Smartphone Puerto Rican Middle Class Users](https://reader033.vdocuments.site/reader033/viewer/2022042703/55cf9dcf550346d033af4bc5/html5/thumbnails/22.jpg)
Online questionnaire
METHODOLOGY
Semi structured interviews to local UX designers
Scenario (storytelling) test
![Page 23: Digital Illiteracy among Smartphone Puerto Rican Middle Class Users](https://reader033.vdocuments.site/reader033/viewer/2022042703/55cf9dcf550346d033af4bc5/html5/thumbnails/23.jpg)
Are educated middle-class users, because of undefined factors, on the road to social exclusion because of their lack of digital interaction comprehension?
OUR TWO MAIN QUESTIONS
If such is true, what does this imply in the social contract?
![Page 24: Digital Illiteracy among Smartphone Puerto Rican Middle Class Users](https://reader033.vdocuments.site/reader033/viewer/2022042703/55cf9dcf550346d033af4bc5/html5/thumbnails/24.jpg)
Lack of digital literacy can become a problem because:
The relationship between citizen rights and digital literacy.
The impact it might have with 21st century skills (e.g., co-location team working, rapid information access and content generation).
![Page 25: Digital Illiteracy among Smartphone Puerto Rican Middle Class Users](https://reader033.vdocuments.site/reader033/viewer/2022042703/55cf9dcf550346d033af4bc5/html5/thumbnails/25.jpg)
The importance of this matter to the User Experience (UX) designers and his/her awareness of this possible occurrence, especially if they are value-driven and concerned with issues of democracy.
![Page 26: Digital Illiteracy among Smartphone Puerto Rican Middle Class Users](https://reader033.vdocuments.site/reader033/viewer/2022042703/55cf9dcf550346d033af4bc5/html5/thumbnails/26.jpg)
Online Questionnaire Survey
SMS text messaging
Email, making calls & browsing the Web
Taking Photos
Social Networks
Skype
100%96%92%75%25%
![Page 27: Digital Illiteracy among Smartphone Puerto Rican Middle Class Users](https://reader033.vdocuments.site/reader033/viewer/2022042703/55cf9dcf550346d033af4bc5/html5/thumbnails/27.jpg)
Online Questionnaire Survey
Use all the mobile applications
Are aware of the applications on the device
Asked for assistance in the use of their Smartphone (indicator of Functional Digital Illiteracy)
8%
58%
54%
![Page 28: Digital Illiteracy among Smartphone Puerto Rican Middle Class Users](https://reader033.vdocuments.site/reader033/viewer/2022042703/55cf9dcf550346d033af4bc5/html5/thumbnails/28.jpg)
Online Questionnaire Survey
CONCLUSION No connection between education level, gender, age and Functional Digital Literacy levels. Neither the operating system, data plans or types of network connection seem to affect the users’ level of understanding of the design elements in a given task.
![Page 29: Digital Illiteracy among Smartphone Puerto Rican Middle Class Users](https://reader033.vdocuments.site/reader033/viewer/2022042703/55cf9dcf550346d033af4bc5/html5/thumbnails/29.jpg)
Semi structured Interviews to 3 Local UX Designers
FreelanceIn-house UXD for BankStartup Tech Company
The criteria - designers that applied user-centered methods
![Page 30: Digital Illiteracy among Smartphone Puerto Rican Middle Class Users](https://reader033.vdocuments.site/reader033/viewer/2022042703/55cf9dcf550346d033af4bc5/html5/thumbnails/30.jpg)
Semi structured Interviews to 3 Local UX Designers
FINDINGS They use limited qualitative, user experience studies (limited budget) and no contextual research methodologies.
They are missing important information concerning user behavior and experience.
![Page 31: Digital Illiteracy among Smartphone Puerto Rican Middle Class Users](https://reader033.vdocuments.site/reader033/viewer/2022042703/55cf9dcf550346d033af4bc5/html5/thumbnails/31.jpg)
Semi structured Interviews to 3 Local UX Designers
Are there gaps between local UX designers and the users of mobile communication devices that might prompt more interference in the users’ digital literacy? If so, what are the particular factors (if any) that occur in the social-political landscape because of this interference?
New question: UX designers’ role?
![Page 32: Digital Illiteracy among Smartphone Puerto Rican Middle Class Users](https://reader033.vdocuments.site/reader033/viewer/2022042703/55cf9dcf550346d033af4bc5/html5/thumbnails/32.jpg)
Semi structured Interviews to 3 Local UX Designers
Lesson learned: The importance of a cross-cultural approach that consists in making the necessary design adjustments to technology so that products have the ability to work in different cultures and economic levels.
![Page 33: Digital Illiteracy among Smartphone Puerto Rican Middle Class Users](https://reader033.vdocuments.site/reader033/viewer/2022042703/55cf9dcf550346d033af4bc5/html5/thumbnails/33.jpg)
Scenario (storytelling) test
To highlight the participant’s digital literacy, their beliefs, perceptions and motivations regarding the role of technological communication throught a fictitious conflict, its resolution and privacy in work related to interpersonal relationships.
![Page 34: Digital Illiteracy among Smartphone Puerto Rican Middle Class Users](https://reader033.vdocuments.site/reader033/viewer/2022042703/55cf9dcf550346d033af4bc5/html5/thumbnails/34.jpg)
Scenario (storytelling) test: Essential Components for Critical Transferring
The three benchmarks were:
Functional Digital Literacy- Did the participant understand all the technological actions that took place in the scenario? Can he or she offer solutions that may lead to different outcomes?
(Poore, 2010)
![Page 35: Digital Illiteracy among Smartphone Puerto Rican Middle Class Users](https://reader033.vdocuments.site/reader033/viewer/2022042703/55cf9dcf550346d033af4bc5/html5/thumbnails/35.jpg)
(Poore, 2010)
(Meyrowitz, 1985)
Network Digital Literacy- Issues concerning replicability, collapsed distinct social context and invisible audiences. Questions to participants were: Did the participant recognize Meyrowitz’ issues? Did the participant narrate similar stories? Did the participant recognize how his or her behavior in network communities can expose his or her beliefs, values and ethical positions?
Scenario (storytelling) test
![Page 36: Digital Illiteracy among Smartphone Puerto Rican Middle Class Users](https://reader033.vdocuments.site/reader033/viewer/2022042703/55cf9dcf550346d033af4bc5/html5/thumbnails/36.jpg)
Critical Digital Literacy- Did the participant understand the different levels of meaning-making when there is a lack of spatial content and how online behavior is perceived in asynchronous communication?
Scenario (storytelling) test
(Poore, 2010)
![Page 37: Digital Illiteracy among Smartphone Puerto Rican Middle Class Users](https://reader033.vdocuments.site/reader033/viewer/2022042703/55cf9dcf550346d033af4bc5/html5/thumbnails/37.jpg)
FINDINGS Understood all the technological actions.
Aware of the lack of spatial content.
Disapprove the supervisor firing through digital communication.
Concerned with how the supervisor dealt with the conflict
Scenario (storytelling) test
45%
77%95%
73%
![Page 38: Digital Illiteracy among Smartphone Puerto Rican Middle Class Users](https://reader033.vdocuments.site/reader033/viewer/2022042703/55cf9dcf550346d033af4bc5/html5/thumbnails/38.jpg)
Scenario (storytelling) test
All participants were suspicious about digital communication.
The only strategy would be not to use digital communication and content oriented systems.
They were not surprised of the employee’s outcome- “she should have known better”.
![Page 39: Digital Illiteracy among Smartphone Puerto Rican Middle Class Users](https://reader033.vdocuments.site/reader033/viewer/2022042703/55cf9dcf550346d033af4bc5/html5/thumbnails/39.jpg)
Scenario (storytelling) test: High Context and Face-Negotiation Theory
High Context- A society that has a collective mindset and non verbal communication between members of a group that share the same inexplicit rules of engagements..
All the participants ‘Face Negotiation’ strategies were not of digital engagement.
(Hall, 1976)
(Ting-Toomey, 1998)
![Page 40: Digital Illiteracy among Smartphone Puerto Rican Middle Class Users](https://reader033.vdocuments.site/reader033/viewer/2022042703/55cf9dcf550346d033af4bc5/html5/thumbnails/40.jpg)
RESEARCH CONCLUSIONS: Lack of trust might be strengthened by cultural dissonance on interface & HCI design
The participants might be on the road to social exclusion due to - Functional Digital Illiteracy.
![Page 41: Digital Illiteracy among Smartphone Puerto Rican Middle Class Users](https://reader033.vdocuments.site/reader033/viewer/2022042703/55cf9dcf550346d033af4bc5/html5/thumbnails/41.jpg)
CAUSED BY:The participants resist to acquire new knowledge concerning no leisure activities because of: Lack of trust and cultural habits and values.
Local designers are not taking into consideration cultural habits & digital gaps concerning technology.
The lack of contextual research - local industry or Government only uses quantitative research, they might be wrongly led to believe that access is = to comprehension.
![Page 42: Digital Illiteracy among Smartphone Puerto Rican Middle Class Users](https://reader033.vdocuments.site/reader033/viewer/2022042703/55cf9dcf550346d033af4bc5/html5/thumbnails/42.jpg)
POSIBLE REASON OF THIS BEHAVIOR
Cultural habits and values can make some aspects of digital literacy optional (not being perceived as required skills to be part of the community).
UX & HCI Design can be dissonant to local users’ cultural habits, beliefs and motivations.
![Page 43: Digital Illiteracy among Smartphone Puerto Rican Middle Class Users](https://reader033.vdocuments.site/reader033/viewer/2022042703/55cf9dcf550346d033af4bc5/html5/thumbnails/43.jpg)
POSIBLE EFFECT OF THIS BEHAVIOR
The participants’ behavior can compromise their multiliteracy skills needed to navigate critically to other social domains through digital communication technology, both as workers and citizens.
Therefore, they might be more vulnerable to coercion and manipulation by unethical business and dubious political ventures. This in turn, makes them more distrustful of technology.
![Page 44: Digital Illiteracy among Smartphone Puerto Rican Middle Class Users](https://reader033.vdocuments.site/reader033/viewer/2022042703/55cf9dcf550346d033af4bc5/html5/thumbnails/44.jpg)
Cross and inter-cultural design and its impact on digital literacy.
OUR RECOMMENDATIONS: For Further Contextual Research in the Caribbean
![Page 45: Digital Illiteracy among Smartphone Puerto Rican Middle Class Users](https://reader033.vdocuments.site/reader033/viewer/2022042703/55cf9dcf550346d033af4bc5/html5/thumbnails/45.jpg)
OUR RECOMMENDATIONSFurther Contextual Research
UX designers’ role in digital literacy (their beliefs, motivations, cultural habits and how it interferes in their methodologies).
![Page 46: Digital Illiteracy among Smartphone Puerto Rican Middle Class Users](https://reader033.vdocuments.site/reader033/viewer/2022042703/55cf9dcf550346d033af4bc5/html5/thumbnails/46.jpg)
OUR RECOMMENDATIONSFurther Contextual Research
Correlations between digital literacy and social inclusion as of way to strengthen the social contract in post-capitalism (Drucker, 1993) societies.
![Page 47: Digital Illiteracy among Smartphone Puerto Rican Middle Class Users](https://reader033.vdocuments.site/reader033/viewer/2022042703/55cf9dcf550346d033af4bc5/html5/thumbnails/47.jpg)
BALANCE & NEGOTIATION
We have found in our practice that there is a need for a balance between international standards and inter/cross cultural approaches. To be competitive in today’s global market, not incorporating successfully the Mobile Web Best Practices can be detrimental to an App’s success. Successfully negotiating glocally can be a challenge by itself.
New questions: Competitive Glocally?
![Page 48: Digital Illiteracy among Smartphone Puerto Rican Middle Class Users](https://reader033.vdocuments.site/reader033/viewer/2022042703/55cf9dcf550346d033af4bc5/html5/thumbnails/48.jpg)
New questions:
The role of value driven designers is very important when establishing the scaffolding of a network society that may strengthen liberties and rights. The responsibility of digital literacy education that takes into account cultural behaviors is not exclusively the designer’s, but one to be shared with clients, users and all members of the community.
WHO IS RESPONSIBLE FOR DIGITAL LITERACY?
![Page 49: Digital Illiteracy among Smartphone Puerto Rican Middle Class Users](https://reader033.vdocuments.site/reader033/viewer/2022042703/55cf9dcf550346d033af4bc5/html5/thumbnails/49.jpg)
facebook.rubberbandpr.comrubberbandpr.tumblr.comtwitter.com/Rubberbandpr