
Ask HN: How to Build for the Next Billion Users? - dayve
Given that the next billion internet users will majorly come from places with strong views on culture like Africa (1.2b) &amp; India (1.3b); what will need to be prioritized when designing and building products for these people?
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sbetageri
As a former android developer in India who asks how to serve the masses, the
primary concern comes in functionality followed by design.

I will be speaking from the perspective of India.

Here, the vast majority of the rural users do not have great smartphones. With
the recent release of Jio, internet speeds have improved. Still wouldn't call
it great, but it is good.

Some of the most important functionality decisions that we make is offline
support. We always assume that the network will not be consistent. Google Maps
allows certain map locations to be saved offline. If memory serves, this was a
feature that was aimed at the developing world but found great uses
everywhere. Especially when hiking in locations with poor cellular
connectivity.

Our apps are primarily in English. Having the ability to view the same content
in the regional language is an added bonus. At the same time, we don't expect
everyone who uses the app to be familiar with all the icons that are used.

The size of the application is just as important. Before the launch of Jio,
data usage was capped. Back in 2012-ish(when I got my first android phone), I
was using a 3G data plan which gave 130MB for 14 days. So we aim to reduce the
size of the application.

Coming to design. For first time mobile and internet users, we aim to reduce
the number of clicks or taps. This is just good design in my opinion.

A short tutorial goes a long way in providing a good experience.

The following blogs do a much better job in explaining app design for the next
billion.

[https://developers.google.com/web/billions/](https://developers.google.com/web/billions/)

[https://blog.socialcops.com/engineering/android-
development-...](https://blog.socialcops.com/engineering/android-development-
guide-rural-world/)

