Culturally Sensitive Mobile App for Female Sanitation and Hygiene in Low-income Countries

Abstract

In recent years, numerous discussions on Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH) have taken place, with a particular focus on developing countries. As many of them lack access to basic tools and education, a notable impact is observed specifically on the health and well-being of the adolescent female population. Although several initiatives have been implemented regarding infrastructure and policies, they have not provided a straightforward solution to this problem. The key challenges faced by this community include limited access to information, insufficient WASH infrastructure tailored to the female population, and the impact of early marriages and teen pregnancies that lead to educational obstacles. These circumstances have heightened the need for a tool to support female sanitation and hygiene practices in Mozambique. This paper describes the design process and development of a mobile application solution to support female students of Mozambique in enhancing their sanitation and hygiene practices.WASH, female sanitation and hygiene, and design for localized needs are the central topics of this research. While embracing technology, we also acknowledge several challenges that co-exist within the Global South regarding the limitations in technological infrastructure, digital literacy, and cultural restrictions that prevent potential solutions from bringing practical benefits. Our motivation stemmed from the lack of educational resources specifically addressing the WASH topic for the target female population. However, the development of a digital solution for this target population is challenging from a technological and design perspective in terms of understanding and identifying the complexity of female sanitation and hygiene practices and needs. Participatory Design (PD) was applied to encourage participant engagement and inform the design of the prototype. The HCD approach was used for the mobile application design to ensure proper product development for a sensitive population considering their way of life, surroundings, environment, culture, and traditions.To further inform the application design, this work is composed of three main design phases that involve various stakeholders, such as end users, to allow iterative design refinement. Firstly, we conducted a baseline questionnaire with young female students in Mozambique, followed by two focus group interviews with design researchers and experts in the fields related to WASH. Our findings identify the opportunity to serve this population by developing a mobile application. We describe that designing for sensitive, Global South communities requires accounting for deeper factors, such as individual motivations and or cultural norms, highlighting the importance of applying contextualized methods that consider the full range of constraints and resources in communities. Building upon these insights, we aim to stimulate discourse on the importance of considering context-related factors that inform the design of a culturally sensitive mobile application and how these insights can inform action points for Human-Centered Design practice for Low-Income countries.

Keywords: WASH, Female Sanitation and Hygiene, Mobile Application Design, Human-Centered Design, Participatory Design

DOI: 10.54941/ahfe1005530