a notebook about design projects and provocations written by raphael grignani since 2005.

Posts Tagged ‘mobilephones’

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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.

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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.

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Donating vs. Recycling

Let me introduce my newest “improve-my-karma” dilemma. Shall I re/up-cycle my 6-month-old-now-obsolete-to-me mobile phone or shall I donate it to an organisation that aims to keep “connected” the mature adults of our society?

If I decide to up/re-cycle my fully functioning mobile phone -granted it will not be done in China, I fulfill my end-user ecological responsibility. A large percentage of my phone mass will be reused to build new products, and only very little will end-up in a landfill. This is very well, but I am still wasting a perfectly functioning product.

By donating my mobile phone, I am supporting a social initiative, which aims to keep our more and more isolated seniors connected. Mobiles phones not only have the ability to shift time and place (feeling closer), they enable a wide range of pertinent and necessary services (health, education, play, etc.). All things considered, it’s very appealing second life for my phone. Except that I give up its recycling destiny to someone that might not care. In this case, it just delays its journey to the landfill. Something I don’t want.

Since 1+1=2, how about a system that donates/repurposes my phone to one (or many) community in need (communication, education, etc.) AND then up/re-cycles it. When my phone has been processed at final up/re-cycling facility, I (the original owner) receive a message certifying that my phone has been up-cycled according to my wishes – Karma points attached to the message.

In principle, social and ecological endeavours are not divergent nor conflicting, yet in practice they are going after at the same products and audience. Consequently any synergised system will have greater resonance with people and success.

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Mobile Persuasion 2007

I attended Mobile Persuasion 2007 last week at Stanford, and once again I came out with mix feelings. It was the first edition, it went quite smoothly, and all in all people saw it as a success.

The good
The speakers were relatively switched on, and generally the topics were interesting. A few presentations raised my interest -imagine that! In no particular order:
- Rachel Hinman (Adaptive Path) and Mirjana Spasojevic (Nokia Research Center) presented a study on mobile web they did while working at Yahoo!. The take home findings are 1) Think uniquely mobile, not mini PC; 2) Think always with you, not just on the go; 3) Think building and reinforcing common ground and identity; 4) Think access to what’s essential, not browsing.
- Josh Ulm from Adobe showed a lovely Flash ambiance home screen implementation on a Samsung.
- Jordy Mont-Renault from Digital Chocolate demoed AvaPeeps – a mobile dating game with ghetto language and graphics. I am not sure if the game is any good, but at least the presentation was highly entertaining.
- Ian Bogost (Persuasive Games) gave probably the most interesting talk of day. He argued that games influence players to take action through gameplay. Games not only deliver messages, but also simulate experiences. While often thought to be just a leisure activity, games can also become rhetorical tools.
- When Deb Levine (Internet Sexuality Information Service) started Sextext.org -an outreach sexual education program for young people in San Francisco, one of her challenge was to figure out the most effective technology to reach the kids. The answer was quickly found after a couple of days on the streets doing ad-hoc interviews: pull SMS. It’s personal, cheap, on-request, convenient, always accessible, time critical, easily consumable and deletable.
- Ame Elliott (PARC) presented “Tokyo youth at Leisure”. The study and findings were not very interesting; what was interesting was the description of her [pre-]study expectations/pre-conceptions/fantasies and the lack of action on the results. If the results are not delivered in the right format (a PowerPoint does not count nor work) to designers/marketers/business folks for interpretation, these studies are a pricey waste. Ame presentation was a sad example of this.
- Gabriel White (ex-Motorola, currently at Frog Design, blogging at Small Surfaces) briefly discussed the challenges of designing the MotoFone, a product for the last 1 billion.

The bad
BJ Fogg tried to take us on a journey, and crammed 20+ speakers in just 8 hours. Each speaker had 7 to 10 minutes to present, and the floor had just enough time to ask a couple of questions to each panels. Not so good. This curse happened to be our salvation when we had to suffer, every so often, the poorly disguised marketing pitch for yet another stupid mobile service.

And the ugly
Nothing was really ugly, except maybe the closing panel of so-called experts, which was 30 minutes of 30 seconds me, me, me, self-promotion. At the end of the day, let me tell you, it is torture. Pretty please, let’s have an inspiring speaker next time.

To conclude, it was interesting to see and hear, I have learnt a little, caught-up and met new people, so I guess, for $150, it was good value for money.

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The waiting is the hardest part

The waiting is the hardest part
Every day you see one more card
You take it on faith, you take it to the heart
The waiting is the hardest part

(Tom Petty, The Waiting)

… Days later (12/15/2006)

The wait has been long enough!

I have always been fascinated by the “power” of the few milliseconds it takes between the key press and onscreen reaction. They are usually inconsequential, but every so often they are the most frustrating thing in the world like when you are expecting something really important ( e.g. email, sms, phone call) or have to make a time-critical decision (e.g. selling stocks, calling for an emergency, navigating). This unnecessary stress is mostly due bad design, and falls into two categories. The first one is poor architecture and system design which make the device slow and unresponsive. The second is clueless UI design e.g. you get an uninformative clue “1 new message” which forces you to stop your activity and react to know the sender and topic. I will get back to clueless design in another post.

What truly puzzle me is that these few milliseconds are a legacy “feature” since electronic devices have been invented. No one has managed to get it right, and it’s actually getting worse and worse.
What scares me is that my waiting tolerance is now of a “few” milliseconds… How’s yours?

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I forgot my mobile phone

I rarely forget my mobile phone somewhere however for the second time in a row, I have forgotten it at the office.

Why ?

Because it was not in the center of gravity of my desk nor in sight when I left.

Why ?

Because I have to charge it every single day (the battery life is appaling) at a colleague’s desk.

Why ?

Because the N-80 has a new charging connector which means it is incompatibe with Nokia Standard charger. The only compatible charger I have is at home, the only adaptor I have is in my car, and I have decided to rely on “others” at the office. BIG MISTAKE.

Why has the connector been modified ?

I don’t know. What I know is that Nokia Standard chargers are ubiquitous in most parts of the world; and it’s (was) a great peace of mind in case your battery runs out.

I have realised I have left it in the office while I was in Topenga Canyon (15 minutes away from the said-office). Within seconds, I decided to continue my commute home although my mobile phone is:

1) the only communication instrument with my family in France and friends in L.A.
2) the device I have that can wake me up in the morning – I have a 9 o’cock appointment tomorrow morning in Santa Monica
3) my prefered note taking/documentation tool.

Let’s see how wise it was not to return to the office. To be continued…

The Aftermath

I went shopping for a surfboard yesterday, and I could not take any photo of the “candidates”. I had to scribble their brand name with my car keys on a Moosejaw magazine, and then spend 20 minutes googling. A couple were custom made so forget about it.

I woke up on time thanks to Cali sunshine and made it to my appointment.

Then I drove like a maniac on the 405/101 to make it to the office for a project planning meeting (which I was bound to be late) to find out when I got there, it has been canceled. If I had my phone, I would have known since I would have checked my emails right out-fo-bed and see the meeting update.

I have missed 3 SMS:
#1 an impromptu dinner/drinks invitation in Venice yesterday night.
#2 out-of-town colleague needed a ride to the office from Santa Monica this morning. Sorry Axel!
#3 “How are things, any news?” from Mike on vacations.

Also I have pat a few times my pockets, I have tried to reach for it a few times, I have glanced at my home center of gravity a few times, I have formulated the plan to call/SMS people a few times.

Conclusion ? In a world with fluid, fuzzy and impromptu schedules, (I feel) I am highly dependent on my phone. Am I really ? Honestly, yes. Although I did not miss anything really important, I was missing all these signals and information that allow me to make informed decisions and feel I am in control.

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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.

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Mobile phone usage amongst French teenagers (2002)

Yesterday I stumbled upon a paper I wrote while studying at UIAH a few years ago. It’s somewhat still relevant.

Abstract

This paper reports an informal study that investigated the use of mobile phones among French Parisian teenagers. The focus is on the ways in which teenagers use their phones as part of their everyday life, and how they handle their personal data. The purpose is to gain from a designer point of view a deeper insight into the mobile phone use, something that will make possible better design of mobile technology for young people.

Raphael_Grignani_-_Mobile_phone_usage_amongst_French_teenagers.pdf

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Tutorial

2D barcodes are all the rage in Japan, and they have been for a couple of years; yet a large proportion of potential users do not know how to use the service. While walking around Shimo-Kitazawa, I have noticed the poster below. I like how elegantly the tutorial has been integrated to the ad. Technology company/engineers/designers often neglect to teach users how to interact with their new killer product.

Similarly mobile phones have been widely available for 10+ years, and S60 OS for 5 years or so, yet the Smartphone 360 study shows that people fall into the 20/80 pattern. In order to improve the user experience (and ARPU), Nokia is taking a similar approach than the Japanese advertisers. The Nokia N80 is introducing a Tutorial application which is designed as an interactive guide to help the user familiarize himself with his new phone/applications. Unlike this ad, the application is introduced to the user IMHO at the wrong time – during the first startup; and then buried into Applications>Tools>Tutorial.

Introducing or bringing up to “the surface” at the right time for the user such application or feature is one of unsolved challenge for interaction designers. Since most attempts happened to be very disruptive and annoying (Microsoft/Apple), it may just be impossible.

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Low-tech navigation techniques

Paul and Younghee demonstrated to me some pretty impressive GPS/navigation mobile phone software while I was in Tokyo last week – think Google maps in 3D/eye level perspective. Alas my Japanese is pretty limited so I had to rely on other methods while out and about.

Capturing/remembering visual cues

Capture with my Nokia N80 places, signs, street numbers and names, etc. to remember and find again.

Following the herd

The probability to find your destination is pretty good if it is 1) nearby and 2) popular.

Landmarks

Landmarks are whether they are universal ones – Meguro station, Daikaniama tower, Shibuya crossing, etc. or personal ones – where we have bumped into each other last week, John’s house, etc.

Maps

Maps are the universal navigation tool, however it has some serious usability issues. Where I am? What’s the direction ? Where is North on the map ? Where is North anyway ? etc.

Instinct

Well, according to some studies and empirical experiences, you are better off if you are a man. Although, you are better off if you are a woman in case you get lost :)