MEX представил победителей 2009 MEX Mobile User Experience Awards

Winner: 2009 MEX Mobile User Experience Innovator of the Year

Digitag

Designed by... Aaron Rustill

The user

Laura is a mother with two children (Kirsten aged 13 and David aged 16) she works part time in a hospital while organising the household and taking her children to school everyday. Her husband works in Dubai as a mechanical engineer and is away from home for months at a time and as a result Laura has the responsibility of maintaining daily life for her and her children. When buying into products and services she specifically looks for ways to simplify her already hectic life. One example of this is that she has the same digital television and internet provider and receives only one bill for the two services.

Laura currently has a basic Nokia mobile phone that she uses to text and email. She had a more premium handset but lost it several months ago. She hated having to retrieve all of her numbers loosing messages from her children and irreplaceable images that her husband had sent her from Dubai. She never got round to backing up the data onto the computer because it was slow and awkward to do so. Laura also pays her children’s mobile phone bills. She’s a hard working family woman who seeks simplicity in her hectic lifestyle.

The experience

Digitag is a concept based on technology that will emerge in five to ten years from now. It’s a completely new way for users to view mobile phones and the data they carry. Digitag mobile phones have a unique product identification code and it is encrypted and contains the user’s biometric data in the form of a thumb print and can also include facial and voice recognition if required. Digitag is encrypted using quantum encryption, making it impossible to hack. The Digitag phone system looks at how buying multiple phones under the same contract can help simplify the users mobile phone experience in the family household.

The Digitag phones are intended to be bought in packs of up to five and used in a family household. The handsets rely on VOIP, Voice Over Internet Protocol, communication via ‘cloud networking’ and they can be used as home or mobile devices. The phones are unique because they include a biometric thumb print scanner and allow anyone within the household to access their secure profile through any handset. Phones are interchangeable between family members, and everyone’s profile preferences, messages and media are stored on the communal charging and synchronisation unit, the Digitag Hub. If a handset is lost or stolen the data within is encrypted and the user can simply upload their profile and preferences onto a spare or new handset.

The Digitag phone system simplifies mobile phone payment and use, and eliminates the inconvenience of loss or theft, allowing families to easily keep the data that they value safe.

Презентация, .pdf

Winner: Professional category

Little Spender

Designed by... ribot

The user

At the end of each month Xavier looks at his online bank balance and wonders where all his money has gone. Going through the figures it's easy to see where all the big memorable purchases come from but it's hard to determine how the little purchases have added up to such a figure. Xavier wants to keep a better track of his expenditure and better realise where he is really spending all his money.

Xavier needs to be kept motivated to add his expenses as the month goes on. A playful mobile app combined with a subtle "gaming" element would help to ensure that his extra little bit of effort is rewarded. As a result his loyalty to the product would grow and through greater use his perceived product value increase.

The experience

Little Spender has been designed with people like Xavier in mind, allowing him to add his expenses through micro experiences on his mobile device. 10 seconds to launch and add an expense, followed by a quick tilt of the screen to see glance-like visuals of expenses added so far.

Little Spender’s goal is to enable even the most casual of Little Spenders to see where exactly their hard-earned cash goes every month. Along with a bit of fun and simplicity along the way, they’ll hopefully save a little money too.

Key to the user experience is the way in which the user interacts with the application and the speed and ease of data entry and data visualisation. This is driven by the interface’s simplicity utilsing a focusless interface; when adding an expense, the numeric keypad controls the amount, and the directional buttons toggle the expense category (up-down) and sub-category (left-right). Also, a sense of motion in the interface allowed us to provide the user with simple but postive visual reactions to user actions.

With touch-based input devices, it was important to stick with a similar aesthetic for brand consistency, but we needed to ensure that the interface made the most out of the touch interaction model. We opted for a visually appealling and simplistic interface, that invited the user to touch and play with the interactive areas.

Презентация, .pdf

Short-listed.

01 Phone User Interface

Designed by... TheAlloy

The user

Inspiration

T3 the gadget magazine had grown increasingly frustrated with the quality and experience being offered by the various mobile phones that they were being sent to review. In response they got together with TheAlloy to create a concept for the ultimate mobile phone taking on board current industry best practice and incorporating feedback of thousands of T3 readers.

To satisfy today’s convergence trends the phone had to fulfil many functions: voice music camera/video email web GPS and gaming. This led TheAlloy to create a unique interaction concept reflecting the need to simplify the user experience of doing many things on one device.

TheAlloy created a completely new interface concept for the 01 Phone – which is unlike anything else available on a mobile phone or portable multimedia device. It is this concept that is being entered into the MEX Design Awards.

Offering the ultimate in style and usability the 01 Phone is targeted at the 30+ style conscious technologically aware affluent early adopter who uses a broad range of mobile applications and services. It will appeal to those who may have tried many device options but been satisfied with none. Whilst this is likely to be a reasonable expensive device - the 500000 worldwide readers of T3 have the income and desire to spend money on technology to enhance their lifestyle. This demographic drives the overall look and feel of the 01 Phone concept.

Ultimately the target audience for the user interface is anyone who wants to use their mobile phone to do more in a more intuitive and user friendly way than allowed before. It is a phone that allows for older eyes and clumsier fingers as much as for the younger touch screen savvy generation. In this respect the 01 User Interface has significant cross over value and broad appeal that could be applied within any multi functioned mobile handset or multi media device.

The experience

Human interaction is critical to the success of mobile experiences, and often where current phones let people down. The 01 Phone design addresses the real needs of users interacting with a multi functioned device. At the core of this concept is a completely new user interface that is embedded into a tactile, rubberised sliding keyboard that is uniquely context sensitive.

Research shows that full screen QWERTY solutions remain popular, but are an imperfect interface for many modern mobile applications. On touch screens, there was a strong need to improve the accuracy of input, as well providing ‘feel-forward’ and ‘feedback’, which currently fall well short of user demands. Also, users report issues with the smudging and smearing of the screen, with the latest mobiles described as “needing more rubbing than Aladdin’s lamp!” TheAlloy has long been a proponent of dual screen solutions, one for input, one for viewing, but it became apparent that the input screen required significant additional consideration.

The physical aspect of the keyboard combines a transparent tactile button layer fitted over and protecting a bright OLED capacitive touch screen. OLED touch screens guarantee clarity and extended battery life, whilst the tactile layer offers screen protection, feel forward, haptic feedback and a significantly more comfortable experience when using the keyboard.

The key aspect of the 01 Phone user interface is the uniquely context sensitive graphical user interface that underlies the tactile ‘button’ layer. When sliding open the keyboard, the user sees the full transparent QWERTY keyboard, this keyboard then changes depending on the phone mode selected from the main menu. This means that each phone application has a completely unique and appropriate set of controls – all utilising the tactile button matrix. This concept dispenses with complex multifunction keys, and the complete dependence on sometimes inaccessible touch screen technologies – to create a unique and compelling user experience.

Choice is key with the 01 Phone concept. If the user prefers – all applications will also function completely via the main touch screen – the slide out keyboard can be used just for those applications where it is most preferred.

Taking the gaming interface as an example, on launching a mobile game on the handset, the interface will intelligently switch to Game Mode and the keyboard reflect a more familiar and dedicated control interface, with direction and action buttons clearly defined and distanced from the start/select/home buttons. Such a gamer friendly layout delivers on the aspirations of our target users who are traditionally irritated by the poor control options on mobile phones when it comes to playing, for example, popular, fast paced, arcade style action gaming.

“The 01 phone not only looks beautiful, it brilliantly addresses many of our readers’ desires for their ultimate mobile phone. We created the 01 Phone to challenge the industry to deliver better; we believe we have the design for a worthy market-leading handset.” Michael Brook, Editor, T3 Magazine

Презентация, .pdf

Short-listed.

Text Phonetics. The Accessible Alternative Keypad and Learning System

Designed by... Kevin Thomson

The user

I designed Tx12 just to be the easiest fastest mobile keypad (cos I am dyslexic and need glasses and hate 2ABC and QWERTY) and boom! I discovered it meets the needs of those with physical visual cognitive and other learning difficulties like dyslexia dyspraxia (clumsiness). Oh and it helps illiteracy 'cos you can learn to spell with it. So not to put to fine a point it's a 50% faster keypad for everyone and even quicker faster and EASY for kids senior folk and those with other difficulites.

The experience

Tx12 is a simple idea. Stop cramming the bl%$y alphabet between 2 and 9 or putting QWERTY on a postage stamp! Use all 12 keys.

There are Four Fundamentals to Text-Phonetix.

1. Alphabetic Layout using ALL 12 Keys - Optimum physical accessibility and ergonomic layout on standard 12 key pads, for maximum usability and customer experience on a hand held.

2. Separate ‘Hi-Hit’ Vowels - Optimum cognitive accessibility, usability and customer experience for speed, for spelling, for ‘txt’ and for ‘predictive speed optimisation.

3. Visible symbols and punctuation - Optimum full text accessibility, usability and customer experience for full e-mail and content input.

4. Right Brain simplicity. It’s EASY! Optimising neural activity and aiding the ‘phonological loop’. Spelling is a ‘left brain’ activity and complicated more with current layouts. So, just like the door entry number lock where you remember the shape of the numbers, a ‘right brain activity’ and simple, the unique Text-Phonetics WordMaps give you a SatNav guide to text spelling and learning - as you go. You just get faster and faster, whatever your ability level.

Now with TTS on phones (courtesy of Nuance) you can listen to what you spell as you go and learn with the EASY! Spellpad. Spelling is guaranteed if you can point, you can spell.

Презентация, pdf

Winner: Freelance category

The freelance category is for products developed by self-employed individuals.

Winner: The Doo Phone

Designed by... Rhys Cooper

The user

Geoff is a man in his early 40s who has a part time job he attends study courses 2 days a week and he loves to play Nintendo at home on his big screen TV. Geoff also has a moderate intellectual disability that limits his ability for cognitive thought. This means that he has trouble processing information and learning new things that other people find simple to do. Geoff also has poor eyesight.

Geoff is obsessed with mobile phones so much so that in the last three years he's bought 4 mobile phones. However due to his disability none of these phones are of any use to him as he is unable to operate the functions or navigate the complex menu system. He understands what a mobile phone can do but cannot perform the operations necessary to make it work.

A mobile phone user interface that is simple for Geoff to use will allow him to call for assistance when he's travelling to and from work talk with his family and friends whenever he likes and give him confidence to try new things. For most of us these are things that we take for granted on a daily basis but for Geoff this will be the first time he has experienced this amount of freedom in his life.

The experience

The ‘Doo Phone’ is a mobile phone interface that is the easiest in the world to use no matter what your capabilities. The motivation for developing this interface came from Rhys Cooper’s work with people who have an intellectual disability but the interface is suitable for everyone.

The phone interface works by firstly eliminating any menu function that is not needed to make phone calls. The phone uses a picture based speed dialing system that allows the user to select the image of the person they wish to call, and then press call. The interface has been designed to allow for an unlimited number of contacts to be stored and these are displayed 9 per page. There is also a function to dial any number if the number isn’t stored in the phone’s memory. These numbers are displayed in high contrast and large format making them easy to see.

All of the selections are backed up by audio files and although this is built on a touch screen platform the patent pending interface design gives texture to this surface by placing a grid over the screen. This grid transforms physical regions on the touch screen into ‘buttons’ and helps guide the user towards their intended selection.

This physical grid interface on a touch screen means that even if the user is completely blind they can easily search through all the speed dial options by feeling the “buttons” and listening to the selections until they find who they want to call, then simply press the call button in the corner of the phone.

The contacts details and other phone settings can be updated remotely through a secure companion website. This means that a person with a disability can receive remote assistance from a family member or friend who can use the website to help configure the device, removing complexity from the end user experience. The website also allows remote location tracking of the device so the user doesn’t need to know where they are when asking for help.

Презентация, pdf

Short-listed: TouchType Express

Designed by... Ben Medlock

The user

Brian has been in meetings all day. His Blackberry keeps buzzing with a new email as his mobile flashes up another missed call. He is a 21st Century man; a successful professional under pressure for results someone who expects a lot from others and demands everything from his technology.

As he tries to type another sly email on his Blackberry during the meeting he has that familiar sinking feeling: Why is it so frustrating to type quickly on a mobile or edit a document on the move? Why are the buttons so small? Isn’t there a better way to enter text on a mobile?

The experience

TouchType Express is the technology Brian has been looking for. It transforms text entry allowing users to simply select their next word rather than type in every character.

This entry method is made possible by TouchType’s cutting edge prediction technology which accurately predicts around 40% of users’ next words without any input, and over 85% within two or fewer characters. When combined with our novel and intuitive interface, the result is an efficient text entry method providing a refreshing user experience. This technology dramatically reduces the number of keystrokes needed to enter a section of text – on average 50% less than a standard QWERTY keyboard.

Презентация, pdf

Short-listed: Bluetooth One: One-Click Access to Bluetooth from Anywhere on Your Phone

Designed by... Markus Grupp

The user

Bluetooth One is specifically targeted at the countless users who find using Bluetooth confusing and frustrating.

These users are looking to connect to their stereo Bluetooth headset as quickly as they launched the music player. They are looking for a quick free way to share a photo or song with a friend without appearing incompetent or embarrassment in front of their waiting friends. They want to exchange a contact details quickly without keeping their business associate waiting. They want to connect to their in-car system quickly after a long day of work without yet another frustration before they begin the commute home.

At a time when Bluetooth is becoming extremely prevalent in headsets speakers in-car systems printers and other consumer electronics the Bluetooth user experience continues to extremely difficult tedious and frustrating.

Simply finding Bluetooth is difficult. It is often buried several levels deep in Settings Tools Applications or Connectivity menus requiring the user navigate excessive levels of UI menus on a repeated basis. Turning Bluetooth off is just as difficult resulting in it often needlessly running in the background and affecting handset battery life. Sharing photos and music or exchanging contacts can only be done via nested sub-menus from within Options menu.

Bluetooth is simply a means to an end an enabler. Using Bluetooth to connect share or transfer is time-sensitive. Bluetooth needs to be instantly available seamless and as transparent as possible to the user.

The experience

Bluetooth One is a design concept that combines a dedicated Bluetooth hardware key with a contextual, intuitive task-based user interface that can be integrated easily by a handset manufacturer.

The Bluetooth key allows the user to instantly turn Bluetooth on with a simple press, from anywhere in the user interface, with no need to return to the main menu and search through several levels of menus. The task-based user interface quickly walks the user through clear steps, rather than prompting them countless times to enable Bluetooth, add devices and search for devices.

Just as important, Bluetooth One is contextual user interface. The Bluetooth key allows the user to immediately take action in specific contexts: acting upon a contact, photo, video, music or audio file. Pressing the Bluetooth key while viewing a photo in the photo gallery automatically turns Bluetooth on and asks the user where she wants to transfer the photo: an existing contact, a new phone, computer, printer or other device. No longer will be user need to use nested sub-menus followed by a series of prompts and reminders to turn Bluetooth on. The Bluetooth key allows the user to share non-DRM protected music and videos just as easily.

Bluetooth One finally makes exchanging contact details as easy as it was promised by the industry years ago. Pressing the Bluetooth key automatically turns on Bluetooth and asks the user to whom he wants to transfer the contact details.

Pressing the Bluetooth key to take action will become immediately intuitive to the user, mimicking the interaction behaviour of the Send key, which allows the user to take direct action on a call log entry, a contact or phone number in a text message in various contexts.

From Bluetooth One’s settings menu, the user is able to enable the auto passcode feature. Bluetooth One’s auto passcode setting immediately eliminates this confusing and tedious step, while providing the user full control about their default passcode. This default passcode will be automatically used in the future, eliminating the need for the user to enter the passcode.

It also allows the user to associate a paired handset directly to a contact in the phone’s address book, providing the user with a highly relevant label. Bluetooth One simply associates the paired device’s underlying Bluetooth device address with a contact in the phone book. Connecting to “Marek Pawlowski’s Phone” in the future is a much more meaningful to the user than trying to remember the obscure model number of a friend’s phone, such as “Samsung SGH-U600.

Bluetooth One allows the user to do quickly use Bluetooth and then get on with what’s important to them: the epitome of a great user experience.

Презентация, pdf

Winner: Commercial category.

The commercial category is for products developed by companies and already launched in the market.

Winner: nru

Designed by... lastminute.com labs

The user

Our target is user is Anthony who lives in a major city in Europe or the US (in Anthony's case it is London) and owns a T-Mobile G1 or other Android phone. Anthony is in his mid-30s has a partner but no children and is excited by the possibilities of all the things he can do in the city. He likes going out to eat or for a drink going to see bands or a film and discovering new places.

Anthony enjoys discovering the city. So a problem he often faces is not knowing what his options are around him right now either because he's in an unfamiliar part of town or because he's on a trip. For instance he's in a bar with his friends and they want to go for something to eat. Where should they go? He's just come out of the cinema with his partner and they want to go for a drink. What's nearby?

The experience

We have designed, built and launched an Android application called nru (”near you”). It allows you to see what you can do near you, based on your current location and the direction you’re pointing the handset. The interaction is very physical as you move the entire phone around your body to see what’s available in different directions. This takes advantage of the fact that the G1 handset uniquely has a compass as well as GPS and accelerometers, so can detect direction as well as position and orientation.

When the phone is held flat, you see your options arrayed in a circle according to the direction they’re in. As you raise the phone up you see the straight-ahead view of what you can do in the direction you are facing. By turning the phone around your body or rotating around you can see what there is in different directions. nru currently has several categories: Bars, Bowling Alleys, Cafes, Cinemas, Clubs, Comedy Clubs, Music Venues, Pubs, Restaurants, Snooker & Pool Clubs and Stations. It is available in the UK and we’re working on the USA and France. The content comes from a combination of fonefood (the lastminute.com mobile restaurant booking service) and Qype.

When you select a particular item you are shown more information. In the case of restaurants, as well as seeing a description, photo, map and any special offers, you can directly book a table.

Презентация, .pdf

Short-listed: BabyCenter goes Mobile!

Designed by... Velti, Ansible and Baby Center

The user

BabyCenter wanted to take the popular experience of BabyCenter.com and create a mobile experience. The initial expansion of Babycenter to the mobile was geared for the U.S. Hispanic market a unique segment of 40+ million people comprising the largest most dynamic and fastest - growing ethnic group in the U.S. They required product and marketing strategies that resonated with their unique tastes and identities. Studies reveal Hispanic Americans are keen to embrace technology having already adopted wireless communications products and services with a higher adoption rate than the general U.S. population; however they require refining product development and marketing around three key success factors: culture language and price. Technology-makers and marketers must reach out to the Hispanic market with messages that resonate with their focus on family and friends and entertainment as a social activity tapping into their culture and language. This demographic was used to test the site’s first mobile strategy before launching the mobile site for the general U.S. market and the rest of the world.

To meet the above objectives Velti and Ansible designed and implemented an innovative multi-level mobile marketing campaign solution which included a series of activities to attract the technology-savvy U.S. Hispanic population and appeal to their family-related culture. The mobile experience had to have the same high quality and ease of accessing information as the website but with an eye towards those “on the go.” Where are they seeing it? What do they want to know while away from home? How will it look on the phone? This mobile experience had to span different phones and the way people use their phones - iPhone/3G mobile with Internet (voice SMS email) and mobile no Internet (mix of SMS and voice).

The experience

Using a state-of-the-art user friendly graphic interface, the BabyCenter campaign integrates different advertising formats (online and mobile website, mobile alerts, sponsored content, promotional text messages, sweepstakes), a mobile club creating a community of pregnant women and new mothers, and leverages web and mobile applications to maximize traffic and effectiveness. In order to meet the various needs of U.S. Latina moms, the campaign included:

Multiple means to register: website, SMS, voice Multiple languages: BabyCenter English and Spanish Multiple ways to access information: website, SMS, voice. Text for all alerts and mobile web for deeper learning (you can even see the baby’s development) Multiple levels of engagement: sign up for alerts or browse the web on your phone for pregnancy tips or an ovulation calculator

The BabyCenter solution includes the following four activities: (1) A mobile wap site in Spanish, which extends the web experience to those ‘on the go.’ The BabyCenter Wap Site was designed to address the mostly likely questions and issues when users are not at home: Name finder, Baby development guide, Is it safe?, Is it normal?, Shopping guide, Newborn Guide, and a Sleep Guide. (2) Sponsored Alerts and Tips – for pregnant women or mothers with babies up to 3 months old, providing timely reminders for things such as immunizations. (3) A Mobile Club – creating a community of pregnant women and new mothers. Club members are notified of special offers and promotions from major brands, including Johnson and Johnson, General Motors Corp., JC Penney, Nestle, State Farm, Unilever, and others, all major advertisers in the Hispanic market. (4) A Web-based Sweepstake Contest – promoting the new wap site and the BabyCenter alerts and tips service.

The campaign successfully created a mobile community where Mothers-to-be and new mothers were able to network socially and share personal experiences, while receiving tips on new and current products that meet their interests: 93% of users that registered for the mobile club remain registered. BabyCenter also provided users with a desired means of learning about new products: 43% of BabyCenter subscribers registered for mobile alerts, 94% of users that registered for alerts remain registered, and the Alerts average growth per month was 263%. The campaign also helped identify the type of mobile content mom’s desire: Mobile coupons and other discounts: 56%, Personalized information: 46%, Games: 29%, and Sweepstakes and contests: 26%.

Презентация, .pdf

Short-listed: Mobile festival website

Designed by... bemoko

The user

The site is primarily designed for the technology savvy Generation Y user who uses content and information to organise their lives. The Generation Y user has grown up with social networking and it is a key part of their life. They want to interact with a festival and not just be a passive viewer of information.

They have medium to high end phones and are early adopters of new technology.

These users want instant gratification and are impulsive style conscious and brand aware.

The older festival goer is also catered for – they may not make as much use of the social features of the site as the generation Y user but will still be eager to use technology to get the latest most up to date and relevant information. These users typically have high end phones which are the most capable.

The experience

You can get a programme for a festival, but the information in the programme is static from the time of printing. What if you could get up to date information, chat with your mates and upload pictures of yourself enjoying the festival?

The bemokoLive festival package is all about going one step further than the programme and giving the modern festival goer instant, relevant information.

You can get preview clips of bands that are playing and link straight to music stores to allow you to buy the latest album whilst still in the afterglow of an awesome set.

Latest news, schedule changes, band information and special offers are available on your phone – giving you the information you want, when you want it.

Join in the fun and vote on the bands as they play. Post messages to the big video screen for everyone to see (watch the language!) and take part in polls and competitions.

The mobile site is easy to create, you can choose from a whitelabelled festival site giving everything you need to create the must have portal for your event or, if you think of anything we haven’t come up with, you can create your own site by adding extra pages or even starting from scratch.

We can take care of the hosting to give you a worry free experience.

Let bemokoLive help you give people a festival to remember!

See http://www.bemoko.com for more information.

Презентация, .pdf

Winner: Student category

The student category is for products developed by full-time students or young designers.

Winner: Happy Handsfree

Designed by... James Slater

The user

This product is created for a girl under the age of 10. However the actual user who would purchase it is a fictional concerned parent.

This parent understands the effects that mobile phone radiation can have on a child’s health but still think it is necessary to equip them with one for their own safety. They are looking for a device to help reduce the potential health risks later in life. They love their child and understand that the bright colours and theme of the product will appeal to their child.

The experience

The Happy Handsfree allows you to take a call whilst not putting the phone to your ear (hence reducing exposure of the head to radiation).

It is situated on the user’s wrist and features a microphone and loudspeaker. The purpose of the loudspeaker is so the child can hear the conversation without having to put the device to close to their head.

The primary reason for this is to reduce mobile phone radiation to the child’s brain.

A answer/end call button and volume controls are also incorporated into the device, with Bluetooth allowing it to connect to the mobile.

Презентация, .pdf

Student category

Short-listed: Guide Box

Designed by... Chris Ryan

The user

Guide Box has been developed for blind or visually impaired mobile phone users.

Developments in mobile screen reader technologies have allowed blind or visually impaired people to take advantage of most of the functions that a modern mobile phone has to offer.

The experience

Guide Box provides a service that enables those with a visual impairment to quickly and easily get building access information on their mobile phone.

Many public buildings can be large, confusing and difficult for anyone to find their way around. The Guide Box service aims to empower visually impaired users to approach and access unfamiliar public buildings on their own, with confidence, and without having to make an appointment.

This service uses a combination of text messages, mobile internet pages and audio files to allow the user to retrieve this information.

Guide Box has been developed in response to the lack of available location-based information for the visually impaired.

Презентация, .pdf

Student category

Short-listed: Texture Messaging

Designed by... Laura Warwick

The user

Text messaging is the world’s favourite form of digital communication with 216 million messages sent in the UK in 2008. Most of these texts are sent by teenagers and young adults who have grown up surrounded by technology and the Internet. These consumers are tech-savvy adopting and utilising new forms of technology into their everyday life and crave applications where they can co-design features. They have sent so many text messages that the format is becoming stale and they seek new additions to their message to excite them and differentiate themselves from peers.

The experience

Texture messaging is a cross-network, cross-platform messaging service that enhances SMS by allowing the user to attach different elements to their text message.

Using haptic technology, the user can control and manipulate the physical feedback the recipient feels when reading a message by choosing to attach and personalise five variables to their message; light, vibration, texture, motion and temperature. Each of these variables can then be manipulated in different ways including intensity, pattern and depth to communicate different emotions and to suggest and imply things about the content and tone of a message. As the user manipulates these variables they experience the subtle changes beneath their fingertips, enriching not only the message itself but also the user experience.

Texture messaging is also an inclusive service, as existing devices can be retrofitted with certain variables depending on the model. A simple software update would allow many users to attach vibrations of varying intensity and temporal patterns to their messages.

Презентация, .pdf