Always Addicted to Being Always On

I am spoiled and I can't blame it on my parents. Over the past several years I have become accustomed to having constant access to my own and others' information from anywhere at anytime. More than being spoiled, I am an addict. I am part of a large and growing community of addicts from throughout the United States and other developed countries who have adopted the habit of being "always on".

Actually, we've taken this one step further. We have bought into the belief that being "always on" is an important evolutionary leap for mankind, not to mention a basic human right. I (sorry, I meant we) demand the right to have immediate access to answers for all questions, no matter how useless, and to be able to stream information about our lives, no matter how boring. I became aware of my sorry predicament during a month-long trip through Asia and Europe this summer.

I wish that this insight had surfaced through a moment of stillness and clarity. However, it was actually crystalized through the experience of several moments of techno-rage. This included multiple instances where my wife had to talk me off the proverbial edge. Actually, it was my iPhone that was on the edge of getting smashed against walls, tables, windows and other parts of various hotel rooms.

Everyone of these moments were instigated by my struggle to find and remain connected to the internet. Moments where I asked for nothing more than the ability to exercise what I believed was my inalienable human right to remain "always on." No matter how much I prayed to the techno-gods, or how many Balinese style offerings I conjured up for them, it was all to no avail.

In the end of it all, this experience helped me realize once again that being "always on" is just as bad as it is good. That is not to say that I overcame my addiction. Just like any good addict I love my addiction and have made every effort to remain "always on" since I have arrived in Brazil to visit my parents.

Product Concept: Cyber Cat Heating Pad

Having read the first two chapters of my interaction design textbook, I decided to begin applying the frameworks that I've learned to the numerous product ideas that float around in my head all the time. These ideas will vary in subject, scope, category, and seriousness (or rather silliness). My purpose here is not to develop commercially viable products but rather to explore and experiment with the stuff that I am learning. This is just the first of several of these explorations.

Product Description:
A cat bed with a heating pad designed that is internet-enabled and able to sense and share information about the cat's presence and activities on the cat bed.

Goals & Requirements

Usabiliy Goals

• The heating pad needs to be easy to set-up, and its standard functionality (e.g. turning on heat and setting heat levels) should be available without the need to set-up connection with internet application.
  
• The online application should be simple enough to set-up without the need for a user manual. A set-up assistant (a.k.a. wizard), or limited functionality can be used to assist new users may be required to achieve this objective.
  
• The cat bed should fit a window sill (9" wide) while still being able to accommodate an average sized cat comfortably (20" long).
  
• The cat bed should to provide heat and a comfortable environment for the cat. The cat bed should leverage a comfortable fabric and the heat should be easily adjustable to support this objective.
• The online application should provide advanced user the ability to customize their virtual connection to cat bed via visual, textual and sound displays. The display should be customizable on multiple levels, via templates for novices, via advanced preferences for intermediate users, and via API for advanced users (with programming/development experise).
  
• System should leverage and interface that is memorable so that users can easily recognize how to carry out activities even after prolonged periods of inactivity.
• System should protect users from common errors, such as accidental temperature changes (e.g. mistakenly turning off heating pad), and limit action for novices to simple activities related to data visualization.
  

Experience Goals:

• Aesthetically Pleasing: what is the users initial response to the cat bed's appearance? Is it one of enjoyment, pleasure, or dislike?
• Delightful: What is users users response to the presence awareness visualizations and alerts? Is it one of delight, surprise, enjoyment, or annoyance?
  
• Rewarding: Does the user suspend disbelief to enable a remote connection to the cat on the bed? Is the user's connection experienced as rewarding, boring, cutesy, or frustrating?
  
• Entertaining: In what ways does the user engage with the cat bed on an ongoing basis? Does s/he feel entertained, satisfied, safe, frustrated, or surprised?
  

The Conceptual Model

The metaphors and analogies: Most important metaphors and analogies that can help user understand what the product can be used for, and how to use it.

The metaphors:

• The main metaphor is closeness, the idea of having your pet close to you wherever you go by receiving updates about their presence and activities on the cad bed.
  
• Another metaphor is connection, the idea of being connected to your pet wherever you go by being able to respond to the cats presence in a way that impacts an aspect of the cad bed (e.g. temperature, light, sound).
  
• Customization is also an important metaphor, the idea of being able to customize how the pet's presence is communicated and how your responses are made manifest by the cat bed.

The analogies:

• The most obvious analogy is using a standard heating pad and cat bed.
  
• Monitoring a home webcam is an useful analogy to describe the presence monitoring feature of the product.
  
• Receiving email and text messages is an useful analogy for the presence alerts.
  
• Setting preferences on web applications such as email clients, social networks, or feed readers is an useful anology for the simple customization features of the system.
  
• Selecting templates is an analogy for the using pre-created set-of-preferences options that are developed based on wide range of themes.
  

The Concepts: Concepts that users are exposed to when using the product, including objects they manipulate, their attributes and actions that can be executed on (and with) them.

Physical Cat Bed and Related Concepts:

• The comfort layer is made up of the outer fabric and soft stuffing that provide comfort and are durable.
• The heating layer includes a safe heating solution that features remote temperature controls that override virtual controls.
• The electronic layer includes the sensors and processors that enables presence awareness by supporting data collection and distribution via wireless connection.
• The protection layer ensures that all elements are kept protect from the environment (including the cat).
  

Cat Bed Application and Related Concepts:

• The communication module is the main user interface. It displays data visualization, alerts and controls. Data visualization includes real time presence monitoring, and over-time data infographics. Alerts include cat zen and standard updates via website (these can also be delivered via a widget on social networks, desktops and mobiles, emails, and SMS). The controls enable users to set the temperature of the cat bed, and activate light/laser or sound. Users can create own cat zen or use existing from other users and product developer.
  
• The preference module allows users to input information about the pet and provides customization options for the communication module, widget, and alerts. Pet information includes such as name, birthday, attitude, likes, dislikes, and picture. Communication options include setting visualization and channel settings for real-time and over-time event updates related to pet's presence, position, movement, and duration. Multiple preference settings can saved as templates and shared with others.
  
• The third module is the database. It captures data from the physical cat bed receives, stores the information in the database, makes it available through an API, and transmits it via built-in channels.
  
• The last module is the API, which enables advanced users to develop extensions to the functionality. All cat bed sensors would be accessible via the API. Applications could be shared online.

The relationships and priorities: Define the relationships between the concepts, for instance whether an object contains another, and the prioritization of possible actions.

Relationships between concepts:

• The cat bed is comprised of four related concepts described above, here is an overview of how they relate to one another: The comfort layer is connected to the electronic layer by the presence of sensors that enable the presence sensing. It is also adjacent to the heat layer, which is responsible for heating the comfort layer to provide a warm environment for the cat. The heating layer is connected to the electronic layer to enable the electronic layer to control the heat settings on the cat bed. A manual override on the cat bed itself ensures that heat settings can be changed directly from the cat bed. The protective layer encases the main components of the electronic layer and the bottom of the cat bed for protection purposes.
  
• The application contains the four related concepts described above, here is an overview of how they relate to one another: the communication module, preferences, database and API. The preferences is part of the communication module. It enables users to customize the how the data captured from the cat bed is displayed via the application interface, widget or alert. The database holds the data and makes it available for existing application and new ones developed via API.

Action priorities for cat bed:

• Priority of action for the cat bed: The bed should usable as a standard pet bed first and foremost; the next most important user action related to the bed is setting and controlling the temperature of the bed (manual temperature settings override application-based ones); this is followed by the ability to activate the electronic layer and link the cat bed to a computer via wireless connection.

Action priorities for communication module from application:

• From a general use perspective, the most important actions afforded to users via the communication module are: (a) first, the ability to easily log-in to his/her pet information; (b) then comes the ability to toggle between real-time and over-time visualizations; (c) next up is the ability to change the visualization style for either real-time or over-time visualizations; (d) then comes the ability to communicate with the cat bed via sound, light or temperature; (e) which is followed by the ability to access the application preferences; (f) then the ability to give thumbs up or down to cat zen haikus; (g) followed by the ability to submit your own haikus; (h) sharing haikus via email, social networks or SMS is next on the action priority list.
  
• From an initial set-up perspective here are the priorities: (a) to allow users to easily connect to their cat bed; (b) provide a wizard that allows users to get started quickly using predefined templates easily, without needing to access detailed preferences.
  

Action priorities for preferences module from application:

• The most important action on the preferences module is setting up of pet information including name, birthday, attitude, likes, dislikes, and picture;
  
• Next up are the preferences related to visualization which include in priority order: (a) setting of awareness preference (what events related to the cat's presence should act as triggers for visualization purposes?); (b) setting and saving channel preferences (what channels should be used for each communication triggered by an event?); (c) setting visualization preferences (how will the communication be presented in each channel?); (d) saving awareness and preference settings into templates that can be easily swapped from the communication module; (e) set cat wisdom preferences (Ability to activate or deactivate? Select haiku library, standard or user generated.); (f) saving cat wisdom preferences into templates; (g) share awareness, preference, and cat haiku templates with other users;
  
• Last are the preferences related to data visualization beyond the application, including: (a) settings for widget-specific preferences; (b) settings for API preferences and authentication.
  

The Mappings: A description of how the concepts described above map to the user experience that the product is designed to create.

• The design and construction of the bed will be guided by aesthetic, sustainability as well as comfort-related considerations. The look and feel of the artifact will be designed to be aesthetically pleasing; the materials and methods used for manufacturing each layer of the beds will be sustainable; the bed will be designed to be comfortable for the cat. These principles aim to provide aesthetically pleasing products on visual, ethical and emotional levels.
  
• The visualizations provided by the application corresponds the different events associated to the cat's presence and activity on the cat bed. Using interesting visualization options to bring the pet's presence to life across physical distances, using both reminders and contextual awareness, will serve to provide delight to users throughout their day.
  
• The controls provided by the application correspond to actions that the user can take to impact the environment of the cat bed. Users will be able to choose between multiple possible actions. These action include but not are limited to the following list: generating a sound, activating a light, changing temperature, activating a webcam. These features aim to provide the user with an interactive experience that is rewarding.
  
• Caring details, such as the cat haiku, and the open API enable the user to interact with the data generated by the cat bed in innovative ways. These features are provided to enable the user to connect with their pet in an entertaining way.
  

A Family of Products
Here are some ether ideas for my fun, and utterly silly, ideas for cyber cat products: the cyber scratching post, and fuzz ball playing field. More to come on these (maybe).

Nokia: Mobile Products for Emerging Markets

During my exploration of design for emerging markets I came across many articles associated to Nokia. These pieces were either written by researchers who had worked for Nokia, or written about projects supported by Nokia. It is obvious that Nokia is one of the technology companies that is most committed to developing solutions for the emerging market. Of course this is not an altruistic-only strategy as great riches await companies that can design products and services that profitably expand the reach of technology to poor communities.

Here is an overview of several interesting and innovative initiatives from Nokia that are related to the design of products and services for emerging market users, and supporting the spread of mobile technology in developing areas.

Nokia Life Tools
“Life Tools” is the first initiative from Nokia that piqued my interest. I learned about it through a post on PSFK in early November. This suite of tools will provide emerging market phone users with access to agriculture and education-related services, helping to connect and ‘empower’ them. Entertainment services will also be available. Soon, many basic Nokia handsets will come with these capabilities pre-loaded, assuming you live in a market where these services are supported. [view an overview about these services from the Nokia website]

This suite of services was designed on an SMS platform to overcome the technological challenges present in rural areas such as the absence of access to the mobile web. This is crucial considering that data services are not available in many of these areas. This solution also enables users to avoid the complexity and high-costs associated to billing of data based services.

It is interesting to see Nokia entering more fully into the services space with this new offering. This is a direction that we have seen some companies pursue on the high-end of the market. For example Apple with its extensive suite of services has for a long time stood for empowerment and freedom. It is interesting to see Nokia leveraging a similar strategy of empowerment that is appropriate for people from the opposite end of the economic continuum. The center of their digital universe is a cell phone rather than a MacBook, iPhone or Blackberry.

According to Ken Banks this initiative from Nokia is “a move that mirrors the company's "developed world" strategy -- a move from out-and-out hardware supplier to one of a more inclusive services-based outfit. As if (very) successfully designing and building low-cost handsets for emerging markets wasn't enough, Nokia will now start offering emerging-market specific data services through its low-cost phones.” [read the full article here]


Nokia Siemens Networks Village Connection
The Networks Village Connection is another interesting and innovative product from Nokia that is designed for emerging markets. This technology was developed to enable mobile networks to extend into rural areas beyond the reach of conventional networks. It uses modular and compact GSM Access Points that can be owned and managed by a local entrepreneur or by an existing mobile provider. [read more about this technology on the Nokia website]

Expanding Horizons
Nokia even publishes a magazine related to opportunities associated to consumer telecommunications in emerging markets, this magazine is called Expanding Horizons. Here is an overview about this magazine from its own site: "Expanding Horizons is a quarterly publication aimed at ICT decision-makers in the private and public sectors. It explores the socio-economic benefits that mobile technology offers as well as best practices from around the world in order to encourage affordable mobile communications and bring Internet to the next billion consumers. It also shows how to create a favorable environment for market growth." [read it online here]

More than anything this magazine demonstrates that Nokia’s focus on emerging markets is driven by business considerations. This is expected and I don’t think it is a bad thing. Nokia is helping to increase the reach of communication technology to a whole new group of people who were previously ignored due to profitability considerations. If they continue to design services that empower people, like Life Tools, then this relationship should benefit both parties: Nokia and other telecom companies, and more importantly, people from emerging markets.

The February issue from this custom publication features an interesting article about bringing the internet to the next billion users. This article demonstrates that Nokia has a solid understanding of business opportunities, economic challenges and social and cultural nuances that impact the design and adoption of technology in emerging markets. [read full article]

In this article they highlight two important aspects distinctions in the way that the internet will be adopted by the next billion people. These differences focus are related to “how” and “why” technology is adopted; both factors that have a large impact on design of appropriate services:

• Internet adoption will be driven via the mobile handset, as opposed to the desktop or laptop computer. “The sheer cost-effectiveness and convenience of mobile technologies will prove decisive. Mobile devices are pervasive, with penetration growing at a rapid pace.”
• The specific needs of people in emerging market will drive creation of new services, not available in advanced markets. “The internet for the next billion consumers will be very different to the services prevalent in advanced markets… The mass of consumers in emerging markets lives in semi-urban and rural areas. Villages are far apart. A trip to the city is a big event in many people’s lives. We need to understand that their context is highly local.”

Closing the Digital Divide
Ken Banks brought up an interesting dilemma related to these prophesies of internet adoption in emerging markets from Nokia and other handset makers. Ken questions the way these companies talk about the mobile phone helping close the digital divide. He points out that mobile phones are relatively cheap devices, provide instant voice communications and SMS functionality, and offer the potential to provide access to the internet. However, many of these functionalities are not available in the handsets available to low-income users in emerging markets. Internet specifically tends to not be accessible on the low-cost phones sold in developing nations.

This issue is caused by the fact that “many people make a huge assumption about the technologies available to users in developing countries.” According to Ken “if we’re serious about using mobile to help close the digital divide, how about diverting international development funding towards providing a subsidised, fully-internet ready handset for developing markets?” Interesting question indeed. [read his full article here]