A BRCK UX Workshop at TED Global
TED Global was held in Arusha Tanzania recently. BRCK had the privilege of running two UX workshops there, which was an exciting opportunity to interact with some of the greatest minds in the world. This is arguably the most inspiring group of thinkers and doers that gather in one place for the sole purpose of sharing, inspiring, and learning from each other.
We were no different. We went in ready share, learn, and be inspired by these great minds.
As a user experience designer, I relished the opportunity to engage these minds in trying to figure out one of the quintessential challenges of our time: youth unemployment.
How can we use access to the internet to help young people find jobs in a context of a poor/expensive connectivity infrastructure and limited formal exposure?
HERE ARE SOME SOBERING NUMBERS
There are over 3 billion people in the world who cannot afford adequate access to the internet. 800 million of these people are in Africa. If you zoom in closer to home, Kenya has a population of approximately 45 million people. Of these, only 10 million can afford the internet. That leaves 35 million people without adequate access to the internet! This excludes them from massive opportunities across the spectrum of what we nonchalantly enjoy with our suburban connectivity. BRCK’s mission is to connect African people to the internet. We do this by providing free access to the internet for the masses via our connectivity infrastructure. This is powered by our ruggedized micro server network of SupaBRCKs. For more on this game-changing device, check out brck.com.HOW DO PEOPLE ACCESS AND ENJOY BRCK CONNECTIVITY?


WHY THE EMPLOYMENT CHALLENGE?
One of our tenets as a company is centering our users and being as responsive as we can to their needs. While our users enjoy all the trappings of BRCK connectivity, our user experience research consistently yields one overlying content request: jobs. Young people want access to jobs. The interesting thing is that we have different services online that seek to link job seekers and vacancies. A case in point is during the workshop, the founder of Duma Works was there decrying lack of candidates for 300 jobs they are trying to recruit for. So what is the disconnect? This must be easy! Right? Not so fast.