EMERGING MARKETS, TECHNOLOGY DESIGN AND GLOBAL COMMUNITIES INSIDE THE UNITED STATES

Information technologies provided by internet startups and established brands offer fundamentally new communication and transaction capabilities for increasingly diverse customers and in often unexpected environments. This short paper relates findings from ethnographic interaction research conducted for a major New York-based multinational bank designing an innovative, technology-rich financial service machine for lower income, lower education and immigrant customers. The case study speaks to larger issues of emerging markets, new technology environments and the role of interaction ethnographers in modeling user experience and designing transformative and usable electronic services for newly connected U.S. and global communities. The author earned his Ph.D. in Cultural Anthropology from Stanford University and conducts interaction ethnography for Sapient Corporation.