Taxi Dashboard Norms
Faith finding its way onto the dashboard of taxi's in Cairo above, and Bangkok below.
During a recent field study in Cairo we encountered a taxi free from any religious adornments - quite the rarity in Egypt. But why? The driver was having his vehicle assessed for road-worthiness and officially taxis are supposed to be free of religious symbols. Faith is a hot and contenscious filled issue in Egypt these days. Once the test was passed he planned start personalising his car to become a mobile shrine.
Projections of faith strangly absent from the dashboard late night taxi into Delhi (above) though the he had an evil eye (Nazar Boncugu, eye bead) attached to his keyring. Tokyo dashboard, below limited to (a rather fetching) official taxi-driver identity card.
Writing from Tokyo | April 13, 2007 | Permalink
Status Brace
Fake or non-functional bejeweled braces bought by teenage girls from a street market in one of the poorer districts of Bangkok.
Whilst we didn't get an opportunity to ask any gem-grinning consumers about this product my assumption is that purchase motivation is driven by a mixture of decoration, experimentation, and status - showing off that one's parents can afford to pay for this kind of dental care. 39 Baht (0.9 Euro)
buys you a brace for upper or lower rows.
From a humidly sweaty night trying to understand the flow of a Bangkok street market.
Writing from Bangkok | March 19, 2007 | Permalink
Continuity
Writing from Farnborough | February 2, 2007 | Permalink
Out of the Box Setup Norms
The in-shop purchasing experience for the avalanche transceiver includes a member of the shop staff applying a rescue plan sticker - in consumer's language to the the device unit.
In an age of rich, digital consumer preference profiles to what extent will the need to ask this question become moot? In what contexts do relatively stable preferences like preferred spoken language change over time? Or change according to context: an airline pilot's knowledge of English; a gift purchase; someone who speaks in one language, but prefers to read in another?
Writing from La Praz | January 28, 2007 | Permalink
Reasons for Opposites
Airplane window shade pulled up rather than down. Emergency exit, where the vertical space above the window is otherwise used.
Writing from Bagdogra | December 29, 2006 | Permalink
Hear My Tunes
Writing from Darjeeling | December 28, 2006 | Permalink
Bacterial Paranoia And Device Handling
What are the cultural differences in attitudes towards cleanliness?
Some cultures have an inherently high awareness (or paranoia depending on your perspective) of bacteria and its perceived consequences. These photos are taken in carrier shops in Seoul, South Korea - where you can irradiate, air-brush, wipe and scent your phone.
How might this affect device usage? For starters: the extent to which devices are shared; where objects are placed when not used; the likelihood that a protective cover will be placed over a phone - all of which affect device interaction.
Related: cleaning swab for telephone in a Seattle hotel room.
Writing from Tokyo | November 20, 2006 | Permalink
Street Decoration
Writing from Tokyo | September 19, 2006 | Permalink
Customisation, Consequences of Lack of
Belonging to a house maid, Chengdu.
Writing from Tokyo | September 1, 2006 | Permalink
To Mail You Is To Like You (A Little)
Visitors whose only interest is in downloading presentations can now subscribe the Future Perfect mailing list. You'll receive email notification when new material is ready for downloading. And that's it.
To sign up simply send an email to info @ janchipchase dot com with the word 'subscribe' in the subject line.
Why bother? Why indeed.
Writing from Tokyo | August 25, 2006 | Permalink
Local Norms
And individual price stickers somewhat of a rarity.
Writing from Shibuya | August 13, 2006 | Permalink
Shoe Gazers, Shoe Gazing
Freshly cleaned shoes sitting outside a barbers shop on the outskirts of Kampala. The photos were taken on a Sunday morning - for many locals an opportunity to dress up and head to one of the many hugely popular church services. White shoes have their moments, but they take on particular significance in a country such as Uganda where the dust and dirt makes keeping white shoes white that much more difficult. Numerous kerb-side stalls offered shoe cleaning services - first scrubbed with a toothbrush then left in the equatorial sun to dry and bleach. Which in a round about way leads me to a topic that has facinated me for a while - when you are walking the street and you see someone where do you look? Where do they look?
Walking streets from Tampere or Tokyo and beyond I've noticed that one of the first things that people look at when they check me out is my shoes. The result is the same whether the target of their gaze is a beat up pair of Pumas or brand new pair of Antas. Shoe gazing is a form of sizing-up behaviour that is prevalent particularly (though not exclusively) amongst male youths and it involves four stages. The initial recognition that occurs at a distance of 10 to 15 meters which is trying to figure out whether the person's shoes are of sufficient interest to warrant further investigation. If the wearer's shoes past muster then this is followed by a short period of looking elsewhere - it is after all rude to stare at someone coming towards you even if its at someones shoes. The third stage occurs in close proximity and involves a sequence of quick glances to check out shoe details. Occasionally there is a fourth stage that occurs once the person has walked by - it involves turning back to check out other aspects of what the person is wearing - by concentrating on the shoes other related clothing details may have been missed, the assumption being that if the shoes were cool then the other gear they are wearing fits the same bracket.
It might be that the shoe gazing effect is extenuated by the fact that I'm 'not local', the implication being that 'someone not from around here' may have access to stores and fashions to which they don't. I've been wondering whether online window shopping extenuates shoe gazing - people have a good awareness of what others are wearing worldwide but this may be the first time to see them locally and in the wild.
So how might all of this evolve in our Future Perfect? What happens when people carry to tools to digitally project who they are or who they want to be? Will someone turn around and look back knowing that their mobile device has automatically recorded all the relevant details? What are all the relevant details? And can they be recorded? What is digital equivilent of shoe gazing? If your interest is piqued then you might like to check out research by my colleagues Younghee Jung, Per Persson and Jan Blom, in particular their work on Scent and Sensor.
And what does all this to do with the elegant group of barefoot ladies above? The photo was taken in a church opposite the barber's shop, above - they're about to energetically head onto the church stage for a dance routine. It reminds me that when it comes to understanding shoe gazing, or pretty much any other behaviour, context is everything.
Writing from Tokyo | August 11, 2006 | Comments (3) | Permalink
Stoking What is Hot
From a street walk in South Delhi.
Writing from Tokyo | August 1, 2006 | Comments (2) | Permalink
Street Refill
Ink refilling services in Ho Chi Minh City above and Delhi below.
Writing from Tokyo | July 29, 2006 | Permalink
Placement
Why are the stickers advertising the services of Mika, Karla, Pati, Juliana, Kakau and Sheilinha (and/or their pimp) placed on the phone body and handset and not in the infrastructurre of the booth itself? Why stickers and not cards that are popular in places like London or Berlin?
There's a Hugler Sao Paulo phone model in there somewhere.
Writing from Perdizes | July 23, 2006 | Comments (2) | Permalink
The Little Exras
Cushions on a train station waiting room bench.
For public infrastructure who is motivated to provide extras that enhance the experience? Who benefits from the extras?
Writing from Yatsugadake | June 17, 2006 | Permalink
Unusual Properties
Musical instrument leveraging the accoustic properties of an armadillo shell.
Belonging to and played by Seigen Ono.
Writing from Yatsugadake | June 16, 2006 | Permalink
Mixed Media
Writing from Sangenjaya, back of | June 14, 2006 | Comments (7) | Permalink
Knowing Which Is Which
Writing from Tokyo | June 11, 2006 | Permalink
Surface Customisation, Motivations For
Writing from Shinjuku | May 31, 2006 | Permalink
Knowing Which Is Which
The customisation of office-standardised devices by varying the length of strap.
Writing from Ginza, back of | May 30, 2006 | Permalink
Learning From Retro
A visit to Jiang Tou Market in Xiamen and 600 Yuan (60 Euro) buys you a new retro working English language GSM phone. Note the number of buttons compared to this lo-hi design. Starts with a HelloMoto screenshot and an extended and quite loud Chinese pop song.
Writing from Jiang Tou Market | May 22, 2006 | Permalink
Scars As Conversation Starters
A nice moment in Jiang Tou Phone Market where we get to compare body scars. He'd had some major surgery on his head, arms and chest. How behaviours are affected by assumptions of shared experiences? How this might be manipulated?
Another design 'homage' from the same market, below.
Writing from Jiang Tou Market | May 19, 2006 | Permalink
Interactions With a Skin-Like Interface
I came across this tap attached to a water barrel during our getting-to-know-how-a-city-wakes-up walk around Old Delhi. I've been trying to figure out whether the design deliberately imitates the shape of male genitalia (I know it's small in the photo but, um, click to enlarge). The function - passing water maps well enough to the body, but the colour is not an accurate reflection of local skin pigmentation and I guess the design misses the opportunity to introduce modality. But the resemblance is there.
User interface designers like to tap into what their users already know - and in this vein the desktop metaphor relies on the basic assumption that users know that objects can be placed on and moved around a desktop. In an increasingly globalize world is there domain knowledge that is universally known across cultures, ages, and genders? What are the things that you have spent the most time with in your life? What has been there through thick and thin, good times and bad, and has been there in your most intimate moments?
High on this list is your body or at least the parts that you can easily see such as the back of your hands, or easily touched such as your shoulders, chest, front of legs, bum, face and yes genitalia. (There's also the stuff inside you that you feel - anything from the pressure of a full bladder to aching limbs but that's a discussion for another day). What if skin-like materials were just another tool in the designer's toolbox? Today we have mass-produce able pleather. With a desire to rebuild wounded soldiers and in particular treat burn victims leading research into growing body parts and skin is mass produced skin-like materials really that far behind?
Your first reaction is probably gentle, chiding revulsion - triggering of thoughts about eXistenZ and looking again at the photo you're thinking that the tap design (and this post) is just plain tacky. But pause and think. Given a life-time of getting to know and interaction with your own body and the knowledge of your shapes, scars, textures, preferences is there something there that can be tapped to design more optimal products? What I'm not proposing is cyborgs or human like robots. But put simply, what if your 12th generation iPod casing felt like, looked and behaved like your own skin? Supple, warm, tender. How would it respond to gentle squeezes, flexes, stroking, a tug or a pinch? What kind of interaction would play or stop a song? If you wanted to customised it would it be with a piercing? Or a tattoo?
If realistic skin was widely available it wouldnt take long before it was wrapped around body-part-like shapes. What would the inherent characteristics of those body shapes be? What functions could map to tapping a 'shoulder'? Rubbing a 'foot'? Nudging an 'elbow'? How would interactions differ depending on the age, gender and cultural background of the interactor? How would interaction preferences differ for the same? I may have a weak grip and rough flaky skin but that doesn't mean I just want to interact with skin-like products that feel the same as me.
And how would and should our skin-like products wear and tear? Would they age? Succumb to sun burn? Require a shave? Treatment for lice? End up with cancer? Can they be restored with the liberal application of aloe or would it require something more drastic such as botox or a nip and a tuck?
And given all of this do we even want to go there?
Writing from Shanghai | April 30, 2006 | Comments (1) | Permalink
Number One Seller. Really
Phone numbers for sale at a kiosk - the numbers that have already been sold are struck through.
How does knowing what others have bought influence purchasing behaviour? How can this behaviour be manipulated by suggesting the popularity of certain items? Who would want to manipulate the data for what reasons?
Writing from Shanghai | April 27, 2006 | Permalink
Physical Personalisation
What motivates people to customise their phones? Where are they customised? Why? And how can this influence the design of future devices?
The slides for a recent short presentation to NIFT Delhi is now online on research.nokia.com. Entitled Physical Personalisation of Phone Covers in Japan can be downloaded here [1 MB]. It's an example of quick-and-dirty research project (an afternoon collecting data by reviewing 6477 phone covers in a recycling plant) with a limited but interesting enough scope (document any physical customisation), that eventually led to researching a number of more meaty topics. It's also an example of something that would never make it to an academic conference, but has proved relevant in day to day work. There's a lesson there somewhere.
Captive audience here and related posts here.
Writing from Tokyo | April 24, 2006 | Permalink
Where Thin is Not In
This small, simple and relatively elegant Sony Ericsson phone belonging to a tea-house owner in South Delhi. The product design team will have spent countless hours massaging the components into the smallest possible form factor, selecting materials for the optimal tactile experience, and making the detailing just right. The overall elegance and perceived thickness of the device may have been a factor in its purchasing decision but ultimately this consumer bought a thick plastic cover to protect it from dust and scratches (photo below).
The need and consequent practices of covering and protecting consumer products varies according to cultural practices, individual tastes, climate and contexts. Whether it's a plastic coated car seat in New Orleans, individually wrapped sweets in Japan (in part to cope with intense summer humidity), plastic sheets on a hospice bed, or covered calculators and phones in India. The advertisement for dust free switches in South Delhi (photo, below) is only enhanced by the extremely dusty shop backdrop.
Of these products mobile phones are somewhat unique in that they have to cope with conditions in a wide range of contexts - from when the owner gets up to when s/he goes to sleep and everything in between. Whilst women are most likely to be carrying phones in hand bags the desire to be contactable and to communicate often leads them to be carried in the hand for short periods of time. For men the situation is compounded by the extent to which the phone is carried in pockets - close to the skin and consequently exposed to more human moisture & sweat.
There is currently a lot of noise about who has the thinnest phone, and the thickness of the RAZR was undoubtedly a factor in its worldwide success. But as the adoption of mobile phones spread the reality for many of the world's population is that protection is paramount. My personal take on device thickness is that thin devices have their pros e.g. perceived elegance and cons e.g. an tendency to break more easily, but that things will only become genuinely interesting in this space as and when true flexibility is introduced.
The after market for protective phone covers in India is well developed and is quickly able to cater for new phone form factors, even down to coping with sliding mechanisms. How can mass market products be re-designed to cope with the need for greater protection? (the dust free keypad on the 1101 is a good example). And given that the two factors are often mutually exclusive, is it possible to design products that are able to offer increased protection when needed, but can shed their protective cladding when the need for elegance is paramount? Finally, when new materials and manufacturing techniques enable forms of protection that are not visible to the human eye how important will the design be to the perception of protection?
Writing from Tokyo | April 23, 2006 | Permalink
The Wedding Planner
And his heroes (below).
Photos from a row of wedding shops on the outskirts of Delhi. His job was to trick out the wedding carts for the wedding procession - example shown in the background.
Writing from Tokyo | April 22, 2006 | Permalink
Same But Different
Writing from Old Delhi | April 4, 2006 | Permalink
Clean Teeth
Sticks for cleaning teeth/chewing, sold to very low income workers close to Old Delhi station.
Photos from a watching-the-city-waking-up street walking session.
Writing from Old Delhi | | Comments (2) | Permalink
Motivation to Protect
High quality cover for mobile phone to protect against damage and to a lesser extent dust.
From most angles the phone's appearance is similar with and without this transparent cover with the exception shown above. Beyond reducing the risk damage what are the motivations to use covers? To what extent does this choice boil down to appearance now vs. appearance later?
Writing from South Delhi | April 2, 2006 | Permalink
Custom
Repeatedly self-customised phone by Fiza Khan a student at NIFT Delhi's Department of Fashion and Lifestyle Accessories.
To what extent does the customisation of a product or service facilitate or become a barrier to and ongoing customisation?
Writing from Haus Kaas | March 30, 2006 | Comments (0) | Permalink
Bling Customisation
Writing from Shibuya, back of | March 24, 2006 | Comments (0) | Permalink
Localised Design
An example of a localised seat design for an airline in China (Sichuan Air or Air China if I recall correctly). The cup holder can support the almost ubitquitously carried green tea/hot water containers (above) without having to lower the main tray (below).
Writing from Tokyo | March 12, 2006 | Permalink
Identity, Memory
A simple and expressive example of how a restaurant overcomes the problem of guests forgetting their coats - an issue probably caused by the coats being located out of the line of sight when people leave. This restaurant is well warmed by the sun, and a number of guests arrive by car (relatively unusual for Tokyo) so remembering a coat may not be a high priority.
Our paper submitted to DUX last year proposed the concept of the range of distribution to describe how far people allows allow objects to stray from their person. Range of distribution is not just about distance, but also location in relation the body such as out of the line of sight and/or out of the range of reach.
Understanding the range of distribution for objects is interesting primarily because objects that are placed out of sight are more likely to be forgotten - and objects that are forgotten are less likely to be used, and people tend to value and eventually pay for things that they use. Another non-trivial issue is that the performance of wireless devices may be affected by how far objects stray from one another - some RFID readers have a range of millimeter's, Bluetooth has a range of meters. Its not just about data transmission but can also affect battery life as devices scan to relocate one another.
Back to the restaurant cloakroom... guests are given a toy (shown in the box below) that matches the one on the hanger (photo above). When leaving the restaurant the toy acts as a reminder that the coat needs to be taken, and perhaps more obviously acts as a ticket to identify the right coat. Simple, fun and elegant very much keeping with style the restaurant itself.
Writing from Tokyo | March 8, 2006 | Comments (1) | Permalink
Removing, Supplementing Core Features
Raku Raku 3G phone for sale in Japan - targeted at elderly users. Includes a slider where the owner can write phone book entries instead of using the elecronic address book. Taking core features such as the address book outside the phone can benefit non-literate and elderly users.
The fetching model holding the phone in the top photo? Here.
Writing from London | February 12, 2006 | Comments (2) | Permalink
Device Customisation
Customised iPod Nano encrusted in rhinestones - photo taken during a night out with friends in Shibuya.
Extreme customisation of devices such as mobile phones, iPods and tamagotchi is taking off amongst women (and occassionally men) in their 20's and early 30's here in Tokyo. Mobile phone and nail shops are offering extreme customisation as an extension of their existing services, nail shops being a particularly good fit given the skill set required to carry out the procedure. 7,000 yen (56 Euro) will buy you a glittery off-the-shelf design, whilst 60,000 yen (430 Euro) will buy you front, back, top and bottom fully customised design of your choice. Downside of the process? Losing use of the device whilst it is being customised, and the customisation process can invalidate the warrantee.
For the customer: what drivers for customising?
For the service provider: is it possible to scale up, to offer mass-customisation?
One of my recent side-projects was to document the extreme mobile phone and nail customisation process for two Japanese teenagers, from preparing their phones - removing existing print club stickers and other adornments, sketching desired designs, interactions with the crafts-woman, and then following the customisation process in the shop up until delivery. The research material is not suitable for an academic paper but may put some material together here at a later date.
Working from the UK for the next couple of weeks. What new things to learn?
Writing from Shibuya | January 30, 2006 | Comments (2) | Permalink
Custom Electricity Socket Layout
It's easy to get used to the default format of everyday objects such as electricity sockets. From where you are sitting take a moment to look around you... what objects are less than perfect? What level of skill, and what degree of motivation is required to customise these everyday objects to your individual requirements?
Photo of work shop bench taken in the suburbs of Ho Chi Minh City.
Writing from Tokyo | January 19, 2006 | Permalink
Over Specification
Writing from Tokyo | January 7, 2006 | Comments (2) | Permalink
Information At The Tips Of Your Fingers
Today her finger nail is a means of expression, decoration, drawing attention.
Finger nail decoration machines already exist to allow a customer to choose a design, then automatically decorate and dry those nails. Embedding digital information on those nails would be a relatively trivial step (though generating a critical mass of device to read what is on the nails is non-trivial). If you could store and communicate information through your finger nails what would you want to store and what would you want communicate? Is one kind of infomration more suited to thumbs or particular fingers than others? The number of digits is one natural parameter, combined with issues such as biting nails, locations where finger tips can and will end up, and how long users would expect a finger nail design to last before being refurbished offer interesting user interface possibilities and forms of interaction.
The broader issue is - what is possible without going down the routes of embedding technology under the skin, personal area networks or alternatives like bone induction?
Writing from Hokkaido | January 3, 2006 | Comments (1) | Permalink
Dual Properties
Writing from Hue | December 27, 2005 | Permalink
Adapted Design
A logical progression from the number of motorbikes on the streets of HCMC. Workshop bench in a metal workshop made from motorcycle seat, somewhere in the suburbs close to the Chinese market. The pleasure of getting lost.
Writing from Ho Chi Minh City | December 25, 2005 | Permalink
Wire Frame
Writing from Lhasa | December 16, 2005 | Comments (0) | Permalink
Solar Heaters
First time I laid eyes on one of these from a passing vehicle thought it was some kind of satellite dish. Can be found dotted around Lhasa. Heats the water, but not hot enough to boil water. A small handle underneath the dish allows the user to adjust the angle of the dish.
Can the infrastructure be put to other uses?
Writing from Lhasa | | Comments (1) | Permalink
Pool Table Lock
Locking private infrastructure in public space.
Writing from Lhasa | December 15, 2005 | Comments (0) | Permalink
Phone Number As Identity I
What does your phone number say about you?
Numbers for sale in Ulan Bataar (photo above) and Beijing (below).
Mobicom - the primary Mongolian carrier has semi-automated the process (photo below) with in-store phone number selection. Baby steps on the way to something more sophisticated?
Totally redesign the way we make, keep and manage contacts. What could your phone number say about you?
Writing from Ulan Bataar | December 9, 2005 | Comments (1) | Permalink
Motivations for...
Writing from Ulan Bataar | | Permalink
Custom No. Super Custom Yes
The photo above from a customer of Bowery Kitchen, Komazawa.
The super-customisation of mobile phones is gaining some traction here in Tokyo. Various shops in Shibuya will adorn your mobile phone (or iPod or digital camera) with rhinestones charging anything from 7,000 yen (50 Euro) for a pre-designed P900i cover to around 50,000 yen (350 Euro) for the full front and back design-to-order bling. Mostly but not exclusively for female clientel - men are starting to order quite gothic designs.
Jewel encrusting services can be found as an annex of some phone shops in popular shopping areas of Tokyo. Now nail shops are extending their offering to include mobile phone customisation - it's possible to order matching nail and phone designs.
(In my mind this is somehow all a logical progression from an analysis of 6447 used mobile phone covers and quick and dirty customisation)
I started out a sceptic but I have to admit some of the funkier pixel-art designs have started to grow on me.
Writing from Shibuya | November 28, 2005 | Permalink
Registered Personalisation
Personalisation of cash register, snowboard shop, Kanda.
Writing from Kanda | November 22, 2005 | Comments (1) | Permalink
Unintended Uses
Spent today at the Fieldwork Untethered workshop here in Tokyo. The aim is to brain-dump knowledge of the different methodologies used to collect user data outside the laboratory environment. Today's presentations were informed - and as much as anything I like listening to the language people use to describe stuff you've been working on, but haven't yet figured out how to best capture in those few words. With a background in UI design the language of sociologists and psychologists takes some getting used to. One of the aims of the workshop is to publish more about the methods we use to gather data - maybe that's the right forum to go into detail about the things I've started to cover here?
The workshop included some field research in and around Shibuya. Spent 10 minutes watching the Shibuya crossing street hustlers - tanned, preening men chasing after women trying to entice them to host-bars that are surprisingly popular here (apparently - I've never been and I guess I'm too old, unsophisticated and ugly to be hired as a host). There's a pecking order on the street and the competition is fierce to be the first to confront the single women as they go past. Its pretty unsophisticated stuff, but what can I learn from them?
The laptop photos are of one of the workshop delegates - a simple example of how objects used in the real world have unintended uses.
Hmm, collecting this kind of data at a ethno methods workshop is the equivalent of distilling then swigging vodka at a alcoholics anonymous meeting. Smart.
Writing from Mita | November 2, 2005 | Permalink
Mobile Phone as Personal Shrine
What can you learn from products about to be recycled?
When I first moved to Japan one of the first exploratory studies I carried out was to try and figure out how and why people customise their phone cover. It's fairly common in Japan, Korea and to a lesser extent China to see phones adorned with stickers as well as the more usual phone straps. I was looking for inspiration for new applications and services and this seemed a good a place to start as any.
On a hot summer's day I traveled down to a mobile phone recycling plant on the edge of Tokyo and with the help of a number of friendly factory workers spent a few hours sorted through over 6,000 used phone covers, documenting all and any physical customisation that was evident. The result was several hundred photos of stickers of designs, logos, decorations and puri kura - the print club stickers that are still relatively popular in Japan and some Asian cultures.
Only 11% of the 6447 covers had some form of physical customisation. I was expecting this to be more based on ad-hoc observations from the street, though this reflects the places and people I hang out with. The range of physical customisation can be categorized into: stickers of logos; print club photos; telephone numbers; and illustrations/decorations. There were also a few examples of 'super customisation' where people had obviously put in a lot of time and effort detailling paint jobs, tagging, graffiti covering the whole device.
Why do people physically customize their phones with stickers?
Putting a sticker of a brand on a phone is an obvious and easy way to project lifestyle choices, peer group affiliations and aspirations - for example 'I'm into surfing' or 'my crew wear's Gravis'. It's socially acceptable, though in some environments a little dangerous, to have the phone out on display and at the very least answering a call and text messaging provide opportunties for others to see. Print club photos adorning the phone cover both confirm and project to others who the owner is connected with, in some regards a physical manifestation of the phone book. Customisation can also send the signal that 'this is mine, hands off'. Lastly, on a practical level it solves the problem of knowing widget is yours when all the widgets look alike. This was evident in a different study where we discovered the motivation behind walkie talkie customization by San Francisco bike messengers and of school calculators by Shanghai school kids was the same - to figure out which device belonged to them. If a company bought its workers the same mobile phone model, I would expect a large % of owners to add some small physical customisation for this same reason.
One of the surprise findings from the Tokyo recycling plant research was the use of the inside back cover as a form of 'mobile personal shrine' a place for storing photos/memories. Unless the back cover was removed from the phone no-one else would see or would know the photo was there so my assumption is that the photos were for personal consumption, or at the owner's discretion for sharing with someone else. A number of the photos appeared quite intimate - a couple hugging, a child, friends doing things in privacy of a photo booth.
There are of course limits to what you can learn through the documenting used products. Many of the best insights come from talking with people about why and how, whereas the recycling plant data just shows what. I had no way of knowing, for example whether the phones were for work or personal use or whether the owner was male or female.
More and more data can be embedded in and on objects - QR bar codes printed on the back of a sticker, RFID tags embedded in a device. A visit to a recycling plant in 2010 will probably yield much more about the product and its owners than we can ever know today. Interesting from the research point of view, by today's standards a major privacy issue for pretty much everyone else.
Writing from Tokyo | October 22, 2005 | Permalink
Custom Covers
For 3,400 Yen (24 Euro or so) in downtown Tokyo you can get yourself a custom phone cover design completed in 30 minutes. Choose any number of truly tasteful designs from samples on the shelf or from a booklet most are simple patterns, a scary number of cigarette company logos, fake Gucci, YSL, whales a-jumping, cats a-lookin cute that kind of thing. He prints the design on sticky film, carefully folds it onto the phone. 20 seconds with a hair dryer then spends the next 15 minutes cutting holes for the display, buttons and removing access film.
The quality of the final result is not particular inspiring - though this is due the resolution and colour caperbilities of the printer rather than the process itself.
The bling-my-fone option looks like being more interesting.
... and if you're wondering about the lightly clothed punters, these photos were taken about a month ago. You'll be happy to hear that today it's raining hard in Tokyo and I forgot my bike rain gear. Whoopy do.
Writing from Harajuku | October 17, 2005 | Comments (3) | Permalink
Mobility Touch / Magic Touch
Not just the NFC guys pushing Magic Touch. Photo from Karol Bagh market in Delhi.
Writing from Karol Bagh Market | June 1, 2005 | Permalink
TV & Mobile Fone
Mural in Kreuzberg, Belin - mobile phone joins television as symbol of mindless consumerism.
Writing from Berlin | May 16, 2005 | Permalink
@ Mo
@Mo is another concept store in Harajuku. 'Custom' FOMA P901is are placed in the context of clothing, chill-out leather sofas, tees and the ubitquitous Be@rbricks.
Its difficult to bring a custom and exclusive purchasing experience to mobile phones, which are largely the most mass of mass produced products, with a few exceptions of course.
This store leaves me cold - its all too template to be original. In a year it will be gone, but by then it will have already served its purpose.
Writing from Harajuku | April 22, 2005 | Permalink
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