i have two - probably three - reasons to visit amsterdam in september this year.
one is mobile hci 2008 where i will be presenting my last project done while i was in helsinki back in 2005 in the industrial case study track: the evolution of mobile phonebook design. the study was not just creating a design concept, but building a prototype for a month-long field trial and generating further insights for design direction and details. the final version of the super-short paper is posted here which is a truly condensed version of the whole study. i hope i can make time to write up a full paper later as i still strongly believe in the importance of contacts/ points of contacts/ interface to communication. akseli, rob, jan, and panu were all part of the project team.



on thursday, september 4th - i will be also joining the crowd at social strategy talk event organized by creative crowds.

hope to see some of you in amsterdam!

happen to watch a movie soylent green (1973). its based on harry harrison’s novel. an interesting & grim depiction of the future urban living, but quite accurately pointing out many of the problems that are becoming increasingly substantial - overpopulation, food shortage, and environmental devastation. stop reading my post here if you plan to watch the movie yourself as it is a spoiler.



a couple of intriguing concepts were:

- a woman offered as ‘furniture’ with every house / flat: it is obviously an idea you’d call sexist’s, but nevertheless i fully enjoyed the social ripple effect that this proposition triggered me to imagine - like longevity of a property and a human? inheritance?

- imaginary home service: it is a place where people can go to when they want to die. for the final ceremony (of the death), the person gets to choose the ambient lighting color and music. the space design and other people’s involvement leaves a very interesting design challenge - though the movie’s focus shifts to a spam factory from here on.

as we all know - some messages are delivered much more efficiently by the accompanying visual examples, though they may not be an exhaustive set.

a restaurant/bar in rio putting up a sign saying that they have the right to reject those with inappropriate or ‘minimal’ clothes.



at the domestic airport in osaka, this post gives a pre-warning that certain types of shoes will be subjected to security inspection before passengers are entering the security check area.

my first days in london were hosted by a hotel in a bustling city center. the close-to minimalist interior of the hotel was compensated by the very mixed set of interface designs - mainly door knobs and light switches, which may be seen as annoying at a first glance or confusing, but which i came to enjoy as an experience of pondering on my temporary living space.

the room key literally looks like a mechanical key - but it was just an electromagnetic stick. so i could not put the key in and turn it. but then i tried to push the door in without turning the handle. the handle, in a smooth sphere shape, was quite difficult to turn to open the door.




was it just my good mood that i took the counter-intuitive interface as an amusing opportunity to take a break from the routine of unconscious actions? without causing any harms to the user, i think it is important not falling too much into ‘annoyance upon the first time use’ in designing things and ideas. design that gets better over time - a dimension that is increasingly important for me in design - does not always cater well for the strangers.