Markus Grupp, Handset User Experience Design Manager at Canadian operator TELUS has a long history with mobile UI innovations, including recent work on evolving the FastTap keypad . Prior to joining TELUS, he was Product Experience Manager at Orange/ France Telecom based in London, where he managed the re-design of the Orange Homescreen.

He’ll be speaking as a panellist at the MEX conference on 2nd – 3rd May 2007, addressing the issue of making any mobile service accessible from the idle screen and simplifying search and discovery. This session starts with a keynote from Matthew Menz, head of interaction design at Motorola, and also includes Dave Evans, CTO, SurfKitchen and Pim van Meurs, Director of Innovation, AOL/Tegic Communications.

As a user interface designer at Mobile Innovation in London, Markus worked on the UI for the Nokia 7710, 9300, 9500 and 770 Internet Tablet, as well as Synaptics’s MobileTouch touchpad technology.

Markus previously worked at Oyster Partners (now LBI Icon) and Ultraviolet Design in London, and Horvath & Partners Management Consultants in Stuttgart, Germany, designing for clients including Vodafone, Daimler-Benz, the National Health Service (UK), V2 Records and Servier Laboratories.

Markus holds an M.A. in interaction design from the University of Westminster, London and a B.A. in International Trade and German from the University of Waterloo, Canada.

He told us: “As the functionality of mobile devices has increased, so too has the level of complexity of accessing this functionality.

“Users must be given access to this functionality directly from the idle screen, without a cluttering the user interface of arguably the most personal of spaces on the device. This access must not just be to the operator’s revenue-generating services, but also to frequently-used (but often difficult-to-access) handset features and applications such as Bluetooth and photo albums.

“Above all, this access must be with one-click and intuitive, making use of both the user interface and the device’s input method. Simple user personalization is fundamental to making these shortcuts relevant to the user.

“Close collaboration between the mobile operator, handset manufacturer and third-party vendor is essential to creating effective service discoverability and accessibility.”

To register for the MEX conference, please visit www.pmn.co.uk/mex/register.shtml.