Dominant Affair

Experientia was asked by Nokia Insight & Foresight to develop a design concept exploring multiple device ownership and the exchange of content between these devices. The mobile phone was at the centre of the exploration, in its possible roles as a mediator, access point or personal identifier to other devices or forms of information.

The design concept focused on the user experience of linking devices together, sharing information between devices and understanding which device provides which service or content (mental and cognitive model).

Special focus was put on the integration of the mobile phone into the home environment and its connection with possible consumer electronics or computing devices and their respective content.

Envisioning
In this open innovation project, conducted in 2005, Nokia asked Experientia to ideate concepts around social media, with the concentration on the mobile phone, and its possible role as mediator, access point or personal identifier to other devices or forms of information. There was a strong foresight component to the project, identifying the future evolutions of the role of the mobile phone, and defining a number of directions that evolution might take.

During the project, Experientia explored concepts from three viewpoints of user interactions with multiple devices:

• Broad view — mobile to other device interactions
• Narrowing down — mobile to other mobile interactions
• Final focus — dominance-submission interactions between mobiles

Early brainstorms reflected on the changing nature of mobile phone usage. A number of frameworks emerged, including mobile & environment, the mobile as a peripheral, the mobile as a remote control, access to mobile content and mobile & financial transactions.

Within each framework, Experientia explored the past, present and emerging trends, identifying future opportunity areas. These included looking at possible emerging and new uses, future models of payment, modes of sharing information, and adaptation of phones to our changing contexts and situations.

Experientia’s exploration led to a number of key questions, which in turn informed the concept design process. In particular, the following two questions were vital for the design stage:

• How can social notions of dominance and submission be turned into tangible interactions between defined groups of mobile phone users?
• Mobile phone usage already reflects the social structures be tween users; how can we accentuate communication behaviours to fit these social structures and conventions?

Design and prototyping
A range of concepts were ideated around the different frameworks and design opportunities identified. For each idea, a scenario was created, in which the design idea was explained in action. The benefits for different target groups were outlined, showing possible extensions of the idea.

From these concepts, the three most promising ideas were developed more in-depth. Each idea was prototyped in Flash, and a video was created, enacting the scenarios and showing the interaction flows.

Final deliverables
This project produced insightful foresight predictions around the future possible evolutions of mobile phones, and opportunity areas. A series of design concepts and explorations around these areas were presented in a project blog, and the most promising ideas were developed into Flash prototypes and a video with three scenarios showcasing the design concepts. Several features ideated in the concepts have consequently appeared in Nokia’s own video scenarios of how mobile phones will be used in the future.

Downloads
Experientia Nokia booklet 2005 [PDF]