The MOTOFONE handset redefines wireless communication with high design, smart features and easy functionality at a low price. (…) the MOTOFONE enables even the newest phone users to embrace mobile communication with confidence and style.
I first saw them last month in London on Oliver Ueberholz hands and it immediately surprised me for it’s simple design and size! The best part was still to come, the price tag, apparently this gadgets sell by 20 euros in some european countries! Since they’re not available here in Portugal, I asked Colin to buy me one! I could write a long and sour post on why such equipment did get to Portugal, but I’ll refrain myself for now…
First impressions: the phone is slick and trendy, the screen isn’t a traditional one, it’s a EPD display, meaning it’s just black & white and only requires energy to update the screen.
In this post-feature era, when a product would reach the mark by adding extra-features, having a phone that does just what most of us really need: phone-calls (and SMS), is to say the least, refreshing! Incredibly I wonder how many people these days do use the extra features that come with the all-in-one top gear phone they just bought! And don’t get me wrong, I have an iPhone for some time from which I probably drain as much as I can, but that’s not the subject of this post, and I’m not the traditional user either.
The phone it’s (ridiculously) cheap:2015 euros!, unlocked from a specific network! Its battery last long enough for a short trip - Colin charge it before we met in Copenhagen and I’ve use it without recharge for almost a week, impressive to say the least, no? (didn’t have much calls on that specific number but nevertheless).
All in all, the phone is impressive EXCEPT for the total lack of usability I’d say. It has been a long time since my last Motorola, but they haven’t changed much in User Centered Design! I see myself as one expert user, not the typical user, and when someone like myself finds it hard to interact with something, I guess it can’t mean good! For instance, on a mobile phone, its pretty common, almost standard in fact, that when see green, it means ‘yes’/'ok’/etc. and the opposite, red means ‘no’/'cancel’/etc. well, they have it all right but they still managed to introduce one extra key for OK! I found it extremely confusing and prone to error… still on keyboard design, the phone has one middle directional button, but with no clear cue, on what to expect on it’s different directions (axis)… The screen is limited, there’s no clear perception on what sits where and the text is limited to a short part of the screen turning vertical into horizontal scrolling.
All in all, I think it’s a great concept, but lacking in details! Since we don’t have them in Portugal and if someone want’s to poke on it, ping me!
UPDATE: apparently this same mobile phone has been on sale in Portugal, never seen it, but according to this, it has been…
Still recovery from a tremendous (and the funniest possible) fall down the stairs at SAPO Unplugged 08! To anyone attending (me included) it was one of those memorable moments that it will be hard to forget! Thankfully all I got was some bruises and some pain (which hasn’t yet entirely gone), but other than that I’m ok!
I think it was a nice opportunity to talk about Usability. Some trends, applications and side-effects of it’s use in the development process. Something we don’t get to talk about enough!
SAPO unplugged was an opportunity to see the work in progress of Pedro Branco from the Minho University about facial expression usage as a form of human-machine interaction.
Óscar Mealha and Florim from the hosting University of Aveiro presented their work in progress for a software application aiming to help measure and analyze the underlining structure of websites, a powerful tool i’d say to help correct and perfect user navigation across websites, minimizing critical paths while optimizing the overall user experience with less clicks and choices!
Henning Fischer from Adaptive Path was in charge with the keynote and we give an inspiring presentation entitled “Stop Designing Products” which wasn’t entirely about usability but an important call for action in achieving better and more engaging user experiences with the products and systems we design and develop!
Last but not least! Bruno Figueiredo and Ivo Gomes completed the program and delivered two very interesting presentations, Bruno presented and explained some of the decisions behind the project that produced the latest SAPO Homepage. Ivo showed up the power and easiness of paper prototyping and how easy and power it is for software and products development.
I talked briefly about the undergoing quality and usability project at SAPO for which I’m currently responsible, about it’s goals and how it’s being applied.
I hope those who managed to attend it liked it as much as I did, and might have taken something back to their works other than a good laugh about the falling “star”
É o primeiro de vários eventos que o SAPO irá organizar fora de ‘casa’ e abertos a todos os que desejem participar, que é o mesmo que dizer que a entrada é gratuita.
O primeiro SAPO Unplugged é já na próxima semana em na Reitoria da Universidade de Aveiro e o tema escolhido foi Usabilidade, um tema que consideramos ser hoje um dos mais importantes para o nosso trabalho enquanto portal web.
Por isso convido todos os interessados a juntarem-se a nós, e aproveito para vos deixar algumas referências sobre os respectivos oradores:
Offffirst day was so amazingly intense the the second day gone thru lightning fast and as I start writing this notes I’m already about half of the third day, so I just decided to sum all my notes from this two last days in one post.
KarlssonWilker - this guys made me have one of the best laughable moments of OFFF, their trip to Serbia and the whole plot around them was and is movie material! Jesus, how wrong can you be when you first overlook a project. One of the things I liked about them, was the way they started and addressed the ‘bumps’ on the road, the shortness of ‘resources’ and how they creatively resolved each of them. You can see their work here, and one of you’ll probably recognize immediately is the MTV orbs:
Andy Cameron (interviewed by Régine Debatty) - Andy’s work precedes him, but his mostly known this days by being the creative director of Fabrica (the Benetton research center in Treviso, Italy). One of the things that got my attention was his idea about collaborative art works and getting people to participate in their works, his idea of augmented spaces and the overall idea of how playfulness is THE primary form of interaction really make a lot of sense and I confess he just made it to may Playful Interactions presentation that I’ve been working on. Régine blogged about her interview here, so if you’d like to know a bit more I strongly recommend it’s reading.
Although I actually enjoyed the Interaction Design Panel I honestly think they got the name of panel wrong, should have been Interactive Design Panel and not Interaction Design, since there’s a great gap between Interaction and Interactive
Some of the works presented were really interesting, Andreas Muller (Nanika) presentation, he talked and show several amazing ideas for dynamic and interactive visualizations where people can take part of the images and have some control over what they’re watching. I found particularly interesting his work’s for Nokia with the moving (ephemera) messages. One other project I liked in his presentation was his idea of teaching a computer how to draw, Andreas coded a program - Hana that allows the computer to draw flowers without any bitmap whatsoever, and the final result is something of amazing!
Rob Chiu, Chris Hewitt and Ben Boysen - WOW!!!! ok… and then again WOW.. this guys rock! They work separately from each-other and they still manage to have some amazing work, It’s hard to actually write about any of their projects I think I really enjoyed them all, but there’s one that really got me, Rob’s work about the refugees - ‘Black Day to Freedom‘:
One interesting thing I found out later going thru their blogs was they were the ones who did the amazing video for the SF FOWA that everyone was amazed by.
Fallon, responsible for the amazing Sony Bravia’s color campaign videos had a very interesting presentation (pity they didn’t cite the sources of some of their slides - Steven Johnson and his TV shows networks theory for example), nevertheless I really liked their presentation and in particular their 4 rules to get GOOD ideas:
Find the right problems to solve
Make Space
Find the skills you might not have
Keep the Faith
The all presentation seem to evolve around ideas which makes sense since their business is all about getting good ideas or they wouldn’t be a creative agency right? Some interesting aspects of this presentation was how some of the best ad campaigns they had reallllly relied on the web as a distribution channel achieving strength as never before.
MiniVegas was one of the most amazing projects I’ve seen in all OFFF, they’ve managed to create a system that allows for real time video interaction. They showcased several examples of it’s use, namely the S4C interlude messages, where the pitch of the speaker voice actually changed the video you’d see, so each message actually randomize a video scene making it different every-time! Nothing like having a look at it (click to see some demos):
Offf is off by the time I’m finishing up this post, but I’m really looking forward for next year edition, it certainly wasn’t low on expectations and it it managed to surprised me with all the amazing ideas and works that I got from it, to all the organizers a bit THANK YOU!
I’ve just got home, but my mind is still wondering on all the visual input it has been submitted today! It’s as if a part of my brain has just been upgraded to the speedy lane! It’s still wondering on fluid animations, particle simulations, typography, colors, dynamics…
Offf’s first day was impressive! And the funniest thing is that it all started the minute I parked my car! I was running late and didn’t even bothered to check the exact street of it, so I ended up arriving without a clue of the Offf’s venue place (exact) location! Once I got out from the parking lot and onto the street something remarkable happened, I noticed how some people in the plaza were moving towards a particularly tiny street, I decided to follow and this was the image that stayed with me until now of the very beginning… can quite explain but all people moving towards a same destination, impelled by a common desire (reach Offf as soon as possible got imprinted in my mind as one of those compelling moments.
The first few minutes/hour didn’t go as expected, the sound was poorly distributed and at some point I could only feel that I was in class with Charlie Brown. Thankfully the day was just about to start and I certainly wasn’t ready for what would come next.
I’ll just take a few seconds to write a bit about some of my personal highlights of the day:
TYPEFACES PANEL - got a lesson about typography like I’ve hopping to get for a long, looooong time…
ERIC NATZKE - Eric’s presentation was the one who got me into the mood, I had barely arrived, got a few things from the typographic panel, and then BOOM… Eric started showing of his particles generators, than ribbons and waves and although my belly was begging for food my eyes and mind were drowning video compositions of generative art, amazing. I recorded two small videos from his presentation ending video:
Simply mind blowing!
JOSHUA DAVIS - a true case where the rumour doesn’t reach any close to the man. Joshua is an amazing and engaging speaker and even after all the nice things I had heard about him and his work, I confess I had a great time during is presentation and after an hour I was definitly begging for more! Joshua work is inspiring and some of the gold rules with which he ended his presentation are still echoing on the back of my mind.
The Mercadillo idea is amazing and I’m even surprised how I hadn’t seen it in other kind-of/alike events. Managed to spend some money and regret for not having more with me at the time. Spoted a Buddha Machine’s and a great 1976 t-shirt that I hope to get tomorrow…
Still recovery from a tremendous (and the funniest possible) fall down the stairs at 
