English: Research using voice-based services as a technology platform for providing information access and services within developing world regions has shown much promise. The results for design and deployment of such voice-based services have varied depending on the application domain; user community and context. In this paper we describe our work on developing a voice-based service for obtaining feedback from school children; a previously unexplored user community. Through a user study; focus group discussions and observations of learners’ interaction with multiple design prototype versions; we investigated several factors around input modality preference; language preference; performance and overall user experience. Whilst no significant differences were observed for performance across the prototypes; there were strong preferences for speech (input modality) and English (language). Focus group discussions revealed rich information on learner’s perceptions around trust; confidentiality and general system usage. We highlight several design changes made and provide further recommendations on designing for this user community.

In: English

On: South African languages