When I began researching mobile usability among functionally illiterate (FXI) users in Nigeria, I knew I didn’t want to just measure drop-off rates or error counts. I wanted to understand what was really happening in those moments when users hesitate, backtrack, or abandon a task. What were they thinking? What assumptions were embedded in the design that made it feel out of reach?
In HCI literature, there’s been a growing acknowledgement of underserved users — but FXI users remain largely misunderstood and misrepresented. Most research discusses “low literacy” or “low digital skill” in terms of ‘limitations’, but few delve into the practical and cognitive challenges aspects users encounter with existing mobile interfaces in terms of differences in interaction styles. So we did.
This study took place in urban Nigeria, focusing on two app categories: mobile banking and e-commerce. We recruited functionally illiterate adult users — not illiterate in the traditional sense, but individuals who experience difficulties in interpreting, acting on, or transferring written information and digital instructions even when they are exposed to technology. Using a mixed-methods approach, we combined usability testing, interface-level observation, and interviews, applying the Digital Literacy Global Framework (DLGF) to map where things broke down — and where they didn’t.
One of the most revealing findings? FXI users didn’t find everything difficult. Many could complete tasks in one context (like navigating WhatsApp) but not in others (like filtering products in a shopping app). It wasn’t about skill alone — it was about how the interface asked them to think. The friction often came from inconsistent layout patterns, information overload, or hidden cues that assumed familiarity with abstract metaphors.
When we layered UX benchmark data over these findings, the results were stark: both apps scored below average, and not because of user limitations. The design failed them.
By applying the Digital Literacy Global Framework (DLGF), we could map digital literacy competencies against UI-level breakdowns. This approach provided a comprehensive view of the alignment between design expectations and user realities, emphasizing the need for usability studies to go beyond performance metrics, especially for marginalized users.
This study was published as part of ACM’s CHI proceedings. You can read the full paper here https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3628096.3629043
