DFIM PROTOTYPE MOTOROLA L6

DESIGN FOR INTERACTIVE MEDIA

MOTOROLA L6


The Motorola l6 is a conventional phone, like any others, if performs many tasks in a big range of possibilities. It calls, which is its main task, it also sends text messages and takes video, apart from many other options. But how can we make it better? Well let’s think about the things that it cannot perform other things that are useful and possible these days. If we think what mobile phones are made for, the general idea is communication, between people, or between machines, so if we are going to look for future technology applied to the phone, we ought to think about new or improved forms of communication.
The Motorola l6 has a camera that alouds taking videos and pictures, interesting features, but that not improve communication. If we can use the phone’s camera for something more than that, we’ll be increasing the phones’ communication features. What about the intended user? Anyone can realise that being able to see the person you are speaking to is much better than if you can’t. So this new improvement is really intended for any body that uses mobile phones, and not like other applications a phone may have, that may be good for some kind of people but useless for others.
After asking to three people that I think are representative of general population such as:
My father: 60 years old, has had a mobile phone for over the last ten years and just knows how to call and store telephone numbers. He uses it for work and family calls.
My younger brother: 11 years old, never had a phone but knows how to use them all quiet well. He uses it for fun.
My sister: 27 years old, she has had many different phones for the last 6 years. She uses it for work, family and friends, and for fun.

My results have been definitive after making them a few questions over the phone:
1. what do you think that the main objective is of mobile phones?
a. to communicate b. to obtain information c. to have in case of emergency
2. what is the thing they most do with the phone?
a. speak b. messages (any kind of way, i.e. Bluetooth, internet) c. entertainment (multimedia, games)
3. what would they prefer having a modification on?
a. speaking b. messaging c. entertainment
4. in what personal context would they prefer that the phone innovation helped them?
a. work b. pleasure c. solving problems
5. personal opinion of what they would modify counting the options they took

1 2 3 4 5
Father A A A B “something that improves or makes speaking easier”
Brother A C C B “games, music and video”
Sister A A A B “videoconference”

These answers reaffirm the idea that I had in mind, which was Video Conference Application.



Now that we have an idea for developing, we have to think in how doing it, considering:
Do we wont to make it useful for people, easy to use, easy to find?
Do we need to change the physical aspect of the phone?
Do we need to change the software?


If the videoconference is the new application for our phone, we’ve got to give it a privileged place in it, making able to access it quick and easily by putting or modifying buttons to get a direct access. In the case of the Motorola l6, by the sides of the screens, it has two buttons; the left one puts you in straight in to the Internet, while the right one takes you to the video taping application. My idea was to use this button, not only for getting access to the videoconference, but to all the multimedia browser. Right now, if you press the side button, the video recorder gets ready to start taping. In the prototype, when the right side button is clicked, the multimedia menu would appear, giving access with the directional buttons to the application the customer desires. After selecting the videoconference option, the screen would change showing the agenda or asking you to introduce a telephone number, then just got to press the confirmation button and start speaking. But if the user happens to have purchased the phone recently, and still doesn’t know all the functionalities and shortcuts, the access through the main menu has to be clear, so once the central button has been pushed, the main menu displays showing all the different applications by symbolic icons, being the multimedia one, the
one on the bottom left shown as a 16 millimetre negative with the play symbol on it and a musical note, and when it is selected by the directional buttons of the central panel, the symbol starts moving. This representation is good for the actual phone settings, but doesn’t really give a clue that inside it there is a videoconference application. So that logo should change in order to make it clearer. Instead of that, the logical thing to put would be a little camera logo with a musical note on it so when somebody has a look at it, the thought that they get is that inside there are different kind of multimedia devices apart of the videoconference application. But since everything needs of testing in order to get feedback, I designed a logo and put it in the same place where the old multimedia one was, and emailed it to my father, sister and brother asking them where did they think that the videoconference application was. The three of them had no doubt and replied to me with the correct answer.




For this to happen, the phone’s structure has to change so it can fit a camera on the front to make possible a videoconference in which the two people speaking can see and be sawn at the same time. The actual design of the phone is just perfect for making this change since its got a silver circle on the top of the phone with the Motorola symbol that could be replaced by a small camera just the same as the one on the back part, and since the phone has Motorola written above the screen, the phone wouldn’t loose its identity, besides, the phone already has that symbol on the back part of the phone in the centre.



Now lets think about the interface of the videoconference application. Once that you have got inside it, and that you’ve selected whom do you want to speak to, the conversation is started, but how should it be displayed? Instead of showing in full screen the person that you’re speaking to, I thought about a web cam Messenger interface where you can see the person you’re speaking to in a screen, but also you can see your self on a smaller screen next to it, and this is because you need to see your self correctly fitted in the cameras’ angle of vision. But now the challenge comes in fitting two screens plus an extra place for information of the call its self in a tiny phone screen that is about two and a half centimetres wide and four centimetres high. Maybe we could divide the screen in two halves with an extra part between them where the info would be displayed, but there is a problem with this way of fitting the screen, because it doesn’t matter whether you divide them horizontally or vertically, the screens are going to be long and narrow rather than squared which is the format the camera takes. So the way it has to be done is by using two squares, a nice and big one on the top left corner which will show the person that you are speaking to, and an other quiet smaller, that would be fit in the bottom right, showing yourself. I reckon using different sizes is a much better idea, because you use the big one to see the person that you wont to see, so the most important thing is shown in the best place. Then next to the screen, the remaining space would be separated in two little boxes, one on top of the other, showing in the first box the signal intensity, and in the second one, a few horizontal lines together forming an inverted cone would be the volume level. Underneath the big screen and to the left of the small one, other two boxes would take the space left and they would tell us information related to the conversation’s time, and the agenda in the other, in order to be able to get a telephone number while speaking. Now with the joystick of the central button panel of the phone, you should be able to select any of the two screens, the volume or the agenda, enabling the screens to change size or position, the volume to put it how you like best, or the searching of telephones or addresses, to adapt to every ones necessities.

DFIM PROTOTYPE MOTOROLA L6

DESIGN FOR INTERACTIVE MEDIA

MOTOROLA L6


The Motorola l6 is a conventional phone, like any others, if performs many tasks in a big range of possibilities. It calls, which is its main task, it also sends text messages and takes video, apart from many other options. But how can we make it better? Well let’s think about the things that it cannot perform other things that are useful and possible these days. If we think what mobile phones are made for, the general idea is communication, between people, or between machines, so if we are going to look for future technology applied to the phone, we ought to think about new or improved forms of communication.
The Motorola l6 has a camera that alouds taking videos and pictures, interesting features, but that not improve communication. If we can use the phone’s camera for something more than that, we’ll be increasing the phones’ communication features. What about the intended user? Anyone can realise that being able to see the person you are speaking to is much better than if you can’t. So this new improvement is really intended for any body that uses mobile phones, and not like other applications a phone may have, that may be good for some kind of people but useless for others.
After asking to three people that I think are representative of general population such as:
My father: 60 years old, has had a mobile phone for over the last ten years and just knows how to call and store telephone numbers. He uses it for work and family calls.
My younger brother: 11 years old, never had a phone but knows how to use them all quiet well. He uses it for fun.
My sister: 27 years old, she has had many different phones for the last 6 years. She uses it for work, family and friends, and for fun.

My results have been definitive after making them a few questions over the phone:
1. what do you think that the main objective is of mobile phones?
a. to communicate b. to obtain information c. to have in case of emergency
2. what is the thing they most do with the phone?
a. speak b. messages (any kind of way, i.e. Bluetooth, internet) c. entertainment (multimedia, games)
3. what would they prefer having a modification on?
a. speaking b. messaging c. entertainment
4. in what personal context would they prefer that the phone innovation helped them?
a. work b. pleasure c. solving problems
5. personal opinion of what they would modify counting the options they took

1 2 3 4 5
Father A A A B “something that improves or makes speaking easier”
Brother A C C B “games, music and video”
Sister A A A B “videoconference”

These answers reaffirm the idea that I had in mind, which was Video Conference Application.

Now that we have an idea for developing, we have to think in how doing it, considering:
Do we wont to make it useful for people, easy to use, easy to find?
Do we need to change the physical aspect of the phone?
Do we need to change the software?


If the videoconference is the new application for our phone, we’ve got to give it a privileged place in it, making able to access it quick and easily by putting or modifying buttons to get a direct access. In the case of the Motorola l6, by the sides of the screens, it has two buttons; the left one puts you in straight in to the Internet, while the right one takes you to the video taping application. My idea was to use this button, not only for getting access to the videoconference, but to all the multimedia browser. Right now, if you press the side button, the video recorder gets ready to start taping. In the prototype, when the right side button is clicked, the multimedia menu would appear, giving access with the directional buttons to the application the customer desires. After selecting the videoconference option, the screen would change showing the agenda or asking you to introduce a telephone number, then just got to press the confirmation button and start speaking. But if the user happens to have purchased the phone recently, and still doesn’t know all the functionalities and shortcuts, the access through the main menu has to be clear, so once the central button has been pushed, the main menu displays showing all the different applications by symbolic icons, being the multimedia one, the
one on the bottom left shown as a 16 millimetre negative with the play symbol on it and a musical note, and when it is selected by the directional buttons of the central panel, the symbol starts moving. This representation is good for the actual phone settings, but doesn’t really give a clue that inside it there is a videoconference application. So that logo should change in order to make it clearer. Instead of that, the logical thing to put would be a little camera logo with a musical note on it so when somebody has a look at it, the thought that they get is that inside there are different kind of multimedia devices apart of the videoconference application. But since everything needs of testing in order to get feedback, I designed a logo and put it in the same place where the old multimedia one was, and emailed it to my father, sister and brother asking them where did they think that the videoconference application was. The three of them had no doubt and replied to me with the correct answer.



For this to happen, the phone’s structure has to change so it can fit a camera on the front to make possible a videoconference in which the two people speaking can see and be sawn at the same time. The actual design of the phone is just perfect for making this change since its got a silver circle on the top of the phone with the Motorola symbol that could be replaced by a small camera just the same as the one on the back part, and since the phone has Motorola written above the screen, the phone wouldn’t loose its identity, besides, the phone already has that symbol on the back part of the phone in the centre.



Now lets think about the interface of the videoconference application. Once that you have got inside it, and that you’ve selected whom do you want to speak to, the conversation is started, but how should it be displayed? Instead of showing in full screen the person that you’re speaking to, I thought about a web cam Messenger interface where you can see the person you’re speaking to in a screen, but also you can see your self on a smaller screen next to it, and this is because you need to see your self correctly fitted in the cameras’ angle of vision. But now the challenge comes in fitting two screens plus an extra place for information of the call its self in a tiny phone screen that is about two and a half centimetres wide and four centimetres high. Maybe we could divide the screen in two halves with an extra part between them where the info would be displayed, but there is a problem with this way of fitting the screen, because it doesn’t matter whether you divide them horizontally or vertically, the screens are going to be long and narrow rather than squared which is the format the camera takes. So the way it has to be done is by using two squares, a nice and big one on the top left corner which will show the person that you are speaking to, and an other quiet smaller, that would be fit in the bottom right, showing yourself. I reckon using different sizes is a much better idea, because you use the big one to see the person that you wont to see, so the most important thing is shown in the best place. Then next to the screen, the remaining space would be separated in two little boxes, one on top of the other, showing in the first box the signal intensity, and in the second one, a few horizontal lines together forming an inverted cone would be the volume level. Underneath the big screen and to the left of the small one, other two boxes would take the space left and they would tell us information related to the conversation’s time, and the agenda in the other, in order to be able to get a telephone number while speaking. Now with the joystick of the central button panel of the phone, you should be able to select any of the two screens, the volume or the agenda, enabling the screens to change size or position, the volume to put it how you like best, or the searching of telephones or addresses, to adapt to every ones necessities.