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Motivations for Adopting New Technology

What motivates people to adopt new technologies and features?

Back in March, I had the pleasure of walking around Old Delhi with a friend and colleague also working in the field of user experience. I guess we were trying to get a sense of the place and basically following our noses not really minding where we were going. At one point we passed a print shop with a rather beautiful printing press churning out posters. Next to this shop was an office, and as we walked passed the glass fronted window the guys inside beckoned us inside. Two guys were hunched around a mobile phone (a 6600 as it happened) looking and laughing at the screen, whilst 3 other guys were just hanging out. This was a family business, and these were the family.

It's not uncommon in South East Asia to be beckoned to sit down, invited for a chai and hang out. Their motivation in inviting us in however appeared primarily to show us a movie that was playing on one of the mobile phones. Younghee and my Hindi is non-existent and these gentlemen spoke next to no English so communication was body and sign language and a smattering of words. They had no way of knowing we worked for a handset manufacturer, as far as they were concerned we were just to foreigners walking by.

The movie itself was made famous by the fact that it was shot on a mobile phone (no, I have no idea which model) and eventually distributed as an auction item though Bazzee.com. Baazee is owned by EBay and recently renamed eBay.in. This distribution culminated in the arrest of Avnish Bajaj CEO of Bazzee.com on the grounds of peddling adult content.

The movie was in the public domain and had gone viral - presumably passing from phone to phone - each new recipient sufficiently motivated by the desire to have a copy of the file to overcome the hurdle of pairing Bluetooth devices and going through the still-not-yet-that-easy data transfer process.

Whilst it may be possible to arrest the CEO of a high profile auction site, it is not practical intercept this content passing from phone to phone. The real power to make decisions on whether content is suitable for consumption is shifting to the individual. P2P networks are I presume to a large extent trackable. Interactions directly between devices are much less so.

Writing from Old Delhi | July 28, 2005 | Comments (2) | Permalink

Linked In

This photo of Banksy graffiti was taken last week close to the Hackney Road in Bethnal Green, London. During the most recent round of bombs attacks in London one of the bombers left the rucksack containing a bomb on the number 26 bus. Tenuous link to this picture, no?

I was surprised at the amount of people who have said they were close to, or at or on one of the routes taken by the bombers, displaced by time and/or location by some degree. The relative success of terrorism to affect or frighten people is enhanced by peoples ability to assume 'it could have been me', rather than other factors such as sympathy for the victims.

People will increasingly have the ability to track where they have been. Currently on mobile phones this can easily be done through base station triangulation or through GPS. In the future the granularity of information available to users will be enhanced by everyday interactions such as a log of purchases made with their phone (already available through Sony Edy here in Japan) or downloads from nearby content servers. Combined with increased tracking and sensors means that we will assumedly we will be able to trace the route of either the terrorists, or the packages they are carrying after the event. Will the ability to compare your route with that of a bomb and bombers magnify or reduce the affect of terrorists acts?

Writing from Hackney | | Permalink

Scars, Residues

Scars as evidence of past activities. Upper photo from legs of young female skater at EDIT skate park (Experimental Development Inner-City Tokyo) in Shinjuku, lower photo mountain scar from yours truly lava scree running down Mt Fuji.

Writing from Shinjuku | July 25, 2005 | Permalink

Use - Collection - Proof - Artifact

Always interested to see what people take as evidence of being somewhere, or doing something (for me its sometimes this web site).

A number of the mountain huts on the routes up Mt Fuji offer a walking stick stamping service. Punters buy the stick at the bottom of the mountain and at each station it can be burnt/stamped with the route and the altitude of that hut.

The stick fulfills a number of functions - a mixture of practicality, a gradual sense of achievement as each stamp is added, proof of attaining the summit, and ends up as an artifact/souvenir.

Writing from Mt. Fuji | July 24, 2005 | Permalink

Cellular Coverage & Exploratory Behaviour

Txting from the summit of Mt Fuji.

Despite, or perhaps because of being the tallest mountain in Japan - 3776 meters, someone decided to put base station up here (3G coverage map of Mt Fuji area, index of GSM Association coverage worldwide).

How does installing publically accessible communications infrastructure change the way people treat their environment? To what extent does it encourage exploration or exploitation by day trippers, explorers, settlers?

Writing from Mt. Fuji | July 23, 2005 | Permalink

Shared Experiences

Came across this couple sharing headphones, Walkman remote clipped to her shirt sleeve. The loss of audio experience - listening with only one ear made up for by shared experience.

Writing from Daikanyama | July 22, 2005 | Permalink

Mobile Free Zones

The way technology is used changes spaces. Ever walked into a coffee shop where the tapping of laptop keyboards outweighed chatter? What what the atmosphere like?

Signs banning mobile phone put up by staff at the delectable Monmouth Coffee shop in Covent Garden. Where else have you seen signs like these?

Writing from London | July 16, 2005 | Comments (2) | Permalink

Current Status Indicators

The temperature of an oven. Today's pollen count. When the bus arrives. How long before your next subway stop. Your heart rate. The heart rate of your loved one. Best before dates. Todays date. The time left before your boiled egg is ready. Knowing when a book is available for collection. When an album has been released. Whether a file has downloaded. How much battery power you have left. How long the battery will take to recharge. How much cash you have in your wallet. Your savings account. Monthly outgoings. How much call time is still available. How long before the traffic lights turn green. Whether your friends are in proximity.

Just a few examples of everyday status information. As life increasingly becomes digital the volume and granularity of what is available will continue to grow. The mobile phone is in a strong position to generate, collect, filter, sort and present a lot of this stuff to us. The trick, naturally is to deliver it to the right person(s) at the right time(s) in the right format(s).

The pole is a flood indicator, taken from a place called Maisemore, near Gloucester in the UK. The area is prone to flooding from the River Severn, so the sign marks off the water depth. Theres something rather 'if you can read this its already too late' about it. Incidentally, its possible to surf 30km up the the River Severn following the surge of the bore.

Writing from Maisemore | July 15, 2005 | Permalink

By What Authority?

I'm not a train geek, but seem to spend a fair amount of times in train stations trying to find my cultural bearings. My motivation is to document and understand signage, and stations just so happen to be signage rich.

Signs tell you a lot about shifting norms in a society: indicating how society is segmented 'female waiting room only' or 'waiting room for military personnel'; what not to do 'no explosives' (Hangzhou train station); suggesting appropriate behaviours 'turn off phone'; or inappropriate behaviour 'no spitting' 'no begging'; supplying status information 'temperature 27 degrees' and so on. Handwritten signs can indicate how the design of buildings have failed their users or how the building has evolved since it was built 'for tomorrows tickets, go down the hall to the left' or the grey nature of the services they are offering 'sim unlocking, 5 Euro, 5 minutes' but that are not offerred by the establishment. They can show societal attitudes on cultural diversity - support for multiple languages or equally not, or the support of the blind and deaf.

Ignoring the observation that most signs remain unread by most people that pass them by. When signs are read, one criteria for acting upon the information in the signage is authority. By what authority is that sign placed there? By what authority should the information on that sign be trusted? Or depending on the authority, mistrusted? Case in point from this Shanghai photo taken during the recent Sars episode "Doctors Advise to Yourself and Others, Don't Spit"

How this might play out in the (naturally perfect) future? Whilst rules are not necessarily enforceable, technologies such as city wide surveillance cameras will make it easier to track 'offenders' if an organisation or individual is sufficiently motivated. 2010 is not a great time to become a celebrity and fall on the wrong side of the tabloids, or webloids for that matter.

If all or part of the message is delivered digitally, its possible to
customise to the message to a particular audience. 'Doctor [insert name of the doctor you've known 15 years] advises you not to spit"

Writing from Shanghai | July 12, 2005 | Permalink

Ad, Mob, Milk

Advertising in milk shop in Delhi - kid plays with mobile.

Writing from New Delhi | July 11, 2005 | Permalink

Nokia V-CD

Can't ever remember Nokia making video compact disc players. But if it says Nokia on the box its got to be Nokia in the box, right? I get the impression they were stickering the logos on the product using just-in-time production techniques.

"You want a Nokia V-CD? Lemme see whats out back..."
"..."
"You're in luck, I still got one left"

From street market in Delhi.

Writing from Old Delhi | July 10, 2005 | Permalink

Repair Culture, India

On the last night of my most recent trip to India spent an evening trying to understand India's informal mobile phone repair culture by visiting Karol Bagh Market. Throw in the noise, heat and smells of Delhi and you already have a rich consumer experience.

As in China many of the mobile phone shops and street kiosks offer mobile phone repair service. Many of these guys can strip and rebuild a mobile phone in minutes. How do these kind of services affect the mobile phone user experience? What happens when everyone has affordable access to these kind of services?

Side-note: a lot of the hyperbole surrounding western hacker culture makes me smile compared to what these guys are doing day in day out.

Writing from Tokyo | July 3, 2005 | Permalink

Repair Culture China

The total cost of owning a product includes the risk it will break, and the cost and ease of repair if it does. Assuming it is out of warrantee, or that it even had a warrantee - grey market imports and used phones won't be covered. A feature of lower income consumers is that every yuan, rupee and cent counts - everything that helps the consumer shaves a few cents off the price will get mindshare.

Whilst in India Aditya pointed me into the direction of Delhi's thriving mobile phone sale and repair culture at Karol Bagh market, and with the help of colleagues been doing some follow up research here in JiLin. There are many shops clustered around Dong Shichang Market selling used mobile phones, and tucked into the back of most of these is a small repair counter typically staffed by the husband of the lady who owns the shop. Spent a little while exploring the user experience of getting a phone fixed through informal channels.

The choices for JiLin consumers with an out of warrantee product is to: buy a new phone (prohibitively for most people); go to the (official) Nokia Care shop; or take it to one of the repair guys. Of course to do this properly we needed a phone, broken. Bought a used Nokia 8850 for 250 RMB (18 Euro). The first shop we entered had a very friendly repair guy, who once he overcome his initial scepticism at our request and was happy to help out.

"I'd like you to break this phone display please"
"Um"
"But not smash it, more of a little crack"
"Er"
"And trash the speaker, as if its been dropped in the toilet"

He managed to disassemble, selectively break and then rebuild the phone in less than 5 minutes. And then out to the next shops to get it repaired...

Side note: Wishing I had bought The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid with me for a re-read but the hard back is just too bulky to lug everywhere. Reading a PDF on a laptop is about as enjoyable as waiting for XP to boot.

Writing from Tokyo | July 2, 2005 | Permalink

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