Hendrik Knoche & Jeffrey Huang:

Despite 800 million illiterate people worldwide little research has aimed at understanding how they use and appropriate mobile phones. We interviewed illiterate immigrants living in Switzerland to inform the design of phones and applications for illiterate users. We report on their use, coping strategies, and appropriation of mobile devices and other media to manage their lives. We found that text represented a valuable component for managing contacts in current smart phones. We provide design recommendations for mobile phone interfaces for illiterate and semi-literate users.