[Sigia-l] Decent exposure
Arthur Fink
arthur at arthurfink.com
Fri Jan 12 04:52:46 EST 2007
At 10:42 PM 1/11/2007, Ziya Oz wrote:
>As one of the remaining 17 people on the planet who can afford a cellphone
>but never owned one, I'm anxiously waiting for the actual availability of
>the iPhone.
And I may be one of those 23 people who do own a cellphone and am
delighted to have it be just that. It's a way for my wife to reach
me as I'm walking for the boat heading home so that she can divert me
to the fish market, for me to call a client when I'm lost on the
highway, for a friend to find me at a crowded gathering. I'm not
wanting it to be an email client, a web browser, a camera, or anything else.
You may say that I'm acting the role of the Luddite. Perhaps so,
although I've plenty of hi-tech gadgets, and spend more than enough
time with them. But my life is ordered, and I don't feel that I have
the emotional energy to deal with more than a phone in the cases I've
described. In fact, I'm sure that I could -- rationally. But
emotionally ... a certain distance from integrated connectivity seems
refreshing.
What does this mean to designers (like me)? If you're going to
design a tool to integrate my technical connectivity, would you
please also design some life patterns so that I can handle this new
arrangement. Give me some productive models that feel.
Recently I had dinner with an old friend -- now bluetooth
equipped. One minute he was with me, then his phone rang (silently),
and he was with somebody else. It was disorienting, to say the
least. I resist.
In my work, I welcome user resistance. When it comes to the fore,
it's usually expressive of real concerns, real fears, real issues
that need to be addressed. We ignore our users at our peril. And
when we address their cognitive ability but ignore their emotional
state ... we're ignoring them.
Arthur Fink
P.S. I AM dying to see an iPhone, expecting another example of
beautiful functional product design.
ARTHUR FINK Consulting arthur at arthurfink.com
---------------------------------------------
Ten New Island Avenue Listening to users
Peaks Island, Maine 04108 Designing for people
www.ArthurFink.com User interfaces that work
207.766.5722 cell 207.615.5722 Progress training + consulting
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