Trans­continental Interfaces Ethiopia

Werkmodul Chair of Interface Design, Study Program Media Art and Design, Faculty of Media, Bauhaus-Universität Weimar in cooperation with the EiABC of Addis Ababa University Ethiopia and GiZ Gesellschaft für internationale Zusammenarbeit.
Winter 2010 and Summer 2011, Starting 19. October 2010, 13:30 CET.
Instructor: Michael Markert
Project Initiator and Coordinator: Moritz Dreßler

The internet enables global access and worldwide communication, presenting new challenges to UX/UI designers and content creators. A project in cooperation with the Addis Ababa University in Ethiopia aims to address these challenges, creating an interactive information system and developing user interfaces for transcontinental and universal access. The course aims to educate participants in global interface design and work on an online platform for collaboration and knowledge sharing. A field excursion to Ethiopia will take place, allowing participants to apply theoretical concepts and build a prototype together with connecting in person with the project partners in Ethiopia.

The seminar that spans two semesters aims to educate participants in global interface design and provide a platform for collaboration and knowledge sharing. A field excursion to Ethiopia will take place, allowing participants to apply theoretical concepts and build a prototype together with connecting in person with the project partners in Ethiopia. A concept for an Open Educational Resources Portal OER is being developed, ensuring accessible and user-friendly content across cultural and communicative borders.

During the field study trip, participants will visit the Addis Ababa University in Ethiopia and the Ethiopian Institute of Architecture, Building Construction, and City Development (EiABC), an institute for architectural and civil construction at the University in Addis Ababa. The GiZ accompanies the project in both countries. Participants engage with local students and faculty, gaining insight into the challenges and opportunities of interface design in the region. Ethiopia has not only a different language, Amharic, but also a very different Ge’ez writing system (ኢትዮጵያ), originated around the 5th century BC, consisting of over 270 phonetic symbols: 26 basic consonants that can be combined with seven vowels. Many Ethiopians also use a modified 12-hour clock time system that’s shifted by 6 hours: Dawn begins at 12 p.m. and dusk ends at 12 p.m., which would be equivalent to German dawn and dusk around 6 o’clock. These three key differences alone show how necessary it is to talk about the design of intercultural interfaces.

Visiting Ethiopia

Seminar Room in Addis Ababa University. Foto: Claudia Heinze
The Campus turtle

The field study trip from March 22 to April 3, 2011 started with an intercultural dialog and Ethiopian food: A first meeting with the Ethiopian partners of the EiABC of Addis Ababa University to get to know each other and refresh the contacts already established via the Internet over a traditional dinner Injera.
A tour of the building campus of Addis Ababa University and a visit to the Ethiopian National Museum provided insights to local art, paintings and sculptures and exhibition design. The museum is famous for presenting the well known Australopithecus afarensis »Lucy«.

It is known amongst music enthusiasts that Addis is famous for its vibrant Live Jazz scene. As music and sound being part of human communication and also relevant for Interface Design, a visit to the Jazz Club was obligatory.

An excursion to Oromiyaa Province, 200 km from the capital Addis, was not only interesting because of its famous Lagano Lake, but the group also explored rural residential structures and gathered information on how people use mobile technologies. Communicating with cell phones is common because it doesn’t require wired infrastructure. The need for adapting web design to allow access with different bandwidths while maintaining design standards was discussed with students from Adama University.

Followed by other workshops in the following days with Adama University on topics including graphical implementation of learning content for eLearning courses, Michael Markert presented a talk about Objectifiable Design from his Bauhaus preliminary module »The Bauhaus Foundation Courses« at Addis Ababa University. The vivid discussion sparked interest, especially if there are noticeable cultural differences in the reception, meaning, and interpretation of basic design principles, like directions, basic forms, and colors.

»In preparation for my presentation, I had the opportunity to conduct a practical test of my 2011 iPad. Despite the common perception that it is primarily a consumer device, I was able to create a vector-based poster in just 30 minutes using only the iPad. However, I must note that I had to jailbreak my device in order to be able to connect a USB stick.«
Michael Markert (March 2011)

On Saturday, April 2, the group attended the Second Social Media Day at ICE Addis: Digital Identities Ethiopia Forum with various presentations by speakers from Bauhaus Universität Weimar, Addis Ababa University, and Mekele University, followed by exchange and discussion.

Michael Markert held an impulse talk about eLearning at the Bauhaus-Universität and compared the relatively complicated top-down-developed Metacoon eLearning software to the grassroots-grown Medien-Wiki. The following discussions proved valuable insights from hearing the experiences of eLearning solutions at EiABC from Seble Lemma.

»This Mediawiki installation was originally set up by Michael Markert in 2008. […] Since the new setup in 2009 exactly 137,259 edits were made on the content. This wiki is a unique and open platform where we accumulate the common knowledge of staff and students alike, preserving it for [tomorrow …]. We like to share and reuse content among classes, chairs and faculty.«
Medien-Wiki Bauhaus-Universität

Further talks showed the potential of using mobile phones to improve epidemiological data collections in rural areas. The group also had a chance to meet the Ethiopian Google User Group. Google has a good standing in Ethiopia, as they were aware enough to provide information in Amharic while their software also supports the local Ge’ez ኢትዮጵያ writing system, originated around the 5th century BC, consisting of over 270 phonetic symbols: 26 basic consonants that can be combined with seven vowels. This is a real typographic problem worldwide, if software and hardware developers focus on languages but are forgetting that the majority of the world population does not necessarily deal with Latin characters.

»The participatory approach to the website makes the students involved and emancipated. We believe that this trust in the abilities and responsibility of our students strengthens their bonds with the institution. We hope that this experience of the students will encourage and empower them to contribute.« — Michael Markert

Concluding the study trip entailed a brief excursion to one of the most awe-inspiring sites of Ethiopia: the World Heritage site of Lalibela. This remarkable destination comprises numerous monolithic rock-hewn churches, intricately carved into the earth, dating back to the 12th century. Over the centuries, these churches have been imbued with religious significance, serving as vibrant hubs of spiritual life.

»This made us think about interfaces again. In a way, a church is an interface, too. It connects the life-space with the spiritual space. And these famous churches are impressively built into the earth’s surface, interfacing the ground to open a connection to above.«
Michael Markert (2011)

This is a joint initiative between the chair of Interface Design at Bauhaus-Universität Weimar and the Addis Ababa University in Ethiopia, as well as the German GiZ Gesellschaft für internationale Zusammenarbeit, aiming to promote international cooperation and knowledge sharing in the field of UX/UI and Interface Design. The project is expected to have an impact on the education and research community in Ethiopia and Germany.

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