From the archives - It's Throw Back Thursday time again

So this time ten years ago, I was just back from my second visit to The Electric Picnic in Ireland. By all accounts, I'd had a fab time despite rain and the ensuing mud. My review of the weekend is here.

Location Based Services

Meanwhile, 10 years ago, DoCoMo was trialling in-mall location based marketing. It's weird that this was 6 years AFTER we'd done this at ZagMe and even weirder is that it was 10 years ago and we're only just beginning to see location based services (or proximity as it's known now) come to fruition. Brand Republic wrote a half decent piece on the potential of mobile for marketing and advertising. Remember, this is pre iPhone App Store days and Nokia was the best selling manufacturer by a country mile.

Branded TV Channels

In September 2006, Anheuser Busch announced they were setting up and investing US$30 million in their own TV channel for Budweiser drinkers called Bud.TV. 10 years ago, this was forward thinking and arguably, ahead of its time as it closed down in 2009 as they deemed it too expensive to sustain and the audience couldn't easily access it. Critics suggested that it closed down as the content wasn't relevant and limited in its appeal. More on the demise of Bud.TV and other branded content channels here.I would suggest that timing is key. Branded channels per se are not necessarily a bad idea. Look at the content that Red Bull comes up with that now hits mainstream TV. Bud.TV may just have been ahead of its time.

Design

Stephanie and Bryan Rieger are long-serving designers and mobilists. They are mavens of what works in mobile design and this presentation, 'Letting Go', from 5 years ago is well worth a look to remind you of what's what in mobile design. It's also a lesson in how to create beautiful presentations. 

But what about the children?

Throughout my time in mobile, there have been people thinking about how to use mobile devices to monitor and track where their kids are. They are generally a terrible idea - if a teen wants to escape your digital clutches, they are more than capable of doing that with or without the fancy tracker you've bought. I'm not really sure why they keep resurfacing. However, this one that friend and mobile ally, Carlo Longino, wrote about back in 2004 takes the biscuit name-wise. Read all about 'TeenArriveAlive.com' over on Mobhappy. It's a great takedown and well worth a read.

More from the archives soon!

Learn about Accessibility in London on Thursday

Yes, it’s short notice, but one of the speakers of my accessibility sessions from a few year’s back is having an open learning day on Thursday 21st May at his company’s offices in East London.

Professor Jonathan Hassell and Christine Hemphill are the founders of Open Inclusion which is a digital accessibility, US and innovation consultancy. They help clients make beautifully inclusive products – better by design, for better user experiences for all and better business.

Jonathan impressed me with his knowledge and engaging way of sharing that knowledge in the session he did for me all that time ago. That’s why I’m sure his Global Accessibility Awareness Day sessions will be well worth attending. And not only that, they’re free to attend. You can pick and choose which sessions you want to attend. The action starts at 11am and goes on throughout the day covering a variety of topics related to accessibility and design.

More information and RSVP here.

More about Open Inclusion and the work they do here.

Brand Perfect Tour hits San Francisco

I’m very pleased to tell you that I will shortly be heading to San Francisco, on of my favourite cities to visit, and while I’m there, I will be one of the facilitators at the Brand Perfect Tour event on 8 May 2012. I was involved in the London event last year and this time, we’re in search of seamless brand experiences on mobile. The event is aimed at brands, retailers, media owners, agencies and developers. And whether you’re a veteran or a newbie to this world of mobile marketing, you’re sure to get something out of it. With a mix of keynotes, discussion and hands-on exercises, there’s plenty to get your teeth into.

We’ll be talking with major brands, agencies and expert developers about where opportunity in the mobile channel really lies:

• How should a brand view the mobile channel in their marketing mix?
• What are the challenges and rewards?
• What are the success stories that show the way forward?
• How do you plan and implement a mobile strategy to reach the mass market that’s on-brand?
• What are the technologies involved and what can brand owners expect to be able to deliver?

Then put it all together by working in cross-disciplinary teams with your peers covering the business, design and development elements of creating a mobile experience based on a real brand brief. You'll not only have plenty of great ideas by the end of the day; you'll have made a lot of new friends tool.

The event is free for brands, retailers and media owners to attend.

If you're an agency or developer and you bring a brand buddy with you, then you both attend for free.

If you're a journalist or blogger and would like to cover the event, please get in touch with me for a press pass. I have a few available. Otherwise, the ticket price is USD395

Registration is required: http://www.brandperfect-tour.com/events/next-stop-on-the-tour/

Spread the word and see you there! You’ll also find Brand Perfect Tour on Facebook, the event is also listed on Facebook and LinkedIn to make it easy for you to add to your calendar and share with friends and colleagues. And you can follow the twitter action here.

Oh, and there are some super pictures from the London event in November for you below from photographer Paul Clarke. And you can view some of the London presentations here.

Created with flickr slideshow.

Food for thought from Yiibu

I love Yiibu’s Bryan and Stephanie Rieger’s presentations. They always provide so much food for thought. This is their latest one about letting go which was presented at DConstruct in Brighton today. I defy you not to get something out of flicking through this presentation – not least it’s been put together so beautifully. And it’s essential viewing (and thinking) for mobile designers, developers and entrepreneurs.

Letting Go

View more presentations from yiibu

Links & food for thought from August

A tweet got me thinking… ‘Are we paying more attention to recharging our devices rather than our relationships’. Hmm. That gave me food for thought all right as I sit here looking at half a dozen devices strewn on my desk.

New software predicts crime before it happens. Yup, it’s Minority Report for real. http://singularityhub.com/2011/08/29/pre-cog-is-real-%E2%80%93-new-software-stops-crime-before-it-happens/ How do they do that?! via Russell Buckley

China has 929.84 million mobile subscribers, adding over 70 million subscribers in the first 7 months of the year – so that’s like 10m new subscribers a month. WOW! http://www.textually.org/textually/archives/2011/08/029332.htm

Domino’s pizza is making money with its iPhone and iPad apps to the tune of £10m in sales in 8 months. Not to be sniffed at. Read more here http://www.nma.co.uk/3029661.article?cmpid=NMAE01&cmptype=newsletter&email=true

Fancy a freebie? Into mobile design? Then you might be interested in downloading Brian Fling’s book ‘Mobile Design and Development’. http://mobiledesign.org/ You can read it for free online or pay for a hard copy or kindle version. It was written back in 2008 but most of the principles stand the test of time. [Isn’t it amazing to think that 3 years is a long time in mobile technology?]

The Economist talks about the market for tablets. Worth a read. http://www.economist.com/blogs/babbage/2011/08/tablet-computers via Belen Pena

Does enough thought go into mobile design?

Mobile Design is a hot topic these days. I heard a great story the other day… it seems that not enough attention is paid to the role of design when building mobile applications, sites and services. At a mobile event, the audience of mainly technical developers were asked if they designed their own assets for the products they built. And pretty much everyone put their hand up. Then they were asked if any of them felt qualified to apply for a job as a designer. Almost none of them raised their hand. Hmm. Something to think about I’d say.

So if this did make you think, then you might be interested in this Study of Trends in Mobile Design from Smashing Magazine http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2010/12/02/a-study-of-trends-in-mobile-design/ . It’s in-depth and because of that, may be worth investing in the e-book which should be easier to navigate and read. This was recommended reading from Stephanie Rieger of Yiibu, who also happen to be a great little mobile design company and who are also behind this great article and presentation on Rethinking the Mobile Web.

The Mobile Phone Security Challenge

Today sees the launch of a national search for designers to develop new ways of securing mobile phones against thieves and fraudsters, as research shows that 80% of phones contain data which can be used by criminals to access bank accounts, steal identity, or sell on personal data.

The Mobile Phone Security Challenge is offering a total of £400,000 to designers and technology experts to come up with new ways of securing handsets, the data they contain, and their future use as electronic ‘wallets’ when m-commerce technology is introduced in the UK.

The Challenge is part of Design out Crime, an initiative from the Home Office Design & Technology Alliance Against Crime and the Design Council.  The Mobile Phone Security Challenge is supported by the Technology Strategy Board.

Applicants will submit a tender outlining how they will approach the challenge and identifying any relevant experience they may have. Once selected by a panel of experts, the teams will be allocated money for research and development from the £400,000 fund, and spend six months developing designs and working prototypes in one or more of three key areas:

· Making mobile phone handsets harder or less desirable to steal

· Making the data stored on mobile phones harder or less desirable to steal

· Making future m-commerce transactions secure and fraud proof

They will produce market-ready applications which may include hardware and software for handsets, new services and other innovations, which will be showcased and promoted by early 2010, with a view to their widespread and rapid take-up by the market.

A recent survey found that 80% of people carry information on their mobile phone handsets that could be used by criminals to commit fraud - and 16% keep their bank details saved on their phone, yet only 4 in 10 people currently lock their mobiles using a PIN. Such data includes website passwords, bookmarks, emails, personal security data and locations/addresses on map applications.

The deadline for applications is Friday 22^nd May. Short-listed applicants will present to the expert panel on Friday 27^th June, and the four finalists will be announced on Monday 29^th June. The teams will develop prototypes over six months involving a process of review and advice from the expert panel. Four prototypes will be showcased in early 2010. More details of the Challenge can be found at www.designcouncil.org.uk/crime.

Sebastian Conran, chair of the Design & Technology Alliance Against Crime said: “This challenge is the result of work undertaken last year when we engaged young victims of crime, police, mobile industry experts and designers to understand current and future issues regarding mobile phone crime.  The Alliance has prioritised five areas and is working hard to deliver insights that the UK’s design and technology sector can use to deliver innovative solutions to reduce the instances of crime and antisocial behaviour.  This is one of the early results of our work – there’s more to come.”

Previous advances in technology have led to unexpected new forms of crime; email heralded the phenomenon of ‘phishing’, ATMs precipitated the new crime of ‘card catching’ and online banking gave rise to ‘key logging’, used by fraudsters to track the input of secret passwords and account numbers. However, there are also many examples of technology being applied successfully to reduce crime – for example, British Crime Survey figures show theft of vehicles has reduced by 51% since 1997 as a result of improved security being designed into the vehicle, and an evaluation of houses built to the ACPO Secured By Design (SBD) standards showed that these experience 26% less crime than non SBD houses, and residents fear of crime is lower.

The Mobile Phone Security Challenge will be steered by a group of leading specialists:

· CHAIR: Simon Waterfall, Co-founder, POKE

· Steve Babbage, Security Technologies Manager & Group Chief Cryptographer, Vodafone Group R&D

· Mark Delaney, Director, Connect Design, Nokia

· Josh Dhaliwal, Co-founder, Mobile Youth

· Richard Martin, Business Security Consultant, APACS

· Joe McGeehan, Managing Director, Toshiba Research Lab and Professor of Communications and Engineering at the University of Bristol

· Dr Walter Tuttlebee, Executive Director, Mobile VCE

So that’s not bad then, a prize fund of £400k and will be supported to get to prototype and production stage. If this is your area of expertise, then I’d say it could be worth a shot.

I would like to see a woman in the steering group though. My hunch is that women have a very different response to security concerns than men do. I also believe that women and men respond differently to technology and that should be accounted for in the design process, but that’s one for another day.

Technorati Tags: competition,mobile security,design,mobile,mobile phone security challenge,UK

Want to work as senior designer doing mobile things?

Well, then maybe this is the job for you based in sunny Brighton in lovely offices (I know, because I've been there) with lovely folks (I know because they're friends of mine) doing great work (their work speaks for itself) at Future Platforms. Here's the blurb about the job opening:

Senior designer

We're looking for someone who's got a strong track record of mobile design, with an in-depth understanding of the technical constraints of mobile. Excellent skills originating and implementing visuals is essential, backed up with solid interaction design thinking. If you've gone so far as building WAP or XHTML sites, that'd be a bonus.

You'll be contributing to a multidisciplinary team working for a broad client base; over the last 6 months we've carried out projects for Nokia, the BBC, Hotxt, Discovery US, BAA and Robbie Williams. As well as hands-on design work we'll expect you to get involved with pitches and contribute to proposals, help us hone our approach and processes, and develop our design capability.

This position is full-time and permanent. Please send CVs and a covering note to hello@futureplatforms.com

Strictly no agencies please.