Part of MEX Inspirations, an ongoing series exploring tangents and their relationship to better experience design.
I recently went along to A Night Of Adventure, a collection of talks by adventurers with a particular twist: each talk was accompanied by 20 slides which automatically moved on after 20 seconds – known as the Pecha Kucha format.
It reminded me placing constraints on experience is very much part of adventuring.
For example, Alastair Humphreys, the organiser, spoke of a trip in Spain. His constraints included having to raise money by playing his violin, and spending whatever money he had by the end of each day.
The 20×20 constraint made for fast-paced, energetic presentations, that conveyed a surprising amount of detail, emotion and learnings. It’s remarkable how often placing constraints on a solution makes for a better experience.
I began exploring this notion further. After reviewing the Punkt MP01 ‘dumb phone’ a few weeks ago, I now wondered what the ideal mobile phone might be for an adventurer. These were my product requirements:
- Ability to make calls (especially in emergency).
- Lightweight, and small, but with buttons that can be operated with a gloved hand.
- Not easily damaged, for example, by water or shock.
- Long stand-by battery life.
- Low energy consumption.
- GPS providing a grid reference but no mapping app.
- Indeed, no ‘apps’.
- A GPS beacon to transmit location in case of distress.
- Some means of attaching it to the person.
- Perhaps a version with a camera.
The very first of these is the most problematic: in many places there is no phone signal, which means either it’s useless; or having a cumbersome satellite phone. And if you can’t make calls, all we have is a GPS device.
Perhaps the minimum phone for an adventurer is no phone at all?
Part of MEX Inspirations, an ongoing series exploring tangents and their relationship to better experience design.