M, W 2:15-4:15, Peterson Building (d.school)

Joshua Cohen (jcohen57@stanford.edu)
Terry Winograd (winograd@cs.stanford.edu)
CA: Lucky Gunasekara (luckyg@stanford.edu)

This course will focus on innovative uses of mobile phones to improve access to health care for underserved populations. Interdisciplinary student teams will focus on mobile health projects in and around Nairobi. We will be working in collaboration with colleagues (faculty and students) in computer science at the University of Nairobi and with the Nokia Africa Research Center.

Part One: prelude

March 29th: design thinking and the d.school

• A design exercise, (Susie Wise and d.school staff)
• Introduction to the d.school

Texts: (Specific sections from these are assigned below)

• IDEO Human-Centered Design Toolkit
• Matt Jones and Gary Marsden, Mobile Interaction Design, Wiley, 2005

March 31: course introduction

• Introduction of staff and students in the course [60]
• Introduction to University of Nairobi colleagues and their activities [30]
• Needfinding methods and the problems of needfinding at a distance [30]
  

Readings:

• IDEO Human-Centered Design Toolkit, section 1, pp. 17-50.
• Matt Jones and Gary Marsden, Chapter 5, Mobile Interaction Design, 121-167.
• Krista Donaldson, “The Future of Design for Development,” Information Technologies and International Development 5, 4 (Winter 2009), pp. 97-100.
  

Background:

• Cynthia Putnam, Emma Rose, Erica J. Johnson, Beth Kolko, “Adapting User-Centered Design Methods to Design for Diverse Populations,” Information Technologies and International Development 5, 4 (Winter 2009), pp. 51-73.

Part Two: understanding

April 5: Nairobi/Kenya

• Presentation by Lisa Poggiali, Stanford anthropology [30 + 30 discussion]
• Introducing the Nairobi materials, Akshay Kothari [30]
• Forming teams, with Julian Gorodsky [30]
  

Readings:

• Richard Dowden, Chapter. 15. Altered States, Ordinary Miracles. Meat and Money: Eating in Kenya, 415-438.
• Michela Wrong, It’s Our Turn to Eat, Chapter 7, The Call of the Tribe. 99-119.
• Michela Wrong, It’s Our Turn to Eat, Chapter 9. The Making of the Sheng Generation. 145-162.
• Binyavanga Wainaina, “Generation Kenya,” Vanity Fair (July 2007).
• Michelle Osborn, Fuelling the Flames: Rumour and Politics in Kibera, Journal of Eastern African Studies 2, 2: 315-327.
  

Background:

• Video on CDC/Kibera project
• Kibera Kid (DVD)
• Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo, “The Economic Lives of the Poor,” The Journal of Economic Perspectives 21, 1 (Winter 2007), pp. 141-168.
• Slum descriptions (Pamoja Trust)
• Executive Summary
• Inventory
• Pumwani Division
• Langata Division
• Westlands Division
• Makadara Division
• Dagoretti Division
• Kasani Division
• Embakasi Division

April 7: global health

• Presentation by George Rutherford, Director, Institute of Global Health, UCSF Medical School [60]
• Exercise on access to health, building on Nairobi materials, with Zia Ycusuf [60]
  

Readings:

• Jon Cohen, “The new world of global health,” Science 311 (2006): 162-167.
• Catherine Kyobutungi*, Abdhalah Kasiira Ziraba, Alex Ezeh and Yazoumé Yé, The burden of disease profile of residents of Nairobi's slums: Results from a Demographic Surveillance System, Population Health Metrics 2008, 6:1
• Laurie Garrett, “The Challenge of Global Health,” New York Times, 2 January 2007.
• Institute of Medicine, “The U.S. Commitment to Global Health. Recommendations for the New Administration,” Washington, D.C.: National Academy of Sciences, 2009: 9-18 (the rest for background).
  

Background:

• Declaration of Alma Ata
• Millennium Development Goals and atlas
• USAID: http://www.usaid.gov
• World Health Organization: http://www.who.int/enand http://www.who.int/about/en/
• World Bank: http://www.worldbank.org
• Gabriel Gulis, Joshua Anam Amos Mulumba, Olivia Juma, and Beatrica Kakosova, “Health status of people of slums in Nairobi, Kenya,” Environmental Research 96 (2004), pp. 219–227.
  
  

April 10: the design experience

• 9am to 5pm, one-day Design Workshop at d.school

Assignment: Redesign the experience of communicating with loved ones, for the elderly

Readings:

• Methods for needfinding handout
• Also see section on "Hear" in IDEO Toolkit (pp. 18-50 esp. part on interviewing)
  

April 12: mhealth and success/failure experiences

• Presentation by James S. Kahn, professor of medicine, UCSF [30+30]
• Group presentations of successful and unsuccessful development technology projects [6X10]
  

Readings:

• James G. Kahn, Joshua S. Yang, and James S. Kahn, “Mobile’ Health Needs And Opportunities In Developing Countries,” Health Affairs 29, 2 (2010): 254–261.
• mHealth for Development, Vodaphone/UN Foundation

Project Readings [each team to pick and present one project]: See page.

Background:

• mobileactive.org
• Jennifer Aker and Isaac Mbiti, “Africa Calling: Can Mobiles Phones Make a Miracle?,” Boston Review (March-April 2010).
  
  

Part Three: elements of design thinking

April 14: synthesis, point-of-view

• In-class work on team project materials, led by Perry Klebahn, George Kembel, Charlotte Burgess-Auburn [120 – to be detailed]
• To be based on personas you develop from the Nairobi reports
  

Readings:

• IDEO Human-Centered Design Toolkit, section 2.
• Handouts on synthesizing, POV

April 19: mobile technology and methods for ideation

• Design ideation exercise on mobile communication [120 – to be detailed]
  

Readings:

• Indrani Medhi, Somani Patnaik, Emma Brunskill, S. N. Nagasena Gautama, William Thies, Kentaro Toyama, “Designing Mobile Interfaces for Novice and Low-Literacy Users,” June 2009.
• Handout on ideation
• Other readings on creativity/idea generation (TBD)
• IDEO Method cards
• slides, (need to be excerpted)
• index,
• deck
  

April 21: prototyping

• team process exercise with Julian Gorodsky on personal/interpersonal dynamics
• presentation on prototyping
  

Readings:

• Jones and Marsden Chapter 6, Prototypes, 169-192.
• Handout on prototyping
  

Background:

• Jones and Marsden, Chapters 1-4, 1-119.

April 26: viability/design for East Africa

• presentation of initial prototype ideas [60]
• panel discussion on design experiences in Kenya and elsewhere in East Africa [30+30]
• [After class] social with students, panelists, coaches,...
  
  

Readings:

• Richard Heeks, “Ict4d 2.0: The Next Phase of Applying ICT for International Development,” Computer (June 2008): 26-33.
• Richard Heeks, “Information Systems and Developing Countries: Failure, Success, and Local Improvisations.” The Information Society 18, 2 (2002): 101-112.
• Thomas N. Smyth, Satish Kumar, Indrani Medhi, Kentaro Toyama Where there's a will there's a way: mobile media sharing in urban india, CHI2010
• Susan P. Wyche, Thomas N. Smyth, Marshini Chetty, Paul M. Aoki, Rebecca E. Grinter Deliberate interactions: characterizing technology use in Nairobi, Kenya, CHI2010
  

April 28: prototype quick turnaround

• Project teams present revised prototypes to the class and reviewers for discussion
  

Background:

• Jones and Marsden sections from Chapters 8-10 as appropriate for your specific prototype.
  
  

Part Four: what makes for success?

May 3: ICT4D research

• presentation on ICT4D by Kentaro Toyama [30+30]
• studio time on developing prototypes [60]
  

Readings:

• Yaw Anokwa et. al, “Stories from the Field: Reflections on HCI4D Experiences,” Information Technologies and International Development (ITID) 2009
• Jenna Burrell and Kentaro Toyama, “What Constitutes Good ICTD Research” 5, 3 (Fall 2009): 82-94.
• Eric Brewer, Michael Demmer, Melissa Ho, R.J. Honicky, Joyojeet Pal, Madelaine Plauché, and Sonesh Surana, “The Challenges of Technology Research for Developing Regions,” IEEE Pervasive Computing, 2006: 15-23.

May 5: field testing

• Discussion of testing/assessment [60]
• Usability testing
• Field testing
• Viability testing
• Team interactions about their plans (working with Nairobi partners) [60]
  

Readings:

• Jones and Marsden, Chapter 7, Evaluation, 195-219.
• Reading on field testing in developing world. TBA
  

May 10: evaluation metrics and methods

• presentation on assessing cost effectiveness by James G. Kahn, UCSF Medical School [30+30]
• discussion of methods of evaluation, especially field experiments [60]
  

Readings:

• Jones and Marsden, Chapter 11, Impacting the Community: Impacting the World, 315-333.
• Abhijit V. Banerjee and Esther Duflo, “The Experimental Approach to Development Economics,” Annual Rev. Econ (2009): 151–78.
  

Background:

• IDEO Human-Centered Design Toolkit, section 3.
• Abhijit Vinayak Banerjee, “Making Aid Work: How to fight global poverty—effectively,” Boston Review, July/August 2006.
• Michael Kremer and Edward Miguel, “The Illusion of Sustainability.” The Quarterly Journal of Economics (August 2007): 1007-1065.
• Edward Miguel and Michael Kremer, "Worms: Identifying Impacts...," Econometrica 72, 1 (January 2004): 159–217.
  

Part Five: projects, projects, projects

May 12: coaching/critiquing

• work with teams on prototyping and testing
• other material on as-needed basis

May 17: present prototype and testing plans

• present to group of designers for comment/critique
• other material on as-needed basis
  

May 19: storytelling

• presentation on storytelling [60]
• elevator pitch exercise [3X20]
  

Readings:

• Stephen Denning, “Using Narrative as a Tool for Change,” in John Seely Brown, Stephen Denning, Katalina Groh, and Laurence Prusak, Storytelling in Organizations (Elsevier 2005), chap. 4.
  

May 24: coaching/critiquing

• work with teams on prototyping, testing, and presentation
• other material on as-needed basis
  

May 26: Presentation trial runs

May 31: Memorial Day, no class

June 1: Evening presentations for class, guests, and public

June 2: reflections and next steps

• reflection on the course
• comments on projects
• getting started with continuation plans