Oral Information Management (OIM) is road signs for digital payments
A ‘concept-level’ design towards creating a version of the Taler interface that poorly-schooled adults and those who do not yet know Indo-Arabic notation or any written language can safely and confidently use to send and receive money, make shop payments and so on. In a series of treaties in Geneva and Vienna in 1931, 1949 and 1968 Europe developed an iconographic system for road signs that was
- easily understood by all drivers, regardless of language or schooling,
- consistent enough across countries to be recognizable,
- due to the plethora of languages in Europe, did not require users to read text.
Most icons are highly concrete rather than relying on schooled abstractions. In whole or part this system has been adopted as a template to solve the same problem around much the world.
GNU Taler ‘with OIM Inside’ can lead the way in creating something similar for mobile wallets and mobile payment apps, starting again in Europe: a consistent set of signs that allow any adult of ordinary ability, regardless of language or schooling, to navigate effectively through any basic financial transaction process.