Asia Design Journal 2010 Design for Social Innovation

This essay first appeared in the print edition of KDRI Asia Design Journal 2010 Design for Social Innovation, which also features articles from Jan Chipchase, Ezio Manzini and Jennifer Leornard.

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“Global issues cannot be removed from the business world, as we only have one world in which to operate.” – Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo, Nokia CEO

Today the world population is estimated to be just under seven billion and all together we are exceeding the earth bio-capacity by at least 25 percent. Here we are with infinite human potential, but finite earthly resources. A survey, by the International Telecommunications Union, an agency of the UN, shows that the total number of mobile phone subscriptions in the world have reached four billions in December 2008 and nearly a quarter of the world’s 6.8 billion people use the Internet. There are five times more mobile phones than computers, which makes the mobile phone the most widely spread technology and the most common electronic device in the world. More than one billion people are in possession of a Nokia phone.

In September 2000, world leaders came together at the United Nations Headquarters in New York to adopt the United Nations Millennium Declaration, committing their nations to a new global partnership to reduce extreme poverty and setting out a series of time-bound targets with a deadline of 2015. These goals, known as the eight Millennium Development Goals which range from halving extreme poverty to ensuring a sustainable development and developing a global partnership for development.

With the United Nations Millennium Declaration and the previous figures in mind, 10 designers from seven different nationalities and a variety of specialties – product design, interaction design, graphic design, ethnography, and prototyping, came together in California to work towards the most sustainable, ethical, and desirable communication solutions for Nokia by prioritizing sustainability above else and putting principles into action. If the intangible human benefits of communicating through Nokia devices are the rewards, it is the physical things people produce and consume that are the costs. With the invaluable help of colleagues and experts, the team designed a series of concepts, or questions if you wish in the form of objects, interfaces and services to join and foster the conversation.

Zero waste charger

If there are four billion mobile phones in the world, there are four billion chargers if not more. Two thirds of the power consumed by a mobile phone is lost when the battery is full but the phone is still plugged into a live charger. Recent mobile phones take only 60 to 90 minutes to fully recharge, yet most of us keep them plugged recharging for hours during the day at the office or while resting at night. Nokia has made a lot of progress in cutting down this waste – the AC-8 uses just 0.03W in no-load mode, which is 94 percent less than the Energy Star standard requirement but this, is still not zero.

To achieve zero, Nokia is developing and testing new technologies and designs. We created a true power-down charger with a simple switch and an automatic shut off to prevent unnecessary waste. You simply attach the charger to the phone, hit the switch and it will calculate how much energy the phone needs to be fully charged, and once it has reached this amount it will automatically switch off.

The design and engineering challenge is not to bring over time the consumption as close to zero as possible, it is to leapfrog to zero today – and the only way to achieve this, is to change our ways and be more energy intelligent. As designers we must facilitate this transition and help people contextualise and understand the energy usage of their appliances and devices. Devices like Wattson are already using graphs and charts to help visually represent energy consumption in the home, suggesting ways to save electricity. Inevitably, appliances and devices in the future will have to be energy smart by nature.

Communicating the necessity for behavioral change can be a hard sell. With the “Zero waste” charger, we have emphasized a recognizable branded element – the switch, symbolizing Nokia commitment to energy saving and reinforcing conscious consumption in the user’s mind. In the Republic of Korea alone, these small savings, when multiplied by millions of users, could liberate enough power to support seventy thousand homes annually. Similar to Bruce Mau’s Massive Change theory, this concept shows that small actions multiplied by big numbers can also lead to a massive change.

Remade

Drawing on the simple insight that in the not too distant future humanity will have extracted and worked much of the valuable minerals once buried in planet Earth. We will be compelled to reuse and celebrate what is essentially above ground. How can we turn waste into something beautiful? We imagined a global system of increasingly smaller production circles, where technical nutrients are reclaimed, recycled, and valued – ultimately changing the way we make things.

The idea behind Remade was to see if it was possible to create a device made from nothing new. Made from upcycled soda cans for the metal body, plastic bottles for the chassis, and rubber from car tires for the keymat, it is a conscious effort to preserve natural capital, reduce landfill, stimulate technical cycles of life, and allow for more energy efficient production. We have also looked at the components within the phone reducing their numbers and using new environmentally friendly technologies such as printed electronic components on non-toxic substrates, reduced superfluous interconnections, and improved chip-level efficiencies. This is the principle of economy in action.

Remade offers a realistic and beautiful interpretation of upcycling. In the five months leading to Nokia World in Barcelona in February 2008 where Nokia newly appointed Nokia CEO, Olli Pekka Kallasuovo, unveiled Remade, Andrew Gartrell -the lead designer of remade, iterated the design over 100 times. Andrew relentlessly sought the essence of remade through fast CAD iteration cycles, prototyping, and material research and development. As with all the other concepts – and any design really, it is a never-ending pursuit.

Wears in, not out

How do we encourage people to keep their products longer? So much so, they might even pass it on. As more and more services become available on our mobile phones, this concept explores how people could potentially upgrade their devices digitally rather than physically in the future, giving people an additional choice on how they use and update their mobile phones. We wanted to create a phone you want to keep and that sits comfortably alongside your most trusted possessions. Inspired by research on repair cultures and exceptional craftsmanship, the design decisions are driven by sustainability first with timeless design and interaction principles, upgradable components, noble materials – sapphire glass and fluted aluminum covers, and shrewd long term manufacturing investments.

Whether redefining a “voice classic” or supporting enduring features such as SMS, Internet, and clock, this device is grounded in mature technologies, open standards, and simple durable execution reducing Nokia dust-to-dust footprint. These ideas are about giving people different options and ways to make more sustainable choices. We are not suggesting that Nokia will stop making mobile devices, but that in addition to this, we could provide solutions that allow people to keep their existing device but upgrade it.

People first

If we begin designing for those who face daily challenges with current technology, we soon find communication solutions that benefit us all. The desire to communicate personally and conveniently is relevant to a banker in New York as a farmer on the outskirts of Mumbai. With a focus on human universals, the People-first experience strips away the complexity of applications, folders, and unpredictable navigation with simpler universally understood organizing principles: time, lists and faces. Content comes first, navigation is shallow, and there are no metaphors or abstractions to confuse. New content is generated at the top of a singular vertical list settling over time into a personal history of events. A dual layer display allows the user to balance energy efficiency with rich visuals. The user interface graphics are optimized for low-power and high-contrast black and white graphics. When an item is highlighted, a second full color display is partially activated in lieu of, or in combination with the first. In an effort to increase local relevance, dynamic keymat graphics, based on a low-power bi-stable display, allow a greater number of language variants at little to no extra cost and onscreen actions are presented in textual and iconic form making the system accessible to a larger audience.

Out of the box, People First allows users to simply connect synchronously (voice call or push-to-talk) or asynchronously (SMS or email), capture a moment with the camera, schedule an appointment with the alarm clock, and manage money with the calculator. These are what we believe the mobile essentials – features that are relevant everywhere for everyone. These essentials are however sometimes insufficient. Instead of second-guessing additional features, we are encouraging personalization, hacking, and entrepreneurial ventures with widgets support, accessible native programming language and freely available hardware and software specifications. Locally produced or crafted components and software provide relevance, while simultaneously reducing production efforts and the amount of atoms that need to be shipped around the globe.

These concepts are tangible starting points to help inspire and stimulate discussion on how mobile devices might be made in the future. They are example of a range of research and development projects within Nokia looking at potential new products and services that will help people make more sustainable choices. Taking these ideas into production is a longer-term project that requires further research into technology, manufacturing and availability of new types of materials. This is something Nokia is continuing to explore and the learnings will certainly inspire our products and approach in the future. Companies cannot address issues like the environment alone. By sharing some of our ideas and stimulating a discussion, we hope this will help to develop innovative new ideas that can be used both within our own business but also more broadly to drive environmental improvements.

* The Homegrown project is primarily Andrew Gartrell, Duncan Burns, Pascal Wever, Pawena Thimaporn, Rhys Newman, Raphael Grignani, Simon James, and Tom Arbisi.

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