FEATURE INTERFACES
Interface Schools
Mobile devices have come a long way from their walkie-talkie wartime roots, and the user interfaces have come further in a far shorter time. Touchscreens are all the rage today but, in the future, where will the user interface reside?
By Dawinderpal Sahota
powered, backpack-mounted, two-way radio, called the ‘Handie-Talkie’ for the US military in the 1940s. It was credited as being the world’s first mobile phone. It wasn’t until 1979, however, that mobile handsets became commercially available to consumers, when Japanese mobile operator NTT created the world’s first automated cellular network covering the population of Tokyo. Mobile phones have come a long way since
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then. We’ve seen manufacturers add colour screens, cameras, personalised ringtones, Bluetooth and messaging. Today’s smart- phones have internet connectivity, touch- screens, dedicated application stores and developer ecosystems—but what can we expect to see in the next stage of evolution in the mobile phone industry? Perhaps the most crucial aspect in the ad-
vancement of mobile handsets is the growing dependency of consumers on these devices as a multipurpose communications tool. People are using phones not only to communicate by voice, but also by SMS, email and social networks. In many developed markets, smartphones are a lynchpin of the consumer lifestyle, whether to keep users informed of global news, updates from social networks, entertainment through
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he Second World War saw the first use of transmission of speech by radio, when Motorola developed a battery-
games, music and video, or by providing an endless array of apps, from those that are use- ful to our everyday lives, to those suited purely to idle procrastination. Mobile handsets are arguably the most important object in people’s lives, and the chances are they will become even more important in the future. Gus Desbarats has won an array of creative design awards for his work in developing new handset concepts. He is also a futurologist and chairman of industrial design agency TheAlloy. Speaking to MCI he says that one of the most important aspects of the next wave of handsets to enter the market will be how they integrate users’ “important but simple information”. “Mobile wallets will take off to facilitate in-
store and online payments, we’ll see handsets being used for identification purposes, and even for access keys – such as house keys. And they’ll also be important for ticketing, being used as rail or bus tickets,” he says. This evolution marks the changing nature of the mobile phone. No longer is the design of the hardware the most influential or crucial factor in consumers’ minds when they buy a new hand- set, as, beyond the inclusion of a touchscreen, the user experience is almost exclusively defined by what is offered on the software side. The difference between smartphones and feature phones is more than just the form factor, but the access to sophisticated operating systems
and their ecosystems, with app stores, internet browsers, and content and contact synching. And with the rise of cloud services, handset design could begin to take even more of a back seat, as devices begin to serve merely as an access portal to the cloud. As this evolution takes place, one argument is that, rather than have one smartphone that encompasses all of the functionalities that a user needs, consum- ers will be more interested in possessing a variety of devices with different screen sizes. “What will become important is screen size, and that will depend on what information you’re accessing,” Desbarats says. “Yes, there will be more people watching TV on small form factors, but I think you’re going to see just a greater diversity of form factors. We’re seeing that already with the iPhone and iPad. People are simply consuming content on the form factor that makes sense.” However, handset manufacturers are not
about to sit back and let software providers define the mobile phones of the new era. De- vice manufacturers have also invested heavily in research and development to ensure that consumers opt for their particular brand. Manufacturers are fast approaching the time
when they will have to entice users with new de- signs, and they may need to move away from the now common 3.5-4in, touchscreen device, popu- larised by the first iPhone. In the short-term, »
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