Mobile phones have over the last decade and a half, helped not only evolve global communications but also change the way in which.
Mobile phones have changed the way in which we communicate with one another. And it is technology such as multimedia messaging and video calling that has helped to shape global communications. But if these mobiles are helping to shape the way we communicate, what shapes them?
An interesting article was posted on the BBC - designing mobiles for the world, in which Jan Chipchase, principle researcher at Nokia Design talks to BBC News about what factors go into designing mobile phones for the world.
Jan Chipchase gives an interesting in sight into how much research goes into designing a mobile phone, for example in the last 12 months he has visited 15 countries,carrying out eight full-scale research projects. Bet that has blown the vision of white overall wearing scientist’s carrying out whacky experiments on phones.
He tours the world analysing the ways in which people use mobile phones in their everyday lives and how people live. The focus of his research is on the uses to which people put their phones; where they keep them, how they answer them, and a million other details about our relationships with these devices that have helped shape our world.
In handbags, pockets, on the street, in homes, in the office at the marketplace, and in the community - he tries to put mobile phone use into the context of the culture and landscape he is in. From city bankers to shantytown dwellers, and from hip teens to octogenarian SMS fiends, no use of a phone is too trivial; no detail of a person’s life too insignificant.
Just to give you an idea has to how detailed his research is - he goes on to say that has looked at home battery charging services in rural Uganda, street charging in Kampala, how illiterate people use a mobile and more recently where we keep our phones.
“I specialise in human behavioural research. It often starts with a very simple question like ‘ what do people carry?’. This is interesting to Nokia because we want to put things in people’s pockets - something of value. If you can understand one element of that value then you can understand people’s motivation.”
However, Jan Chipchase doesn’t work alone, he takes a team - designers, psychologists - into different countries around the world, to look at people’s lives in different contexts.
“I want to understand what people do and why, and pretty much in every context. We want to know the secret stuff as well.”
You’re probably wondering why Nokia would pay people like Jan Chipchase to travel the world and to have all of those experiences? Where is the value in that?
“We do tyhis research work to inform and inspire the design stage. To bring designers into the field so they know whom they are designing for. Often designers are designing phones for markets they have little experience of - so we want to bring the world to them and them to the world.”
Interestingly, Mr Chipchase works three to fifteen years ahead of the market. His team carries our research using a method called convergent validity - it is not quantative scientific work but qualitative.
“We deal with informed opinion. If we do our jobs exceptionally well, then it is very informed opinion.”
Into the Future.
So are phones getting smaller, becoming part of our clothes rather than as a single unit? Where is mobile phone design heading?
It is important to consider how poeple behave, not what the latest technology can do says Jan Chipchase.
“It’s about what design and when to design, because human behaviour changes very slowly; technology changes human behaviour changes very slowly; technology changes very quickly.”
“If I can understand why, for example, a lady in north east China carries her phone on her left wrist, then we can understand other’s motivations. It’s also about what not to do with design. We have lots of assumptions about the world around us - Nokia is no different. If we want to remain relevant in all these markets we need to know how our assumptions differ from other people’s.”
Jan Chipchase has, to date, had two patents granted based on his work and a further 25 are currently being considered.
“The challenge for a company like Nokia is to sell products to all these markets - all of which have different needs. We want to meet the needs people have, rather than jsut putting technology out into the market place.”
Mr Chipchase and his team employ a number of techniques - from shadowing people’s lives, talking to as many local people as possible and documenting their lives in different contexts.
“I spend a lot of my time looking into people’s bags and handbags - with their permission, of course. There’s a whole load of stuff in life that is worth documenting. You see it everyday but don’t even notice.”
“We spend as much time as possible being in the places that people do what they do. The mobile phone is used from when you get up in the morning and is often the last thing you interact with at night.”
He has studied the mobile use of low-income manual workers in China, and spoken to blind people who are experts in using a phone and not having to rely on a screen.
“If we were to try and design a user interface for someone who is not looking at the screen, someong walking along and wanting to get a phone number, then blind person is the ideal person to speak with.”
Believe it or not, you’re more than likely to find Jan Chipchase on a bicycle or on the back of a motorbike.
“I buy a lot of bicycles. I have huge time pressures when in these places and I want to engage with the local population as much as possible. I find buying a bicycle is a great way to stay in touch with people. We give the bicycles away at the end of the study.”
Finally, Jan goes on to say that the hardest part of his job is not the jetlag, dealing with bureaucracy or coping with different languages, explains Mr Chipchase.
“The question is how can we do our job as a large corporation and show people we interact with sufficient respect.”
You can keep track of Jan Chipchase’s international travels via his Future Perfect blog.
If you’re thinking of going on holiday anytime soon then I seriously recommend getting yourself a fully comprehensive travel insurance.
Jay.
