Evaluating the acceptance and usability of Kiswahili localised mobile phone app in Kenya: a case of M-Pesa app

Abstract

Despite the efforts made in localising the M-Pesa app (a mobile money application) from English to Kiswahili, little had been done to evaluate the acceptance and usability of its translated Kiswahili menu in Kenya. During the pilot implementation of M-Pesa (started on October 11, 2005 and ended on May 2007), an extensive research conducted on its users depicted that most of them preferred using the English language menu of the application vis-à-vis the Kiswahili menu (International Finance Corporation 2011:9). Subsequent to that finding, Safaricom Company (the company that operates M-Pesa) is said to have altered the Kiswahili menu with the aim of making it less complex and hoping that it could in turn attract more acceptability and usability among its users. This paper sought to analyze the findings of a research conducted by Wandera (2014) on the acceptance and usability of the Kiswahili localised mobile phone application in Kenya. Accordingly, this paper aimed at investigating the public's awareness, attitude and perception of the M-Pesa (mobile money application) Kiswahili menu. The study found out that generally, the level of acceptance and usability of Kiswahili language menu of M-Pesa app was low. This could be attributed to lack of awareness about the existence of the Kiswahili language menu on the M-Pesa app, use of hard and unfamiliar terms in the Kiswahili menu, and the negative attitude that the public have towards the Kiswahili language. In conclusion, the researcher suggests that the Kiswahili menu would be accepted and used if the message is clear, easily understood, uses common or familiar terms, if single terms are consistently translated, and is functionally suitable in the culture of the target text. Consequently, enough awareness should be created to dispel the public negativity towards Kiswahili language.