In the last three years everything and nothing has changed.
User experience design for the mobile life was a murmur in 2005. It was barely audible in the world of business magazines and almost untalked about in all but the most obscure design circles. Today it’s hard not to overhear the growing cacophony, in conferences, [...]
Book about how mobile communication devices are changing social relationships.
“The message of this book is simple: the mobile phone strengthens social bonds among family and friends. With a traditional land-line telephone, we place calls to a location and ask hopefully if someone is “there”; with a mobile phone, we have instant and perpetual access to [...]
Russell Beattie writes about the demise of the mobile browser, Mowser.
“I think anyone currently developing sites using XHTML-MP markup, no Javascript, geared towards cellular connections and two inch screens are simply wasting their time, and I’m tired of wasting my time.
“The argument up to now has been simply that there are roughly 3 billion phones [...]
This week’s Economist has a special report on mobility. Here are links to some of the articles in the report (which seem to be available for free now), more are after the link.
Nomads at last. “Wireless communication is changing the way people work, live, love and relate to places—and each other, says Andreas Kluth”
Labour movement. [...]
ComputerWorld takes a look at the laptop of the future. Sadly all that seems to be considered in this article is the form factor and moving keyboards on-screen. The computers seem to be hamstrung with the same poor interaction paradigms that we’re dealing with today; inappropriate in a world where mobile computing is getting smaller [...]
I just stumbled across the great Sender11 blog, which publishes articles about design for mobile devices. Here are some interesting provocations that were published recently:
Myth: The future of mobile is the Web
Myth: Converged devices
Myth: Your users are nomadic
Myth: The youth is leading the way
Link: Mobile Myths (sender11.typepad.com)
Here are the headline predictions:
1. The big squeeze, operators cosying up and a push on data
2. Device convergence—the rise of the multimedia handset
3. Mobile 2.0—user-generated content, social networking, location-based services
4. Femtocells—a cost-cutting, data services driver—or not?
5. Disruption—not just the Google factor
Link: Five Mobile Trends for 2008 (businessweek.com, via)
Matt Jones takes a Heideggerian turn when he talks about design for being in the world, rather than being on the screen.
The “iPhone is a beautiful, seductive but jealous mistress that craves your attention, and enslaves you to its jaw-dropping gorgeousness at the expense of the world around you…[but] I was strongly convinced that [embodiment] [...]
There’s an interesting collection of research papers about the use of mobile phones in Asia from a conference held in Beijing two years ago. Papers include ‘Mobile Cultures of Migrant Workers in Southern China’, ‘How the University Students in East Asia Utilize Mobile Phones’, and ‘News circulation by means of mobile phones in China’.
Link: Mobile [...]
Yahoo! Go is one of the leaders in the growing trend to start exchange a handset’s built-in user interface with a replacement UI services shell. Once calling features are integrated then users wouldn’t ever need to leave the application (which is probably what Google’s got in the works at the moment).
Link: Yahoo! Go (yahoo.com)
Link: Yahoo [...]
Nokia’s launched a “lab” that facilitates experimental creativity using mobile devices.
“Nokia Trends Lab is a physical and virtual hub of mobility experiences. Nokia wants to enable creative thinkers to push the boundaries of how to use mobility as part of the creative process.”
Link: Nokia Trends Lab (nokiatrendslab.com)
Brian Fling wrote up his thoughts of the Mobile 2.0 conference. An interesting summary of the current state of attitudes regarding the mobile space.
“The thing that surprised me the most about the event was how much the web was discussed, specially the mobile web. I had anticipated a little discussion about the web throughout the [...]
A short NYTimes piece on psychological addiction and BlackBerries.
“Mr. Katz argues that participation gives people a sense of belonging, one traceable to the atavistic desire to congregate and cooperate for safety and survival. In addition, he said, the constant checking is an exercise in optimism, like being an explorer or a gambler. Eternal hope [...]
Published by Gabriel White.