MEX

Julius Tarng, a designer at Smart Design in New York, shared details of his personal project exploring the human relationship with mobile devices. Tarng’s extensive sketches and prototype photographs highlight two key elements of his Modai concept design:

1. Sustainability. Enabling users to keep the same device for longer than the typical 18 month lifecycle, upgrading the modular architecture with new batteries, cameras, memory and sound systems as they become available.
2. Emotional engagement. The Modai features an interface design which uses avatars and an integrated approach to balancing personal life and work. It also proposes the use of muscle wires, which allow elements of the device to transform dynamically, so that the product can raise itself off a surface or physically prod the user to get their attention.

The design touches on several MEX Pathways, including #7 (‘Express sustainable values in user experience‘) and #9 (‘Expand mobile interactions with the neglected dimensions of sound and tactility‘).

Tarng also produced an animated comic strip showing how Modai might be used.

(Thanks to Yanko Design for the tip.)