As someone who is naturally timid and introverted, stepping out of the familiar University of the Western Cape lecture halls and into the vibrant, high-stakes environment of The Ou Stoep in Bishop Lavis and the bustling Parow Centre was a massive leap out of my comfort zone. Yet, it was a grounding reminder that Information Systems isn’t just about solutions, it’s about tailoring a solution. As an IS Honours student, I’ve conditioned myself to think in terms of “digital transformation”, but this week’s fieldwork taught me that sweeping transformation is often a dream. I came to realise that what these traders actually need is digital stewardship.
Iron Man vs. Mobility Scooter
The most fulfilling moment was realising I had been looking at technical solutions all wrong. I often default to imagining a complex web app for every problem. However, speaking with traders like Andries Goodman and Elizabeth van de Westhuizen changed my perspective.
For Elizabeth, who has run her fruit and veg stall for 30 years, digital tools feel unnecessary at her age. Trying to force a multi-phase digital platform on her would be like trying to sell an Iron Man suit to someone who just needs a mobility scooter.
Digital doesn’t always have to mean a full-scale transformation; for someone like Andries, who wants to reach bulk buyers directly to bypass middlemen, technical assistance like a simple WhatsApp Business account is the mobility scooter he needs.
Human Centered Design X Digital Stewardship
HCD must evolve beyond utility to honour what I’ve come see as the purpose of the user. For Elizabeth and Andries, their stalls are a calling supported by deep faith. Elizabeth prays before she opens her stall every day. She views her business as a divine provision, stating that as long as God allows her, she’ll open her doors every day.
When a system is viewed as a blessing or a communal duty, the technology must act as a digital steward of that faith rather than a cold interface. For Graham Lebahn his identity is his marketing. A digital tool shouldn’t replace his physical presence or what his memory has built for him. It should simply provide a fallback for when age makes memory a challenge, ensuring his dignity remains intact.
The Harsh Reality
The fieldwork also exposed a darker side of the informal sector. While we often talk about growth in IS, the reality on the ground is frequently about risk mitigation. Robert Philander, who runs a biltong shop in Parow, uses polygraph tests because he fears those closest to him will drag him down through internal theft.
It was also genuinely heartbreaking to learn that Andries, at his age, is being stolen from and exploited by middlemen who syphon off his business. This realisation shifted my focus. A digital system in this space needs to provide transparency. Even if a system isn’t perfect, it provides a trail so that when human error or theft occurs, these traders can see exactly where they went wrong. In this context, transparency is a form of protection.
The Way Forward
As we dive deeper into our project for Cape Town’s informal traders, I’ve realised our strategy needs a major pivot. We have to embrace digital stewardship, accepting that some of the older traders might never actually touch the tech themselves, and that’s okay. We might be designing for younger relatives or community leaders instead. Plus, whatever we build must have a manual fallback so they never feel stranded if the tech glitches. The biggest takeaway? Onboarding is the product. Traders like Andries told us straight up that they want to be shown how to use these tools, not just handed an app. This week really drove home that we aren’t just building a modular platform. We’re building a way for people like Andries to fight back against exploitation. It’s all about resilience, faith, and most importantly, dignity.
Song of the Week: Ocean Blue
I always like to ground my weekly reflections with a track that captures the headspace I was in, and this week, it had to be Ocean Blue by Roberto Burgos. As someone who is naturally introverted, stepping out of the quiet, predictable bubble of campus and into the deep, fast-moving currents of real-world fieldwork felt a lot like navigating uncharted waters. The track perfectly mirrors that specific mix of emotions, feeling a little overwhelmed by the sheer scale and noise of places like The Ou Stoep and Parow Centre but ultimately finding a steady rhythm and sense of clarity beneath the surface.