Contextual Interaction

Just got over with the final concept of my project! Whew!
Came across some interesting insights regarding user experience design… The principal one- as you might have already read in the previous post is that user experience design may not always be limited to ‘user’ experience design. True- in the end deliverable all the entities have to point towards a wholesome and meaningful ‘user’ experience. But the process may differ every time. This is one area where design education often loses out. Now for instance who would have thought there is something called ‘context based interaction design’?
What now on earth is this!!
To put it simply lets take the cell phone example again… Designing an application interface for a cell phone for a user is ‘user experience’ design. But say- I want to design a cell phone application specifically for a guy in New Delhi, India who is a road side vendor (Mind you- some top mobile companies see an awesome potential in this!). My user in this case does not only have his user specific needs (networking/ attracting potential customers/ updating customers on his products/ contacting wholesale dealers etc), but he also is residing in a place which has strong contextual implications. His business also depends on the context that he is placed in. Delhi is unbearably hot in summers and extremely cold in winters. It has a certain culture of people in majority with a certain taste when it comes to making a selection while shopping. They have certain living standards and language which are unique to the region. Here we are not really studying just the user. All this data comes from the context around him- i.e. the environment, the people, the culture- all that is going to have implications on his street vending! A cell phone application which aids him in his vending while catering to these contextual values will prove to be far more useful to him than a simple application based on him and his needs alone.
See my point?