MEX Sessions: Sian Townsend on mobile search behaviour in emerging markets

Sian Townsend, at the time a user experience researcher with Google, spoke at MEX in May 2009 on mobile user experience in the emerging markets of Africa. 2009 was a time when hundreds of millions of users in developing countries were joining mobile networks for the first time and Google set out to understand what the concept of ‘search’ meant for these customers. Sian shares the results of research examining the questions people asked the first time they were able to connect to the web, providing a remarkable picture of users’ life priorities, which went on to shape Google’s approach to digital experience in these markets.