The next billion users refers to the people who are about to become internet users
The next billion users refers to the people who are about to become internet users, coming online for the first time. These users probably have different considerations to you:
- cost - people probably don’t have high-end phones with big screens and lots of storage. They will load web pages slower, and often need to consider saving space
- connectivity - probably not constant, and limited or expensive. Make the offline experience as rich as the online one.
- digital literacy - people might not recognise design patterns or icons we take for granted -what does “swipe” mean? what even is a touchscreen? Keep things simple, provide video tutorials and clear in-app education
- general literacy - users might not be able to read, or need to switch languages for reading or typing. Universally understood icons can help.
You probably have design biases, such as leaving lots of whitespace to make a document look less crowded, or defaulting to LtR languages, or using a western classical music note as the icon for music.
Further reading
- Read about designing for offline,
- Read about designing for emerging markets