Category: ICT4Development

Usability is how easy an object is to use. The object can be almost anything, including a machine, tool, process, book, software application or website. Anything that a person can interact with should be usable. In the case of websites and software applications, usability has been defined as the ease at which an average person can use the software or website to achieve specific goals. Usability tests are a way for a website developer to gather useful feedback on their website, from a select sample of typical users. Today, user experience (UX) is ranking highly amongst the reasons why people choose products, apps, processes and even events. The goal of UX is to make life easier and simpler for people using products, apps and processes. For website developers, an outstanding UX design will give answers to three questions users have in their mind. They are pretty simple: “What it is about?”, “What is the benefit?” and “What is next?” Website usability evaluation is...

Last year  (December 2019), the government of Uganda moved passport applications online. We must commend the Ministry of Internal Affairs and more specifically, the Department of Citizenship and Immigration Control for expanding opportunity to many Ugandans to access their services. Those who have been trying to get passports, especially from upcountry locations, know how the system was rotten & corrupt. Now that passport services have moved online, we hope that it will help improve their efficiency and also cut down on corruption (in Uganda, it can only be reduced).World over, many governments are resorting to online service provision, a phenomenon broadly referred to as e-government. According to Wikipedia, e-government is the use of technological communications devices, such as computers and the Internet to provide public services to citizens and other persons in a country or region.With 31.3% (approximately 13m) of Uganda’s population using the Internet frequently, it makes a lot of sense to put services online. Other government agencies that...

Human beings have always been fascinated with artwork and photography. Thomas Merton in his book “No Man Is an Island” says “art enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time.” Today, art is no longer drawing on canvas or about statues. Art in this digital era is done using software & code. Digital art enables us to “find” and “loose” themselves. Read, you’ll find out soon. When the digital era dawned, we shifted to digital art & media, including photography. In Lira, the multimedia industry started in the early 2000s. When the war ended, the graphics business flourished. Lira became the centre of graphics, with clients travelling from faraway places such as Amolatar, Apac, Pader, Abim and even Kitgum. Many multimedia businesses started off as photo studios, taking photos of clients and editing them before printing into various sizes, according to what the client wants. Prominent among these businesses are Ambrossoli Wonders, Nicky Graphics, Bamboo Gallery, Obanga pe wany and many others. All have achieved varying levels of success...