Design and Evaluation of a Multilingual Voice-Based E-Governance ICT Solution to Empower Non-Literate Citizens for Public Service Access

Imran Maqsood; Mareena karim; Jalal Khan

Authors

Imran Maqsood University of Engineering and Technology Mardan
Mareena karim Department of Telecommunication Engineering , University of Engineering and Technology Mardan
Jalal Khan Department of Telecommunication Engineering, University of Engineering and Technology Mardan

Keywords:

E-Governance, Voice User Interface, Non-Literate Users, Digital Inclusion, Artificial Intelligence, Usability Evaluation, ICT4D, Pakistan

Abstract

Pakistan's rapid growth in mobile-phone and smartphone penetration has not been matched by a corresponding rise in the use of digital public services, largely because a substantial share of citizens, particularly in rural areas, remain non-literate or low-literate and cannot navigate text-heavy e-governance portals. This paper presents the design, development, and field evaluation of a multilingual, voice-based mobile ICT solution that lets non-literate and semi-literate citizens access core government services, including hospital information, police assistance, utility-complaint registration, subsidy inquiries, commodity price checking, and public transport information, through natural spoken interaction in Urdu, Punjabi, Hindko and Saraiki. Unlike prior text-free or fixed-menu voice interfaces, the proposed system embeds an artificial-intelligence-based intent-recognition and dialogue-management layer that allows a citizen to state a need using free-form conversational speech (for example, “I want to complain about electricity”) and be routed automatically to the correct service and complaint workflow, without navigating nested menus. The system was designed using a six-phase User-Centered Design methodology comprising requirements gathering, an observational study, icon and voice-prompt assessment, prototype design, application development using Flutter, Firebase and Python-based AI services, and usability evaluation. A field study involving 45 rural participants aged 20–65 was conducted using ISO 9241-11 effectiveness, efficiency and satisfaction measures, comparing the proposed voice-based prototype against an existing text/menu-based e-government application. Results show substantially higher task-completion rates, shorter completion times and lower error rates for the voice-based system, together with a mean System Usability Scale score of 78.4, indicating good-to-excellent perceived usability. The findings support voice-first, AI-assisted design as a viable pathway toward digital and civic inclusion for non-literate populations in Pakistan and comparable developing-country contexts.

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