In recent years, UX (User Experience) has grown to play an integral part in the process of product development. It has become increasingly evident that customer experience should define product features and not the other way round. The tech industry has certainly been on the forefront of the UX revolution and here to help us delve into this is ‘Woman In Tech’ Marie Amuti.

Marie is a UX Designer with Equity Bank Kenya where she is heavily involved with the digitization of the bank’s products. Marie also contributes to the Mozilla project through the Teach the Web Initiative as well as taking the time to teach design to Firefox OS developers. Here she shares just some of her experiences in becoming a UX designer and Mozilla contributor.

Alex Wafula – What is UX Design?
Marie Amuti – User experience (UX) design is about creating products both digital and physical that do more than just meet the user’s needs but also to create a pleasurable experience while using it.

A. W. – Why is UX Design important?
M.A. – Design in itself is core to any product; even your chair is designed! UX Design is just taking design to another level by making the product useful, usable and pleasurable to use (excuse the tongue twister)! There are many products that are designed out there but are not useful/usable.
You might have the skill to program any mobile app that comes into your head but if you don’t think of how it’s meeting your expected user’s need in the first place or how they are going to use it, then you might end up delivering a product with a poor user experience.

A.W. – Did you ever think you would become a UX Designer? Where did your journey begin?
M.A. – Interesting story. I have always been a creative and a big psychology enthusiast… but I have always loved computers. During university I discovered HCI (Human Computer Interaction) which practically married all my interests and the rest they say is history.

A.W. – What exactly do you do at Equity Bank Kenya? What is the experience like for you there?
M.A. – Apart from meetings, meetings and more meetings, I am heavily involved in the digitization of the bank’s products. Let’s say the credit team no longer wants their clients filling forms to apply for credit cards, I attend the initial meeting that involves problem identification and then go on to ideat a possible digital solution to their problem. I send out wireframes/prototypes of what the product will look like, then work with the development team into developing it. There are different types of hats in the UX job title but that’s basically the core role I play. So far the experience has been great and working in a corporate environment has been such an eye opener.

A.W. – How has the local industry evolved to accommodate User Experience in their products.
M.A. – User Experience (UX) is not a new term in the tech environment; however it’s still a long way before it is appreciated and used to its maximum potential.

A.W. – Where did you work prior to this?
M.A. – I worked at the Ihub’s UXlab as a UX Design Intern. Fun times!

A.W. – So what are you currently working on at Mozilla right now?
M.A. – I am currently participating in an open research project by the Mozilla foundation.

A.W. – Any advice for women in tech?
M.A. – For most parts of the world meekness had been a rewarded character in women but for women in tech this is a character that will take you nowhere! There is no knight in shining armor who will teach you how to optimize your code nor will anyone seize an opportunity and hand it to you.
Find your niche whether it’s mobile development, web development or design – don’t try and be a jack of all trades.

“What would you do if you were not afraid” Sheryl Sandberg

Author – Alex Wafula
A Mozilla contributor based in Kenya mostly engaged as a community builder. Ask him anything about astronomy, he won’t have the answers half of the time – probably most of the time – but finding out is always a thrill!

Who is Dr. Reham Reda?

No one can deny the role of women in the technology field and these women deserve nothing more than respect and appreciation for breaking the boundaries. So with this in mind, today we’re talking about the heroines in Egypt and their role in the technology sector. We had the great opportunity to interview one of the Egyptian pioneers in tech, Dr. Reham Reda.

Dr. Reham Reda is an Associate Professor at the Information System Department, Faculty of Computer and Information Sciences, Mansoura University, Egypt. Whilst at this university, she received a Bachelor’s, Master’s, and a PhD in Information System.  She also achieved a  doctorate in Multimedia Security Technologies for Digital Rights Management (DRM) System – this is just one of her many achievements in the technology field.

She has had 10 years of experience in academic teaching, with proficiency in academic writing, developing curriculum programs, programming, database design and implementation and data analysis / mining tools. Additionally, Dr. Reham has published many articles international journals and conferences, whilst organising several local and international workshops.

Dr. Reham stands as the Egyptian ambassador for Arab Women In Computing (ArabWIC) organization. What a profile!

The path to her knowledge

So, let’s take a closer look at the conferences and seminars (local and international) in which Dr. Reham was involved.

She was involved in the ITI 3rd International Conference on Enabling Technologies for the New Knowledge Society and Egypt 2005. She also participated in Third International Conference on Intelligent Computing and Systems, Egypt 2007. She also attended the 7th International Conference on Communications and Information Technology.

In 2009, she engaged in the 8th International Internet Education Conference & Exhibition ICT-Learn Conference Education and Technology: A Catalyst for knowledge Society, Egypt. In 2011, the Fifth International Conference on Intelligent Computing and Information Systems, Egypt. In 2014, there was the 2nd International Conference Engineering and Technology (ICET2014), Egypt. And most recently, Dr. Reham participated in NYUAD Women In Computing in the Arab World Conference, Abu Dhabi, UAE 2015.

Her thoughts on Mozilla

You may be curious to know what Dr. Reham’s relationship with Mozilla is – well, look no further. From the start, she followed Mozilla’s footsteps and ever since she has learnt a great deal about what Mozilla does to help people to live a better life. When we asked Dr. Reham for her opinion on the activities and products by Mozilla, she said “Mozilla is a great organisation who try to build strong infrastructures in all of their ideas. I don’t know all of Mozilla’s products but I’m using their Firefox Browser (for desktop and IOS) in my personal and business life and I find it extremely fast, responsive and handy.”

Furthermore, she’s a true advocate for Open Source, stating “open source is the Hivemind now in Egypt. Even some closed source companies try to make their products applicable with the open source, and many government educational platforms and non government ones use open source in Egypt like ubuntu”.

Mozilla Egypt and Firefox OS – Dr. Reham Reda Reveals All

After attending one of the events by the Mozilla Egypt Community in Mansoura she said “the community presented the achievements of Mozilla in the last 5 years and I was very surprised about what they did.” So of course we were curious to know more about her views on Firefox OS! She believes that Firefox OS is still very new, but the concept is great as it’s proactive and it recognises the needs of people – most people are using smartphones instead of desktops so it’s essential to be with the user every step of the way, and that’s what Firefox OS is all about. She didn’t use Firefox OS before but she used the launcher of the first version and the developer preview for version 2.0. She hopes that Firefox OS can provide or connect with other operating systems out there instead of being an isolated island.

She also followed the launch of Firefox in Egypt and was very interested in knowing what’s next for Mozilla in Egypt. Dr. Reham thinks that launching for Firefox OS in Egypt has achieved great success as Mozilla has satisfied the needs of many categories of Egypt; on the top of it the Developers who can flash firefoxOS in their own devices. We asked Dr. Reham about her opinion on the Mozilla Egypt Community and she told us “I followed the community and I loved what they did. I attended one of their events in Mansoura University, which was for everyone not only students, and it was a great day where they spoke about Mozilla’s products and volunteering. They’re a great team who are doing a great job of helping their society.”

The Future

And finally for her future plans, Dr. Reham has goals for the short term and long term. For the near future, she plans to help young women enter the technology sector, achieve an associated professor degree and become a leading woman in her community.

For the long term, she plans to own a women’s social non profit organisation.

We’re going to finish off with a thought by the heroine herself, who shares some advice for the curious thinkers. “For every woman, young leader or other, trust you are the best one to achieve what you want. Think positive and you will achieve positive results. Your failures is the free fuel for your success story.”

Dr. Reham Reda gives her thanks to Mozilla for this fantastic interview and also thanks Mozilla and the Mozilla Egypt Community for its activities and products that made and will make people live a better life.

If you have any questions that you would like to ask Dr. Reham, send them across and she will get back to you.

Stay tuned for our coming articles!

Interview by Mohammed EL-barbeer

This is part 1 of an interview of our newly recruited Mozillian and also our influencer for FirefoxOS campaign.

Let’s listen to Shafeek Sumser: our newly recruited Mozillian, Influencer and a Linux geek.

1. Can you tell us a bit about yourself?

My name is Shafeek Sumser. I have worked as Project Leader for a Business Virtual Incubator for 4 years at Agence Universitaire de la Francophonie (AUF) – a french organisation. At AUF, I help promoters to build their Business Plan for French African countries, Indian Ocean Islands, South Asian French Speaking countries and the Caribbean region. I am also the System Administrator and open source software integrator at AUF, since the latter promotes Linux and Open Sources Software through trainings & LPI certifications, and OSS Conferences & seminars. I’ve described myself as a Linux and OSS geek since joining the university in 1999 where I had my first Red Hat 6.0 Installation. Shortly after, I left Red Hat for Debian based distribution (first Debian installation was 2.1 Slink as code named). As such, all the servers that I managed till now are mostly Debian based.
For desktops, I use Linux Mint and Ubuntu distributions. LPI certified, I also provide training for LPI certifications at AUF since 2005. Programming on Bash, Perl and Python is not a stranger to me. This has also pushed me forward to create web applications based on Perl, PHP and Django. I manage to obtain a Postgraduate Diploma in ICT in 2007 and completed my academic course with a Master 2 in “Droit, Économie, Gestion, Mention Management Spécialité Création, Reprise d’Entreprise et Entrepreneuriat” with the University of Bordeaux, France. Furthermore, I have also been involved with a company that offers open source software integration, IT infrastructure consultancy and security services.

Shafeek joined us here for his first event – Orange Klif launch

2. When did you join the Mozilla Community? and why?

I joined the Mozillian Community two months ago on an invitation from my friend and professional colleague. Among the main objectives for joining this community were to see what services the Mozillian Community offers. Joining this community will allow me to discover in depth tools and web solutions that Mozilla has. Within the community we can benefit from the transfer and sharing of ideas and knowledge, whether they are technical or non-technical. At the same time, it is an opportunity to help and serve an open source project and promote Mozilla products that I have been using whether on a personal or professional basis.

3. What is your opinion about FirefoxOS as the third mobile platform?

I was amazed on hearing that news since the FirefoxOS platform is typically a web based one. I think that we need more competition on this segment where we can have a large variety of products based on user needs, adjustments and requirements. As a young product, FirefoxOS will have to compete with other mobile platforms in order to gain a larger market. FirefoxOS should provide the same level UI as other platforms and access to software and add-ons. Moreover, platform compatibility could be a good attitude to adopt so users can easily migrate from other open source or proprietary platforms to FirefoxOS.

4. Do you think FirefoxOS can penetrate the mobile market share of Mauritius?

I think that FirefoxOS is a relatively young product in Mauritius and most Mauritians are not really aware of it. As such, we need to give it some time for it to make its way up. FirefoxOS should have different phone models that adapt and respond to the market segments needs like Entertainment for video and photo editing and social media and Professionnal phone for working. Furthermore, if FirefoxOS can provide almost all the features that exist on other mobile phone applications, and provide some degrees of innovation its web-based phone, the mobile market will love it.

5. How do think you can promote FirefoxOS in Mauritius?

I think the promotion of FirefoxOS can be done in 2 ways: firstly awareness of FirefoxOS to the different population segments in Mauritius, and secondly collaborate with the mobile industry and businesses to allow FirefoxOS to gain market space. Talks and conferences can be organised with collaboration with the mobile phone industry for professionals. This will raise awareness and they will understand the concept of FirefoxOS.
For professional conferences, we could invite a FirefoxOS representative to give talks. Regarding the young generation, we could have some FirefoxOS demo party days organised in universities, school or shopping malls where these young people can discover the FirefoxOS phone. FirefoxOS could also support and sponsor Open Source Software activities in Mauritius. As such, Mauritian FirefoxOS Team should participate fully by providing talks and demonstrations by an official FirefoxOS developer in Mauritius. Mozillians (both local & international team) can opt for installation party for FirefoxOS on mobile phones and also have trainings or crash courses on mobile application development based on Firefox OS.
The business part is also important so Mozilla can support its R&D team. FirefoxOS should be in business relationship with all mobile phone operators and sellers in Mauritius. Since it is an open source technology, we can have good quality mobile phones at cheaper prices. Mozilla could participate in a publicity campaign (web, billboards, newspaper) in collaboration with mobile phone operators on a larger scale. An official launching ceremony must have be done around FirefoxOS where all the different actors in the IT industry, Mobile industry and other professionals can be invited together with media coverage.

This interview was conducted by Ganesh – Mozilla Mauritius