African SMS Radio

This design project for client Alex Anderson at FrontlineSMS provided an initial feasibility study for the FrontlineSMS:Radio project.

Design brief:

In Africa, radio still rules, but it’s mostly a one-way medium. Greater audience interaction could revolutionise radio, and help it play a role in the way citizens engage in public debates. You will help us tailor FrontlineSMS – a free software tool that turns a laptop and modem into a SMS communications hub (no internet needed) – to the uses of community and local radio stations. Radio stations in Africa will tell us what they’d like FrontslineSMS:Radio to do, and you will design a suitable UI and implement the functionality. Interface design will likely include interesting and informative ways of expressing large or smaller amounts of realtime text data for radio station operators. E.g. live word-clouds, message tickers, chart/voting for songs or discussion categories. Stations will also benefit from smart filtering and storing tools.

Undergraduate group design projects