Mobile Literacy
Designing Mobile Technology for Emerging Markets
Mobile Literacy is a design and research project to understand how mobile technology can work more effectively in emerging markets. Adaptive Path went to rural India to investigate the impact of mobile technology and developed concepts for new mobile devices for this market.
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Natasha Sakina Alani
Design Researcher
Natasha was the primary researcher and an advisor for Adaptive Path's Mobile Literacy Project. She interviewed over a dozen people in the Kutch region of India about their mobile phone use. She speaks Kutchi fluently. In addition, she spent time teaching English at Jiaxing University in Zhejiang, China and and lived in Uganda where she explored financing options for mobile devices and solar panels for rural populations.
Before moving to San Francisco she co-found and operated one of the nation's first retail wireless repair and recycling businesses, Doctor Cell Phone. Natasha follows a wide range of professional interests with a grassroots and entrepreneurial bent, focusing specifically on empowering the under-served. She currently works at CVE, a San Francisco non-profit where she job coaches clients with mental health disabilities to overcome barriers to employment. As enterprise manager she is also responsible for the operations and growth of the social enterprise that employs these clients.
Natasha's interest in challenging ventures goes back to the age of 17 when she launched a profitable business. After college, she won a position in Raytheon's 2 year, Financial Leadership Development Program, where she worked in corporate development and played a key role on a $10B strategic proposal for an integrated wireless network. She holds a BBA in Finance from the University of Texas at Austin.