I can see it breathing out of the corner of my eye, pulsing with a rhythmical glow to assure me it is alive, connected and ready. The glow captures a small amount of my sub-conscious attention as it sits there on the corner of my desk, ensuring the bond is maintained between us, reassuring me it is ready should I need it and yet, perhaps somewhat worryingly, it also tethers me - keeping me aware I must respond if the glow changes to a faster, more insistent flashing.

The ‘breathing light’ found on devices such as Nokia’s E71 is an example of an often forgotten aspect of the mobile user experience: reassurance. These elements sometimes have no direct functional role at all, but simply serve to comfort the user, subtly communicating that all is as it should be.

As digital devices, particularly mobile ones, become more deeply embedded in our lives, the requirement for these reassurance indicators will grow in tandem with our dependence on the tide of 1s and 0s which increasingly define the ebb and flow of our existence.

The earliest examples I can remember in mobile date back to the Ericsson handsets of the mid-1990s. Each was equipped with a tiny LED indicator on the top of the device, which would wink at regular intervals to remind you it was connected to the network. Motorola developed this further, with its Timeport design (an early ‘world’ phone, when devices supporting networks in both Europe and the US were still a rarity), which was able to change the colour of the LED from green to orange when roaming on a foreign carrier.

We are also surrounded by examples in the home and the office. The fax machine on my desk is currently shining a tiny green light at me with the legend ‘Ready’ written above it, letting me know it could report for duty at a moment’s notice. The television’s red ’standby’ light glows constantly, telling us all it is ready for action when required. When we lift the receiver of a fixed line telephone, the low hum of the dial tone communicates everything we need to know about the network - it is waiting to connect us.

More recently Nokia’s high-end 8600 handset has provided an excellent example of how a reassurance indicator can become part of a device’s aesthetic. In standby mode, the whole keyboard of the 8600 glows gently beneath the smoked glass keypad protector, creating a key part of the handset’s visual statement.

These indicators manifest themselves in rather different ways when it comes to software. The network coverage bars and battery indicators found on all handsets are the most obvious examples of reassurance elements which have been abstracted into a virtual interface. At a glance, we can tell whether the device is able to make calls and whether there is enough power left to last out the day. The mobile phone clock is also a good example and one now widely used in preference to a wristwatch by many younger customers.

We might also class the rotating, circular progress indicators found in MacOS, iPhone OS and Android devices in this same category. They fill the latent periods between an input being made and an output being received, reassuring the user that something is happening in the background.

Perhaps I am reading too much into it, but I would suggest you can see some interesting philosophical differences between the way Apple has designed (perhaps over-designed?) the spinning, multi-coloured disc used in MacOS and the old hour glass indicator employed by Microsoft. Could beautifying such a small element of the user experience really make a tangible difference to the way users perceive a platform?

When creating mobile user experiences it is easy to focus purely on the feature-driven elements. The flow diagrams used to design the functions of an application often have no place for elements which sit outside the main interaction architecture, yet in the user’s mind these seemingly insignificant reassurances can make the difference between a service which feels well designed and one which seems too technical and cold.

Over time, such elements can also start to have a significant influence on user behaviour. Personally, I have become attuned to the breathing light on my E71, sub-consciously waiting for it to call for my attention when new email arrives on the device. There is also a well documented phenomena of people experienced ‘ghost rings’ and even ‘ghost vibrations’, where customers have become so acutely aware of their device’s indicators that they start to imagine non-existent sounds and sensations.

This is causing some people to make small, yet significant gestures to indicate when they are ‘disconnecting’ from the wireless world for a while. For some, this manifests itself as turning their device screen side down so they can no longer see the glow of the display or breathing light, signifying to themselves and those physically present that their attention is now solely on those in the immediate vicinity. An obvious extension of this would be to allow users to automatically change their presence status from ‘available’ to ‘busy’ when they make this gesture.

I’d like to suggest a few further points for consideration to advance the discussion about these reassurance indicators, and would very much welcome your feedback on the blog, Twitter (@marekpawlowski) or by email (mp@pmn.co.uk).

• Should a reassurance indicator always have a secondary functional purpose, e.g. a breathing light which flashes with different levels of intensity to alert you to new messages, or can it exist simply for the purpose of establishing a bond of confidence with the user?
• Are reassurance indicators best appreciated in analogue form, such as a physical dial or light, rather than being abstracted into the virtual domain of software?
• What other senses should reassurance indicators target beyond the visual? Do touch and sound also have a role to play in forming this part of the user experience?

Even after it withdrew from the market when it was overrun by Psion and Palm in the mid-1990s, Sharp continued to sell its Zaurus range in Japan, where they have remained extremely popular. While Europe and the US were contented with the monochrome screen of the PalmPilot, Sharp’s Japanese customers were enjoying high resolution colour screens and digital imaging courtesy of a diverse range of Zaurus palmtops.

Last year Sharp announced that it would return the Zaurus brand to the international stage. A steady stream of news revealed more and more of the device’s specifications - it would use the Linux OS in preference to Sharp’s proprietary operating system, the processor would be the popular StrongARM SA-110 and it would be capable of running rich multimedia applications. Sharp was carefully generating a buzz and enthusiasm for a device which it predicted would sell one million units in the first year.

However, as with all new devices, Sharp realised the success of the Zaurus would be reliant on the existence of a large third party development community. Without commercial and enterprise applications, the Zaurus would be little more than an organiser with some impressive multimedia features. Hence the choice of the Linux operating system and the inclusion of Jeode’s Java virtual machine (JVM), instantly opening the platform to a huge and active community of programmers. It was no surprise then that Sharp chose to give developer’s early access to its new device with the release of a special preview edition - the Sharp SL5000D. In this special two part article, I will be reviewing the device and Sandra Vogel talks to Mark Klein, Sharp’s Marketing Manager for Mobile Devices.

Review

Presented in a sleek silver casing, the new Zaurus is arguably one of the best designed handelds I have seen. Sharp is renowned for the quality of its industrial design, from minidisc players to televisions, and the SL5000D is a proud descendent of this tradition. It shuns the current mode of organic, rounded edges in favour of a hard, rectangular appearance which seems to demand attention from onlookers. The sweeping recess beneath its screen and the shiny, circular joypad balance the angular corners of the casing, adding to the overall impression of a quality piece of consumer electronics.

The opaque plastic flip which covers its screen is one of the weaker design elements. I understand the need to protect the screen from scratches, but I soon pulled this off and discarded it. It slows access to the device and the murky plastic prevents you from making a quick reference without having to open the flip. As a general point, I find the screen protection of all tablet devices sadly lacking. Invariably it seems to have been tacked on as an afterthought; surely there must be a screen coating which can be applied to prevent scratches and circumvent the requirement for those horrible faux leather (think Palm V) and plastic flips? Or at least a way to integrate the flip into the design of the handheld and have it serve a purpose, as with Ericsson and Motorola mobile telephones? Ideas, anyone?

It is, however, easy to forgive such quirks when you realise the sleek exterior of the Zaurus hides one of the smartest pieces of mobile design I have seen for some time. The casing below the screen slides away to reveal a small thumboard, similar to that found on the RIM Blackberry e-mail pager and a growing number of Palm and Pocket PC accessories. This is a hugely welcome addition to the device and beautifully integrated without adding to the external dimensions of the handheld.

The keys are just far enough apart to make for rapid composition of short e-mails. Obviously in an ideal world the handwriting recognition software would work faultlessly, but in reality a keyboard remains the quickest way to enter anything more than few letters. By providing users with the option of both, Sharp has delivered all the benefits of the palm form factor and the keyboard input more frequently associated with larger clamshell palmtops.

Overall, the man machine interface is excellent. Hardware buttons are provided for everything from pulling down a menu to launching the e-mail application. There are also separate indicator lights for the arrival of new messages and battery status. The quality of the hardware really is quite exceptional, on a par with the iPaq in terms of robustness and well ahead on innovation. There are CompactFlash and SD slots, an IO port for cradle docking or third party accessories, an IR port, headphone jack and power input. Sadly it lacks an external speaker, which limits multimedia usage to the privacy of a pair of headphones.

The 320 x 240 screen is bright and clear in virtually all lighting conditions, as well it should be - Sharp is one of the world’s largest suppliers of LCD displays. The stylus feels smooth on the glass when navigating applications or writing text, but it did seem to lack some of the ‘give’ which makes the screen of the iPaq and some Handspring Visors so much more pleasureable for input. That said, Sharp’s inclusion of hardware ‘OK’ and ‘Cancel’ buttons and a five way joypad limit the requirement for screen contact.

When powered on, the SL5000D presents a familiar PDA interface, with rows of small icons and many interface elements which will be familiar to Windows users. Trolltech’s well constructed Qtopia GUI does much to hide the complexities of the Linux OS from the user, but as a developer unit, the current Zaurus provides command line access to the operating system and can occasionally shock you with a black and white terminal screen when inserting a CompactFlash card or reseting.

I will stress again at this point that the 5000D is intended for developers and those expecting a commercialised business tool will be disappointed by the rough edges still visible throughout the software. It is supplied with essentials such as a calendar, address book, notepad, e-mail client and a web browser, but many of these applications have an unfinished appearance and key features are lacking. For instance, there is no integration between the e-mail application and the address book, meaning that you have to manually re-enter e-mail addresses when creating a new message. Similarly, the notepad is basic in the extreme, with no features other than storing small amounts of text.

Even making allowances for its status as a work in progress, I felt the operating system let down an excellent hardware configuration. Although the main application launcher of Qtopia’s graphical interface is easy to use, the other core applications are confusing and counter-intuitive - a world away from the expert simplicity of the Palm, or even the improved Pocket PC 2002. Only Opera, the web browser provided by the third party developer of the same name, comes up to expectations, offering advanced and secure internet access, with a range of zoom levels to suit the small screen.

The multimedia player is also less cumbersome than the other applications and performed admirably with MPEGs and MP3s, but it still lacked the finesse of, say, Microsoft’s Pocket Media Player. Obviously the idea behind choosing a Linux and Java combination is to open the platform up to third party innovations and hopefully replacements for the current generation of PIM applications will be forthcoming. Javanoid, a game included to demonstrate the capabilities of Jeode, shows the potential of rich Java applications; a spreadsheet is also among the first third party programs to emerge on the web.

Synchronisation is very shaky at the moment. Sharp includes Pumatech’s IntelliSync, which correctly matches data when syncing with desktop applications such as Outlook, but it is let down by cradle connectivity issues. At present, Windows 2000 users must ensure the SL5000D is in its cradle and powered on when booting the desktop, otherwise Sharp’s desktop components will fail to recognise the connection. This prevents even simple tasks like downloading an MPEG to the device, let alone syncronisation. Palm and Pocket PC users accustomed to one button sync operations will find it a rude awakening. Melissa Barker from Sharp’s UK press office advises that resolution of the syncronisation problem is a ‘top priority’ for the commercial release of the SL5500 in Q2 2002.

Expansion cards also seem be something of a lottery at the moment. A CompactFlash modem worked faultlessly, as did an 802.11b Wi-Fi card, but several memory cards caused the operating system to crash. The list of supported devices is growing each day, but the problems underlined a wider issue of patchy communications support. The IR port is disabled on the developer models, awaiting a ROM upgrade. This prevents you from using a mobile phone for GSM or GPRS connectivity. Bluetooth is also out of the question. Indeed, in its rush to support 802.11b networking, Sharp seems to have forgotten all about the need to communicate outside the corporate campus.

And still it is hard not to love the Zaurus’ design and admire Sharp for its individualism and determination to compete in an already crowded market. Unfortunately it is the unique choice of operating system which seems to be holding back a superb piece of kit. Dare I say it, but if the SL5000D ran Pocket PC, Palm or Symbian, I think it would stand a much greater chance of success.

The commercial edition, the SL5500, is scheduled for release shortly. Sharp has setup an excellent feedback loop with the development community and I am hopeful that many of the issues raised in this article will be resolved when the device hits the streets. Indeed, there have already been a number of interim ROM replacements for those brave enough to attempt their installation. Desktop connectivity, refinements to the PIM applications, support for mobile communications and better stability must be addressed if Sharp wants to compete with the polished offerings from the Palm OS, Pocket PC and Symbian vendors. Still, I will be keeping my Zaurus, if only to throw admiring glances at where it sits on my desk.

Interview

Sharp’s SL5000D is the first of what looks like being a new breed of PDA. Not new in the sense that it does anything fundamentally different from other current PDAs, but new in its approach to software development, and by inference to the community it is intended to serve. The key to this is the fact that the SL5000D is based around open source software. At its core are both Linux and Java, two open standards based development tools.

The SL5000D is not a low end data bank, but a fully fledged, powerful PDA. Marek Pawlowski’s review provided a full run-down of the specifications, but it is worth nothing here that at the core of the SL5000D is the same StrongArm processor, running at 206 MHz, that powers the latest generation of Pocket PC 2002 machines. There are expansion slots for both CompactFlash and SD cards, and the display offers 240 x 320 pixels and is capable of 65,536 colours - and remember Sharp is one of the best screen-makers in the world supplying displays to the likes of Nintendo for the GameBoy and various mobile phone manufacturers.

So clearly Sharp is not fooling around with this machine. Indeed Mark Klein, Sharp’s marketing manager for notebooks and handheld devices, indicates that they are doing quite the opposite. “We are creating a new platform with this device,” he says, “and a new paradigm too.”

“We’ve been in the PDA arena for a long time, and have even brought out keyboarded devices based around Windows CE. But more usually we have focussed on our own platforms. Where we have fallen down in the past has not been on hardware or software design, but on the fact that our platforms have been closed. This makes it difficult for software developers. With this device we’ve chosen to use open platforms in the form of Linux and Java. What we want to do is change the way people think about developing for PDAs. The Linux community is huge, and some Linux based software is simply superb. Look, for example, at Apache, the most popular server software in the world. We don’t see why people with such great programming skills shouldn’t have access to a PDA platform. And as for Java - well it is still an emerging platform, but we think it is going to be really strong. It makes sense for us to partner it with Linux and carry our open software ideas through to it.”

One potential problem, of course, with choosing not to go with the Palm or Microsoft operating systems is that both already have a veritable army of programmers, professional and hobbyist, toiling to provide software, and a large back-catalogue from those whose efforts are already available. In this sense, Sharp is starting way back. The good news is that Linux programmers for the PC are plentiful, and turning their hands to PDAs should not be too problematic. To encourage them, Sharp’s user interface provider Trolltech, has announced a software competition, which will run from 4 December 2001 to 11 March 2002. Software can be submitted in five categories: games, entertainment/educational, business, system tools and communications and there are various prizes, including $10,000 for the application judged the overall winner.

This may go some way to plugging the software gap in the short term, though Sharp is going to have to be very supportive of its developer community in the medium term if it is going to get anywhere near competition with the Palms and Microsofts of this world. To that end, Klein has noted that Sharp may get involved in the provision of drivers for hardware if vendors or the developer community don’t get there first, but he is far less committed to the software side of things. Sharp, he told me, is good at design, and so that is where it should concentrate its efforts, leaving the developers to provide applications.

Klein is right about design, which is this case is simply superb. The general quality of the hardware build is very impressive, and the pop-out keyboard is delightfully implemented. The keyboard, incidentally, may well end up being the real motivating factor for purchasers. It is small, and not, Klein here freely agrees with our view, designed for any more than tapping out the shortest of texts. But with always on communications just around the corner, he sees messaging as being increasingly important both for out and out consumers and for what he calls ‘prosumers’ - those who buy a PDA for a combination of work-oriented and personal use. Klein suggests that having a keyboard on hand for various kinds of text message generation, and for relatively low level document editing, is going to be a real boon in the future. The small increase in form factor this requires is something he thinks most users will live with for the increase in functionality. The keyboard is not the only data input method, though. Both soft keyboard and character recogniser are also included.

So how do you get hold of a device? Anybody can buy one right now. The price to UK buyers is £349.99 including VAT, plus £5 delivery. You can only buy from Sharp’s developer web site, though. This is because the device you’ll be purchasing is not retail ready. Marek’s review mentions the key issues, so here we’ll just note that the software, while much of it works, still needs things done to it and gaps plugging. Klein himself is at pains to stress that this is not a ‘pick up and use’ device, but rather one which should only be obtained by people with a more technical leaning. If you aren’t in this camp, then wait for a few months, till the SL5500 appears. That version will be completely finished, and ready for use out of the box. Klein is saying it will be available during the second quarter of 2002.

Sharp is, Klein maintains, the number one organiser brand in the UK, but in reality this status comes from the data bank arena rather than the more sophisticated ‘mini computer’ arena. Their previous offerings in that sector, while extremely impressive as far as this reviewer has been concerned, have never made it into the general consciousness. The exception, their excellent Windows CE handheld already mentioned, second only to Hewlett Packard’s superb keyboarded Jornadas, is simply more evidence that eschewing the ‘big two’ is a brave move.

We like brave at PMN, and we very much like this device. Both Marek and I have played with the developer version, and if what we have seen so far is anything to go by, and Marek’s review provides the low-down, Sharp has a potential winner on its hands. But to convert the potential to real-word success, our advice to Sharp is push, push, push on the software front, and get your own hands dirty here if you have to. Don’t let a potentially superb device languish for lack of third party support.

12% of iPhone users experience device failure due to ‘accidental damage’ in the first year, an unusually high figure which has been attributed to the slippery nature of the handset casing and its smooth form factor. However, failure due to manufacturing fault is significantly lower in the iPhone than in other smartphones such as the Palm Treo and Blackberry.

Source: SquareTrade ]]> http://www.mobileuserexperience.com/?feed=rss2&p=733 http://www.mobileuserexperience.com/?p=734 http://www.mobileuserexperience.com/?p=734#comments Wed, 01 Jul 2009 13:00:24 +0000 Marek Pawlowski http://www.mobileuserexperience.com/?p=734 x2 Users of Blackberry devices are twice as likely to experience device failure due to a manufacturing issue within the first year as users of iPhones. 11.9% of Blackberry users report a problem in the first 12 months, compared with just 5.6% of iPhone users. However, a worryingly high 16.2% of Palm Treo owners suffer device failure within a year.

Source: SquareTrade ]]> http://www.mobileuserexperience.com/?feed=rss2&p=734 http://www.mobileuserexperience.com/?p=725 http://www.mobileuserexperience.com/?p=725#comments Tue, 23 Jun 2009 15:25:21 +0000 Marek Pawlowski http://www.mobileuserexperience.com/?p=725 In September 1999, Ulrich Skrypalle was the Head of Design at Siemens, spearheading the company’s efforts to refine its products to meet differing lifestyle requirements. He was also the winner of the 1998 CeBit design prize, awarded for his work on the Siemens SL10 mobile telephone. I spoke with him following the Siemens World Premiere in London on 28th September 1999, during which he had presented his acclaimed concepts for third generation (3G) mobile telephony and computing systems. The interview is re-published here to provide background and context for my June 2009 article entitled ‘Touch, feel, inspire and sustain‘.

Do you find geography and national cultures play an important role in designing items such as mobile computers and mobile telephones?

The questions which I am always asked are: ‘Do we have to develop international design?’ or ‘Do we develop national design for a specific culture?’ or ‘Do we develop something for the Asian market, the European market or the US market?’ And I always say: ‘There is no international design, there is only national design which has the quality to work worldwide.’ Look at a BMW or a Porsche - they are the same worldwide. Or the Nokia or the Canon Ixus, worldwide they have the same design and it is accepted. You have to meet the general use of the people and make a contemporary design.

How does the design and development of these products work? What was the process behind the concept designs you showed us this evening?

It differs. With these visions that I showed you, we designers got together and talked about new concepts and new ideas. As an industrial designer, you know what technical developments are occurring, so you don’t make what I call ‘blue sky’ designs. You know about the trends towards miniaturising, and we adapt to the way it might go in four or five years time. We also develop concepts and ideas that come purely a design standpoint. We then show it to our technical colleagues and product managers and say: ‘Look, that’s the way the designer sees the world in four or five years time.’ Also, sometimes, technical developers come to us and shows us what they have and will ask us to help make a design from it. Then it goes the other way and we make a contemporary design to use these technical developments.

What is your design background?

I studied engineering and then industrial design. So I have two views and this enables me to understand the language of the technicians and the engineers - that is very helpful.

Why do you focus on mobile technology design in particular?

Mobile technology is the one of the most rapidly growing markets and it is very interesting. It is a consumer market and, as you can see, the mobile phone is used in a variety of markets. It goes to kids, it goes to supermarkets, it goes to high end users, it goes to low end users… From this standpoint it is very interesting to see which lifestyles and which market segments… You have to design to meet the target group.

What will be the key elements in mobile technology design over the next two to three years?

One key element is to segment the market, to find the lifestyles for which you will develop designs. That means analysing different cultures and making this phone suitable for this world. Meet the design needs, meet the lifestyle. The other thing is to change the material from plastic. Use ‘authentic’ materials. As I showed, metal, rubber or a material mix, so that the feeling on the hand or the touch on the skin is better. Also, for improving the ‘feel’ of the communication, we will have bigger screens, so that the pictures or graphics that we see are easy to read and understand. The icons will be easier to understand than they are now. I think, in general, the graphics and the colours will be important than they are now.

One of the key questions in mobile technology at the moment is whether we will all have a single, integrated device or whether we will use a number of small devices carried on our person. As a designer, what do you believe will happen?

The most important thing is that we develop a device that has a ‘real’ size. It is very important to design and develop a device which the people like to have. Not too big, not too small - too small is also awful, because you cannot read, you cannot handle it. The other thing is that you really have to make the devices easy to use and easy to understand. You don’t need a guide like ‘this size’, but you have to be able to understand. It also has something to do with segmentation. The younger generation, the kids, they are so computer literate, they have a different understanding of this world than older people. Maybe in the same device, I will have to develop separate user interfaces for different target groups…

We spoke earlier about some of the items you look to for design inspiration. Do you carry any particular object which you believe represents an optimum design?

Ja, I like my Lamy pen. It is very simple in design. I would not say it is modern, but it is not ‘modish’ either - it is between modern and modish. You know, there is a difference. Modern is more classic, it is contemporary, but not too fashioned. And it is a real material. It is very simple and easy to understand. That’s why I like it.

If you could leave a single design for people to use over the next five to ten years, what would it be? What do believe will be most important in using mobile technology during that period?

I think information and communication devices are developing technically very quickly. One thing is that speech recognition will come. I know it needs time to understand every language, every dialect and things like that. But if I can really speak with the device and the device is not stupid, as they are now, and they understand me, they can help me and I don’t have a problem. If they can give me pictures that are understandable, not only icons and symbols, but understandable pictures. I need to speak, I need a tool. A tool has to fulfill what I want of it. I don’t want to spend two days or a week or a month learning to understand or to use it.

A missed opportunity - differentiating through tactility

The tactile experience of mobile devices has been a quiet art for many years, primarily occupying the industrial design teams within manufacturers, each of which maintains - to a greater or lesser degree - an in-house library of materials to be used in future products.

Typically it is a process conducted within the silo of the industrial design group. There is little integration with the wider experience of software and services on the device.

As a result, the industry rarely focuses on tactility for differentiating mobile devices, even though many consumers I talk to cite it as one of their key priorities when purchasing a device.

At best, consumers are offered a certain amount of choice, with the option of a ‘premium’ device most likely finished with some metal accents, or a more ‘basic’ product with a smooth plastic case.

Motorola’s PEBL was one of the few devices to introduce a new, satin-like rubber effect, but major variations in tactile experience are usually confined to luxury niche manufacturers such as Vertu, which has flirted upon occasion with leather, ceramics and wood.

10 years and little has changed

Before it sold its ill-fated handset business, Siemens was an early pioneer in the tactile experience of mobile products. I recall an interesting discussion I had with Ulrich Skrypalle in 1999, when he was Head of Design at Siemens. I was interviewing him for an article when Siemens launched its 3G concept devices in London.

At a time when most manufacturers were still labouring under the misapprehension that the primary use case for 3G handsets would be making video calls while sky-diving, Skrypalle remained remarkably grounded in the importance of human sensitivity to touch and quality.

He said: “Change the material from plastic… Use ‘authentic’ materials. As I showed, metal, rubber or a material mix, so that the feeling on the hand or the touch on the skin is better.”

It is unfortunate that ten years later, we still have a market dominated by plastic phones with a disappointingly similar tactile experience.

(I’ve published the full interview with Ulrich here. It was originally written in September 1999 and is the first in a new series, entitled ‘Archives’, where we will revisit stories from PMN’s extensive library and see how much - or how little - has changed since they were first published.)

Massage, pillows and physical bonds

More recently I’ve been having an interesting conversation with former students of OCAD, The Ontario College of Art & Design in Canada, who undertook a project in collaboration with network operator Telus to explore material use in mobile devices.

One team of students, Laura Henneberry, Jessica Ching and Shally Lee, started with the premise: “Face to face communication is personal, emotional and dynamic; but the physical experience of communicating through technology is often static, cold and functional.”

From this, they went on to develop a series of concept designs, ranging from handset casings which had a massaging effect when held next to the skin, to mobile phones which cushioned themselves against the user’s face during a conversation. They also experimented with a versatile fabric loop, which helped to established a bond between the user and their device.

Elegant ageing

Another group, including Denise Philpott, Melissa Houghton, Alex Gornicki, Andrea Kezdi and Kathy Tien, explored the notion of ‘Elegant Ageing’. They questioned whether the scratches, dents and cosmetic damage sustained by a device during its lifetime had always to be a negative thing or whether they might actually beautify the handset, in the same way metal can acquire a graceful patina over the years, or the stone steps of an ancient monument become smooth and bowed with the passing many seasons.

They looked to the Japanese concept of ‘Wabi Sabi’ for inspiration, the philosophy that beauty comes through age and imperfection.

The result was a multi-layer paint process for handset casings. Over time, the constant touching of the device would gradually wear away each layer of paint, revealing a new colour beneath.

Sustainability and the upgrade cycle

Such notions have been given further impetus in recent years as customers become more aware of the environmental impact of upgrading to a new handset every 12 or 18 months. At the recent Mobile 2.0 event in Barcelona, Tom Rafferty of sustainability consultancy GreenMonk, challenged the industry to start thinking about handsets which lasted 6 years rather than 6 months.

With over-the-air software updates, a modular approach to hardware design and more sustainable materials usage, there is no reason why a device couldn’t be continually upgraded to ensure it was at the forefront of technology.

Modu, the Israeli handset manufacturer, is developing products which could fit this requirement. It uses a tiny core handset containing the wireless link and a series of ‘jackets’ into which it can be inserted, providing a diverse range of functionality - from music docking to specialist messaging devices.

We had a whole session on tactile experience at the MEX Conference last month and asked several of our breakout groups to explore new materials for handset design. One of the concepts which emerged from these workshops was the link between materials which ‘age well’, such as the smell old leather acquires over time, or the way wood darkens and smooths through touch, and environmentally-friendly handset development.

(Interestingly, the most recent issue of the Financial Times magazine had an interview with Mark Miodownick, founder of the Materials Library at Kings College London. Mark provided invaluable help when I was bringing together our MEX session on tactile experience. The interview makes a fascinating read and is highly recommended. As a side note, the Materials Library is planning to change its name to the Institute of Making and expand its engagement with industry. It is looking for a part-time business manager to help with the transformation.)

If user psychology can be changed to break the association of new features with upgrading to a new device, the industry could dramatically reduce the environmental impact of the mobile business by producing fewer devices which are kept for longer. The key question, of course, is what impact this would have on profitability for a business built around the upgrade cycle.

The next step - tactility becomes virtual

Looking further into the future, the tactile dimension of digital devices will become an issue of increasing importance for everyone in the mobile business, part of the skill-set required by industrial and software designers alike. Research In Motion, the Canadian manufacturer of the Blackberry, was recently hiring new employees in this area.

One of the primary drivers will be the introduction of ‘virtual materials’, haptic actuators which enable tactile effects to be programmed with the same ease as software controls.

Where previously the primary tactile elements of a mobile device have been fixed at the point of purchase, soon almost all of the ways in which we feel and interact through touch on a mobile phone will be customisable in software.

Eventually it may be possible to transform the tactile feeling of any surface using a combination of software and hardware, allowing the back casing of a mobile phone to simulate - on demand - a feeling such as running water and then switching instantly to create the sensation of rough wood.

Haptic technology is already finding its way into large numbers of mobile devices courtesy of Immersion, which has licensed its platform to Nokia, Samsung and LG, among others. South Korean handset manufacturers have been the early pioneers, shipping Immersion’s technology in large numbers of products.

(Christophe Ramstein, CTO of Immersion, spoke at our MEX Conference last month. I also interviewed Terence Warmbier, Director of Business Development, in February 2009 - see the video here.)

Immersion is following a three stage evolution process for haptics. The first is based on controlling a generic vibration device within the phone, allowing for a range of effects which occur in response to particular software events.

The next generation, which should start to reach the market over the next 18 months, will see piezo-electric actuators embedded directly beneath the touchscreen, providing much more localised feedback and a broader range of sensations.

Further ahead, the third generation will make use of electro-deformable polymers (EDP), materials which can actually change their shape when an electric current is passed through them. Imagine a physical button actually growing from the touchscreen and then disappearing when it was no longer required.

However, Immersion isn’t the only company with a vision for implementing haptics on mobile devices. I recently had a fascinating conversation with Ville Makinen, CEO and co-founder of Finnish supplier Senseg. Originally focused on biomedical engineering projects for companies like GE Healthcare, Senseg is now in the process of commercialising its haptic technology for consumer electronics devices like mobile phones.

Sensation without movement

Senseg is unique because there are no mechanical parts involved in its platform. Instead, it uses a proprietary (and, until the patents are granted, highly secretive) process to generation sensation using an electrical field. As a result, it can potentially simulate an infinite variety of effects through a touchscreen, other surfaces or even when a finger is hovering a few millimetres above a surface.

Makinen explained Senseg’s concept of ‘tixels’, whereby surfaces are broken down into a number of areas, each of which can be given a separate effect at the same time using Senseg’s proprietary haptic controller (this is where most of the company’s IP is focused).

In practice, this means a surface could be covered in hundreds of individual ‘tixels’, each no larger than a finger tip and each capable of emitting a different effect simultaneously. According to Makinen, this would enable them to create the sensation of a whole screen rippling, as if it were the surface of water.

The technology is still 18 months away from market, but the company is working to reduce the size of the electronics control module into a suitable form factor for mobile devices and improve the integration process. Eventually, it will be possible to embed Senseg’s technology into existing capacitive touch panels through the addition of the control module and Senseg’s software studio.

Skills across boundaries

These developments will bring with them their own challenges. Today, mobile user experience practitioners remain relatively confined in their respective silos, with some focused on the graphical elements of software design, others concentrating on information architecture and others coming from a more traditional industrial design background.

Virtual tactility will require skills that reach across all of those divides and practitioners who can understand the whole flow of mobile experience, from the ear to the eye to the finger.

I’d be delighted to hear from anyone with a view on this area. It is certain to feature as a topic in future newsletters and MEX Conferences, so please drop me a line (marekpawlowski@pmn.co.uk or +44 7767 622957) if you’d like to share ideas.

Also, we’ll soon be publishing the official 2009 MEX Report, capturing the industry’s collaborative response to the MEX Manifesto through a combination of videos, presentations, sketches and written summaries. It is a great way to catch-up on the cutting edge of mobile user experience if you weren’t able to make it to the MEX Conference, including all our presentations and workshops on tactile experience. Send an email to Marek Pawlowski (mp@pmn.co.uk) if you’d like to register your interest and we’ll contact as soon as the report is available to buy. (Please note, all MEX conference attendees will receive a copy as part of their attendance fee).

Source: Distimo ]]> http://www.mobileuserexperience.com/?feed=rss2&p=728 http://www.mobileuserexperience.com/?p=727 http://www.mobileuserexperience.com/?p=727#comments Tue, 23 Jun 2009 14:15:17 +0000 Marek Pawlowski http://www.mobileuserexperience.com/?p=727 Top 20

On 10th May, the price of the iBeer application in the iPhone App Store was increased from USD 0.99 to USD 1.99. Over the following couple of weeks, its ranking fell from a top 20 position to around 70th.

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