Contextualising Mobile Presence with Digital Images

A series of Swarm mobile phone prototypes have been developed in response to the user needs identified in a three-year empirical study of young people’s use of mobile phones. The prototypes take cues from user led innovation and provide multiple avatars that allow individuals to define and manage their own virtual identity. This paper briefly maps the evolution of the prototypes and then describes how the pre-defined, color coded avatars in the latest version of the Swarm are being given greater context and personalization through the use of digital images

3G Multimedia Content Production as Social Communication

Mobile phone ownership presents users with the opportunity to regularly update others of their actions through the digital documentation and circulation of their experiences. There is a sense that an event is not complete until it is shared through text, voice or images. A study of 35 users aged 18- 30, conducted for the Smart Internet Technology CRC revealed that when members of a social group cannot be together physically, circulating digitised accounts of an activity becomes an authentic way to share the event. Furthermore, the study indicated that with the convergence of 3G mobile phones, digital cameras and the Internet, users are taking advantage of the best of all three communication channels to create, circulate, distribute and archive content in new and dynamic ways. Through this process users are creating the ‘ideal digital self’ by which to communicate. However, the effectiveness of these new practices is eroded by specific design and technological limitations, thus a distinct set of user problems emerged. This paper illustrates how the Trophy Room scenario, which is a 3G phone and web application was developed to address the user needs identified in the study

A young nomad's guide to new digital terrains

In the early twenty first century, the mobile phone plays an integral role in helping young people shape their identity and achieve social goals. This means that designers of mobile phones are not only creating an artefact that will have a functional purpose for the end user, but one that will be saturated with cultural meanings. In response, the research conducted for this thesis aims to investigate the use of mobile phones in youth cultures so the social and cultural intricacies of interactions can be understood. Consistent with a user centred design approach, the insights from the user study are applied to the development of new technology. The result is the development of The Swarm; a mobile phone prototype that meets the specific social and cultural needs of the young users in the study. Integral to this is the development of a methodological approach that embeds cultural t heory within Human Computer Interaction and more specifically, the user centred design process

Abstract 3G Multimedia Content Production as Social Communication

Young people are taking advantage of the ever-increasing accessibility and technical capabilities of 3G phones and the Internet to represent their experiences through multimedia content. However, this practice is inhibited by design shortcomings which don’t adequately protect the privacy of content, problemitise content management and which limit distribution. This paper explores how possible design solutions were envisioned thorough the use of a scenario, called the Trophy Room

Keywords 3G MULTIMEDIA CONTENT PRODUCTION AS SOCIAL COMMUNICATION

Young people are taking advantage of the ever-increasing accessibility and technical capabilities of 3G phones and the Internet to represent their experiences through multimedia content. However, this practice is inhibited by design shortcomings which don’t adequately protect the privacy of content, problemitise content management and which limit distribution. This paper explores how possible design solutions were envisioned thorough the use of a scenario, called the Trophy Room. Multimedia content production, privacy, archiving, distribution, 3G phones