A great podcast interview with Apala Lahiri Chavan about UX in India. Some salient points:

• Mobile phones are a business tool, which explains (partly) their popularity.
• Mobile phones empower women by letting them build social networks that they couldn’t build so easily before.
• On the differences between India and China: India continues to be very hierarchical and male-focused, whereas China has changed a lot in these two cultural aspects recently. “Very major differences in these two dimensions.”
• Indian Rasa’s are an Indian categorization of emotions, and when they try to solicit emotions from Indian users in tests, it’s easier for the users to express their emotions in terms of these Rasas.
• Major pitfall for designing for India: the idea that “Indians speak English, so we can just transport our product easily”. It’s true that a lot of Indians speak English, but most Indians still think in their mothertongue (usually non-English). And the culture is very strong and specific - you often have to adjust your product or service. For example, insurance in the US is all about individual risk management, in India, a group culture, insurance is all about your family and such - they’ll take care of you.

Apala is also the inventor of the “Bollywood technique“, which basically frames usability test scenario as a Bollywood movie in order to make it easier for participants to provide real feedback:

“What is the main challenge when you are usability testing in Asia?

In Asia it is impolite to tell someone they have a bad design. It is embarrassing to admit that you cannot find something. So it is very hard to get feedback.

Apala tested a site that offered railroad tickets for sale. She used the conventional simulation method and got little feedback. She could see that users were not succeeding. But they would not willingly discus the problems.

Apala then tried the Bollywood method. Now Bollywood is the Hollywood of India. They make more movies than Hollywood. They are famous for movies that have long and emotionally involved plots. The movies have great pathos and excitement. In the Bollywood method Apala described a dire fantasy situation. The participant’s beautiful, young, and innocent niece is about to be married. But suddenly he gets news that the prospective groom is a member of the underground. He is a hit man! His whole life story is a sham, AND HE IS ALREADY MARRIED! The participant has the evidence and must book an airline ticket for himself and the groom’s current wife to Bangalore. Time is of the essence!!!

The participants willingly entered this fantasy and with great excitement began the ticket booking process. Even minor difficulties they encountered resulted in immediate and incisive commentary. The participants complained about the button naming and placement. They pointed out the number of extra steps in booking. The fantasy situation gave them license to communicate in a way that they never would under normal evaluation methods.”