Open Access
ARTICLE
Investigating the Use of Email Application in Illiterate and SemiIlliterate Population
Sadeeq Jan1, Imran Maqsood2, Salman Ahmed3, *, Zahid Wadud3, Iftikhar Ahmad4
1 National Center for Cyber Security-UETP, Department of CS&IT, University of Engineering & Technology,
Peshawar, Pakistan.
2 Department of Computer Software Engineering, University of Engineering & Technology, Mardan, Pakistan.
3 Department of Computer Systems Engineering, University of Engineering & Technology, Peshawar, Pakistan.
* Corresponding Author: Salman Ahmed. Email: .
Computers, Materials & Continua 2020, 62(3), 1473-1486. https://doi.org/10.32604/cmc.2020.08917
Abstract
The use of electronic communication has been significantly increased over the
last few decades. Email is one of the most well-known means of electronic
communication. Traditional email applications are widely used by a large population;
however, illiterate and semi-illiterate people face challenges in using them. A major
population of Pakistan is illiterate that has little or no practice of computer usage. In this
paper, we investigate the challenges of using email applications by illiterate and semiilliterate people. In addition, we also propose a solution by developing an application
tailored to the needs of illiterate/semi-illiterate people. Research shows that illiterate
people are good at learning the designs that convey information with pictures instead of
text-only, and focus more on one object/action at a time. Our proposed solution is based
on designing user interfaces that consist of icons and vocal/audio instructions instead of
text. Further, we use background voice/audio which is more helpful than flooding a
picture with a lot of information. We tested our application using a large number of users
with various skill levels (from no computer knowledge to experts). Our results of the
usability tests indicate that the application can be used by illiterate people without any
training or third-party’s help.
Keywords
Cite This Article
S. Jan, I. Maqsood, S. Ahmed, Z. Wadud and I. Ahmad, "Investigating the use of email application in illiterate and semiilliterate population,"
Computers, Materials & Continua, vol. 62, no.3, pp. 1473–1486, 2020. https://doi.org/10.32604/cmc.2020.08917