Did you know that every second, three new smartphone users come online
for the first time?
Hi, I’m Tracey, a lead researcher on the Next Billion Users team.
And I'm Neha, a Product Strategist on the Next Billion Users team.
Tracy and I worked together across all of Google to ensure our products
are inclusively built for new internet users.
People who are just starting to use the worldwide web.
Let's kick off with an activity that will help us all see with fresh eyes.
Neha, do you want to try to Gorm the Zop?
Sure.
Okay. In this interface you have 10 seconds to find your friend.
Ready? Go.
Time's up. How did that feel?
It was quite confusing.
I didn't know what it was saying to me or where to tap.
Neha, you are not alone.
We've run this activity with thousands of Googlers.
Common feelings that surfaced were frustration, embarrassment and confusion.
Here are some quotes:
Everything looked foreign.
It gave me bad feedback.
I had to memorize what to do.
We even had someone reach out to us and say, "Hey, your website is broken."
Perfect responses because they all closely mirror
what someone with low digital literacy feels when they first come online
and try using technology products.
Low digital literacy exists globally.
A 2016 study across 33 countries showed that just 5% of the adult population
have high computerrelated skills.
And in 2018, the Digital Empowerment Foundation
reported that they consider 90% of India to be digitally non-literate.
While the exact numbers and measurement methods vary,
they all indicate that much of the population is lacking the digital literacy required
to complete basic tasks.
The most extreme user type to represent this are who we call new internet users.
People who come online in the millions each and every day
primarily on smartphones in regions like Asia Pacific,
sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America.
New internet users are changing the landscape of the internet and digital technology.
They face constraints that Tech Creators aren’t used to.
Like patchy connectivity, limited digital experience,
low literacy and low digital confidence.
For the past three years we’ve been researching digital journeys
of new internet users in Brazil, India, Indonesia, Nigeria and Mexico.
Something that may surprise you.
The geography doesn't matter as much as people typically think.
Across all these regions new internet users showed very similar behaviors
and new internet users don't just exist in five countries.
They exist everywhere.
That's because human needs are universal no matter the context.
What's exciting is when you build products with an understanding of the constraints
and contexts that the most extreme users like new internet users face,
the result is a product that is more relevant and helpful for everyone.
This is why we see new internet users sparking a paradigm shift
in how to build effective global products.
As some of the earliest creators and adopters of the internet,
it might be hard for people in the tech industry
to understand that what seems obvious to us can actually be frustrating
and demotivating for many users around the globe.
The first step is acknowledging the gap in comfort levels in using technology.
The second is to see the similarities in our needs.
Turning to the internet to solve a problem,
connect with a loved one, finish a task or just have some fun.
Things both experienced and new internet users want to do.
We found that there are principles inspired
by new internet users that lead to product improvements
that ultimately benefit everyone.
Today, we’ll explore three principles for how to build more globally relevant products.
Principle number one: Prioritize Voice Interactions.
Principle number two: Be Visual Forward.
Principle number three: Focus on upboarding, not Just onboarding.
Principle number one: Prioritize Voice Interactions.
Typing is hard.
And the keyboard is one of the most intimidating items
that pops up in a new internet users Experience.
Voice enables new internet users to overcome literacy barriers
and engage with apps in a way that feels familiar and fast.
Voice interactions are actually three times faster
than typing especially for multilingual users.
Reliable consistent voice interactions are helpful for a wide range of people,
not just new internet users.
Imagine you're driving and need to pull up directions,
using your voice to ask Google Maps helps keep your hands on the wheel
and eyes on the road.
Or perhaps you’re baking and your hands are covered in flour,
being able to set a timer with your voice, keeps food off your devices.
We've invested heavily in this space across many of our products.
A recent example of how we've built
upon voice interactions is through language options
in the Google assistant.
In India, where many people are multilingual,
users can now set a different language just for speaking
to the Google assistant without the need to change their OS language.
The team even took it a step further
so users can switch between 32 languages on their phone with just their voice
by asking, “Okay, Google, Bangla bolo” or “Talk to me in Bangla.”
Another part of prioritizing voice is making it work similar to human interaction
through multilingual queries.
For mixed language queries, we are working on models
that help us better understand user intent.
For example if a user says, (speaking in foreign language).
It doesn't matter that it's a mix of English and Hindi.
We know they’re asking when the train will leave from Delhi to Jalandhar.
So, remember to prioritize voice interactions
throughout your product experience especially for key functions.
This ultimately creates a better more seamless experience for everyone.
Reflecting the ubiquitous nature of voice.
Principle number two: Be Visual Forward.
Visuals are an important way to communicate within your product
and help users navigate.
But the effectiveness of that communication is dependent on how clear your visuals are.
Standalone symbols or icons that are too abstract
don’t always translate culturally and can be confusing.
We’ve seen that visuals based on reallife actions and are semi-abstract
tend to communicate best.
Visuals are also important because many new internet users
are considered low literate, functionally illiterate, or nonliterate.
Text is yet another barrier standing in the way
of people unlocking the value of internet.
And visuals don’t just help with low-literate users.
There are many examples of content that's just easier to understand visually.
For example, we’ve all had to relearn how to wash our hands properly over the last year.
Or if you had to assemble furniture,
cut your hair or learn how to play a board game,
wouldn’t you prefer visuals over text?
This is why instruction manuals often have lots of images.
Plus considering how overstimulated users are in this digital era,
imagery, animations, videos and more can cut
through the noise more effectively than text rates.
Several examples can be seen with Google Lens.
First, the Lens product is inherently visual.
Images are the input.
No text or voice query formation required.
And the output is either multiple image results
or an altered version of the original image.
Here, you can see the translate feature in action.
Lens affects just the words in the image
but keeps the surrounding context undisturbed.
This de-abstracts the sophisticated feature
and makes it easy for new users to understand.
New internet users often call this feature 'like magic'.
Second, now Lens features are also represented by more concrete icons.
For example, we recently redesigned the listen icon.
Previously it looked like this.
Even though the copy below said listen, users thought that tapping the icon
would play a video instead of reading the text
within the image out loud.
We explored many alterations of a new design,
conducted qualitative and quantitative research
with new internet users and found that a more semiabstract icon
worked better for comprehension.
The final result was actually more clear for all users.
So, we have rolled this out to other touch points
beyond Lens in Google Go.
Another example can be seen in Google Chrome.
Chrome is experimenting with query tiles to help suggest topics or subject areas.
Instead of leaning into text or very abstract graphics,
the team incorporated photographic imagery.
This helped ensure comprehension and also made it easier and faster
to see the range of queries one could try.
Remember leveraging well-designed visuals can help you efficiently
and effectively communicate with your users throughout the product experience,
regardless of their comfort reading text.
Principle number three: Focus on upboarding, not Just onboarding.
Onboarding, while important, is often front-loaded, usability-focused,
and assumes that the user already knows the general purpose of an app.
But this can't be assumed anymore.
Think of all the things a new internet user is taking in at once.
New concepts, navigation models, icons, text, different input mechanisms.
It’s cognitive overload and traditional onboarding doesn’t help the situation.
If you focus upboarding and onboarding, you communicate the relevant value
of your product not just how to use it.
With upboarding, educational moments happen in context,
not all at once upon the first opening,
and they only disrupt an experience when critical.
Also, with upboarding, learning materials don’t disappear but are always available
since people learn at different paces.
A great example of onboarding and upboarding in action is within Camera Go.
When someone first uses Camera Go,
they are greeted with animated onboarding tutorials
to help them understand features like translate mode or portrait mode.
Later on in the experience, there are signals
to help educate the user on additional features
and complex concepts as they encounter them.
For example, as the user takes photos there is a color coded reminder
of how many more photos can be captured based on their device’s available storage.
As the storage decreases the signal becomes more prominent.
When tapped the user can learn more about the amount of storage available,
and they can even create more storage through the Files app
linked within the Camera Go experience.
This teaches users that phones have limited storage
and that photos take up that space.
We often see that this concept is not well understood and people lose out
on capturing key moments due to a full storage.
This concept of upboarding helps prevent
that error and teaches a key concept at the same time.
Every second, three new smartphone users come online for the first time
from around the world.
And they are eager to use technology.
But to enable new internet users into becoming future power users
of technology we need to create products that are both relevant to their needs
and usable in their context.
If we leave you with even just one thing to remember, this is it.
When you build for new internet users, you ultimately build better for everyone.
These are just a few best practices and examples
of how you can effectively build for new internet users.
There are many more best practices to share
such as building with data and storage in mind
or building for diversity of language.
So, if you'd like to learn more please visit nextbillionusers.google.
You'll find more insights, case studies and materials.
Additionally, you will find a Digital Confidence Toolkit
developed in partnership with IDEO and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
This toolkit dives even deeper into the specific best practices
and provides materials so that you can run your own design sprints.
It's a great resource and tool to put these principles into action.
Thank you.