A notebook about design projects and provocations written by Raphael Grignani in California since 2005.
Posts Tagged ‘communication’
Nokia Contacts Bar
Photo © Nokia, London, 2008.
On October 3rd at Remix in London, Nokia unveiled the new Nokia 5800 XpressMusic, a mobile device for music and social media consumption with a touch-screen. The Nokia 5800 is among the first devices to support Comes With Music, the Media bar, and the home-screen Contacts Bar widget.
I had the opportunity to participate briefly in the early phases of the product development. The product program team and Nokia Design addressed together a number of physical and digital design themes, and very quickly the large 3.2″ touch-screen emerged a great opportunity. In any product, the home-screen is a prime piece of real-estate and mind share, and more often than not, it is the least useful – except to show off your dog, cat, kid, wife/husband/gf/bf, etc. and see what time it is.
The aim was to provide the best music and social media experience possible right from the home-screen by executing on our brand promises: Very human technology and Feeling close, and insights Nokia Design had gathered along the years of observing how people consume media and communicate with their most important people.
People communicate through media.
People access content through people.
The future of media is social.
Simply it was about designing a social media experience that is as human and natural as possible by making multimedia communication reflect the way people think and feel.
Photo © Nokia, 2008.
We wanted to be literal about People Connecting and offer the most explicit representation of human technology and feeling close. We designed a home-screen widget, named Contacts Bar, that shows at a glance the faces of your most important people, your recent activity with them – texts, calls, emails – as well as their latest online media activity from sites such as OVI, Facebook, Flickr, etc.
A picture is worth a thousand words… the myriad of digital photos, music tracks, and videos being shared daily is a clear demonstration that people communicate with more than words . Media allows people to vary and fine-tune the intensity, emotion, and intimacy of their communications. The Contacts Bar is about giving people additional choices on how they explore, live, work, and connect with their most important people.
The press release and additional information can be found in the press section of Nokia.com.
Tags: communication, design, mobilephones, Nokia, product, ui, ux
What can you buy for five dollars?
Slideshow from The Five Dollar Comparison on Flickr
This week my former bossman, Rhys Newman, presented the “Five Dollars Comparision” in New York and Toronto during a Nokia Design roadshow. It seems a good occasion to join Rhys, Jan and Julian and follow-up on my presentation at Design Engaged 08.
Since the mid-80’s, a handful of companies have manufactured and sold more than 3 billion mobile phones from the Nokia 1010 to the StarTAC (first clamshell) to the Nokia 5110 (simplex UI) to the Ericsson T68 (first colour display) to Vertu (first luxury phone) to the BlackBerry (first corporate digital leash) to the iPhone, but the only product that actually matters and has made a difference is the Nokia 1100. Since its introduction in 2003, 200 million have been sold, providing affordable communication throughout the world.
The desire to communicate personally and conveniently is as relevant to a banker in New York as it is to a farmer on the outskirts of New Delhi. In November 2007, the total number of mobile phone subscriptions worldwide had reached 3.3 billion, which also makes the mobile phone the most widely spread technology and the most common electronic device in the world. ITU Secretary-General Hamadoun Touré announced in September 2008 that worldwide mobile phone subscriptions are likely to reach the 4 billion mark before the end of this year.
However, handset cost remains the biggest barrier to accessing mobile connectivity for the world’s remaining 3 billion people. Ongoing service costs, whilst significant, can be paid in smaller increments – as little as a few cents in some parts of the world. Today, advances in technology and manufacturing allow us to envision a world where the price of a mobile phone is dramatically lower than today.
Photo © Julian Bleecker, Montreal, 2008
As discussed with Aaron Straup Cope in the back of a taxi in Montreal with Julian Bleecker in the front seat, the global spread of low cost personal communication will have a profound impact on the world around us. It will change our perception of distance and time and affect our notions of community, authority and trust. In some communities, lower costs will introduce services such as personal banking for the very first time. With a phone number and the inherent credit identity it affords, access to financial services will be opened to the previously un-banked, and business opportunities will arise. In some emerging countries an increase of ten mobile phones per 100 people translates into approximately 0.6% growth in GDP, which directly converts into food on the table, a decrease in child mortality, and better education and health. In other communities the phone will become an object that is bought and disposed of on a whim, like a pen or a book. These changes challenge what and how we manufacture, and place a greater emphasis on sustainability.
Fivedollarcomparison.org is a small step to broaden the discussion, and explore the relative value of five dollars and how the impact of a truly connected planet might vary across cultures and contexts by asking a simple question: What can you buy for five dollars?
Recent submissions reveal that one can get a bowl of pork ramen in Shibuya, one porter to haul up to 25 kilos for half-a-day on the Inca Trail, a taxi with English speaking driver in Kabul, a cappuccino & 3 cookies at Blue Bottle Coffee in San Francisco, a set of customised rickshaw mud flaps in Ahmedabad, a live hen for supper in Kabale, a Motorola StarTAC on eBay, and a day labour at a farm in Thailand.
Please let us know what kind of object or service one can buy for five dollars in your neck of the woods by emailing your submissions to add@fivedollarcomparison.org or adding them to the five dollar comparison group at Flickr. Please read through the guidelines on Fivedollarcomparison.org/participate.
The fivedollarcomparison.org site is put together by Tom Arbisi, BJ Bandy, Julian Bleecker, Duncan Burns, Jan Chipchase, John Evans, Johan Frossen, Andrew Gartrell, Josephine Gianni, Raphael Grignani, Simon James, Phillip Lindberg, Rhys Newman, Pawena Thimaporn, Kurt Walecki and Pascal Wever.
In Loving Memory Of…
It is the second time in two days that I come across epitaphs (stickers) on the back window of SUVs – this one reads “In Loving Memory of Jennifer Dikes 79-05″. On my side of the world, roadside memorials are fairly common but this execution is new to me.
Grief and remembrance are essential for many people/cultures; and legions of artifacts already exist to accommodate these needs, yet the world seems to be eager and able to accommodate new ones.
Jan Chipchase has already touched on how people use their phone as personal [ludic] shrines, thus it is not too much of a leap if such personal commemorations will soon appear on mobile phones. While driving being this truck I was wondering if it would digital (e.g. an icon pushed/pull by Bluetooth/Wifi, Digidress, etc.) or physical (e.g. full cover, sticker, etc.). Although it might be creepy, I am leaning towards physical commemoration like this (VERY OFFENSIVE) 9/11 cover I bought in Thailand in December 2001 – it’s just more effective.
Tags: behaviour, communication, losangeles, mobilephones, shrine