@Article{cmc.2020.08917,
AUTHOR = {Sadeeq Jan, Imran Maqsood, Salman Ahmed, Zahid Wadud, Iftikhar Ahmad},
TITLE = {Investigating the Use of Email Application in Illiterate and SemiIlliterate Population},
JOURNAL = {Computers, Materials \& Continua},
VOLUME = {62},
YEAR = {2020},
NUMBER = {3},
PAGES = {1473--1486},
URL = {http://www.techscience.com/cmc/v62n3/38366},
ISSN = {1546-2226},
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.},
DOI = {10.32604/cmc.2020.08917}
}