Low Cost Smartphone Usage in Emerging Markets

Recently STBY completed a research project on the usages of the new generation of low cost smartphones. The study was based in India and we worked with our REACH partner Quicksand, who are based in New Delhi and Bangalore.

The fieldwork was conducted through in-depth interviews within the context of the participants’ daily lives, capturing their individual stories about their phone use. We created a rich set of design documentaries, to be used as inspiration for the client’s in-house design team. This approach allows culturally-specific local influences to be preserved and examined within the films, whilst also ensuring the consistency of data needed for potential future cross-regional analysis.

Initial analysis of the fieldwork in a workshop with the client team identified new insights into emerging behaviours of consumers in connection to low cost smartphones usage, some of which were relatable to previous insights from studies in other markets, such as China, Russia and Europe. The insights were then synthesised into an illustrated report to communicate the main findings to a wider range of internal stakeholders, accompanied with initial recommendations for design.

The results of the study work as inspiration for developing ideas, concepts and strategies by the client team. STBY’s extensive experience in designing and conducting collaborative design research projects was key in making sure this project took place in a co-creative and international setting.