Posts Filed Under mobilephones
Five Billion
Photo © Jan Chipchase, Accra, 2007.
The number of mobile phone subscriptions worldwide has reached five billion this week according to a number of research firms. While this number might not be completely accurate, it does make a great headline and it underlines interesting trends:
- China and India continue to add on average 12.5 million new mobile phone subscribers per month.
- Africa remains the fastest growing mobile market with a year-on-year growth of over 22%.
- 100% penetration is estimated to be reached before the end of 2014.
It’s important to note that this number does not reflect either the number of people owning a mobile phone and that the United Nations Millennium Declaration remains a crucial milestone to reach for the mobile industry. However it shows that homes, bridges, cars, laptops and netbooks, white goods, plants, spimes, and other objects have a mobile phone subscription and are likely to become the most important target segment for mobile operators around the world.
Photo © Raphael Grignani, San Francisco, 2009.
Filed Under: mobilephones
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.
“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.
Filed Under: essays, mobilephones, Nokia, sustainabilty
Wireless of the Future
Nikola Tesla predicted mobile phones in 1909 in the New York Times.
Filed Under: innovation, mobilephones
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.
Filed Under: 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.
Filed Under: communication, fivedollarcomparison, mobilephones, Nokia, sustainabilty
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.
Filed Under: charity, mobilephones, recycling
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.
Filed Under: conferences, design, mobilephones, persuasion
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?
Filed Under: behaviour, losangeles, mobilephones, time, ui
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.
Filed Under: behaviour, charging, mobilephones, Nokia
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.
Filed Under: behaviour, communication, losangeles, mobilephones, shrine