Micro-Tasks:
Micro-Tasks are as a source supplementary income generation for developing economies. There are many complex digital tasks which can be broken down into small tasks and can be distributed to other people to complete them. The micro-task market allows small tasks to be posted as requests on a common web-based platform which can be completed by users some reward which can be monetary or non-monetary (e.g., reputation). To ensure quality, the completed work is monitored through filters and peer review.

Micro-task markets have been highly successful in domains such as question-and-answer matching (e.g., Yahoo! Answers, Amazon Askville). They offer the practitioner a way to quickly access a large user pool, collect data, and compensate users with micro-payments. Currently, many web services are hosting Micro-Tasks where people participate, select available tasks and complete them in available time. This medium is becoming quite popular among the workers and requesters.
 

Design Exploration – Ideation:
To design a web based crowd sourcing platform for Micro-Tasks which can host digital skill based jobs like tagging photos as well as special skill based offline jobs also like sketching, taking photographs etc.

Here, in this project 'Supplementary Income Generation through Micro-Tasks' study is conducted on barriers to such services to‐be accessible to large number of potential users in developing country locations. Web sites like Amazon's MTurk are flooded with many different types of Micro-Tasks.

Taking reference from Amazon's MTurk service, based on skill set required to perform these tasks; comparative studies were made with respect to four major interventions:
• MTurk in Kannada,
• Original UI and Kannada Video Instructions,
• Improved UI and Kannada Text Instructions,
• Improved UI and Kannada Video Instructions.

The effects of improved UI, instructions format, and language localization on the task completion and remuneration rates for micro‐tasks, among low‐income novice computer users were calculated. Though language localization was not sufficient to enable micro‐tasks; improved UI and language localization gave positive results. This further helped in outlining the challenges in having such supplementary income‐generating opportunities benefit those with basic computer skills and low levels of income.

Case Study Downloads:
• Supplementary Income Generation through Micro-Tasks - Pdf