Local-First Product Design

We start product design by watching how people live and work. Most technology is made for other markets, so we learn this one first.

Translating an app into Khmer is the easy part. Internet here is patchy, the power goes out, and many people use older phones. Our apps have to run on a $50 Android over weak 3G, and they have to work offline.

Most people here pay in cash, though QR payments are growing fast. Credit cards are rare outside tourist spots.

Our screens use Khmer script, and many mix Khmer and English. Some people don't type much, so we add voice.

Families and groups make decisions together here, based on trust between people. So we design for more than the one Western user most software is built for.

The KOOMPI laptops had to hold up in heat and humidity on unreliable power. We spent time on parts like a power supply that survives voltage swings.

For Baray, we first watched how small shop owners handle money. They juggle several apps, keep paper records and settle up at the end of the day. So we built Baray to fit that habit.

We spend time in the field, watching people work and interviewing them. We test ideas on paper before anyone writes code. Then we build for the hardest case first, a slow phone on bad internet, and test it with real users.

It has taken us years to learn how people here live and work. A foreign company could copy our features in a quarter.