Social impact with interaction design

I read an article in cnn.com and thought that you will probably enjoy it. It is a pretty cool and thoughtful initiative to help third world countries with the use of interaction design...

This article talks about how life is for millions of people in the underdeveloped counties with respect to banking. Imagine life if you had no access to banks, ATMs, credit cards, or savings and checking accounts. You just have access to cash; which you needed to hide under your bed or carry around. Imagine how hard it is for these people to save, plan, get ahead, take chances, or feel secure.

In recent years some mobile operators in emerging markets have made a splash by allowing customers to send remittances and pay bills via SMS. It is amazing how something as simple as that changed the lives of hundreds of people. For the savings aspect of it, banks and mobile operators have partnered to come up with a solution. Some companies around the world are planning to launch a mobile-account service that features savings and withdrawals. In other words, you do not need a bank account but only a mobile account to do all your transactions.

According to the article, “The paradigm of the future is: If I want to send you money, the only thing I need to know is your mobile number." I think that this is a pretty amazing idea that is highly correlated with interaction design. I know for a fact that in Venezuela around 80% of the population does not have a bank account but around 60% of it does have mobile service do this idea would be amazing for them and very easy to implement.

Poverty in underdeveloped counties is a cycle that is very hard to end. If you were born poor, the chances that you will die poor are extremely high. In third world countries there are no much tools or services that help under privileged individuals to succeed and improve their quality of life. These are the kind of initiatives that we have to create as designers in order to make a social impact and do our part to make the world a better place.