THE CONCEPT
A system for managing a user's phone in a way that makes sense to THAT USER

SCENARIOS

ABOUT THE WORKSHOP
Applied dreams are short innovation workshops developed jointly by IDII faculty and industrial partners, In this case it was Nokia's Insight and Foresight Group and Nokia Research.
The workshop's topic was "Blue collar Mobility ". Mobile phones have the potential to augment personal and professional life, especially its collaborative and social components. Attention has so far focused on domestic and 'white-collar' services and applications. But which mobile-related design service, application or device would improve the efficiency and working experience of 'blue-collar' professionals?

FACULTY:
Neil Churcher, Jan-Christoph zoels

Team:
Ruth kikin-Gil, Erez kikin-Gil, Nathan Waterhouse, Oznur Ozkurt

Flow : A system for managing your phone in a way that makes sense to YOU.

"Following a flow experience, the organization of the self is more complex than it had been before... yet complexity also involves a second dimension: the integration of autonomous parts. Without integration, a differentiated system would be a confusing mess."

Dr. Mihaly Csiksentmihaly, Flow

The problem
Professionals need to take notes and keep track of information in relation to jobs and people. They do it by using many tools and applications, including mobile phones.
The problem is that mobile data is trapped inside the "applications" model.
Each application presents information relative to it's function, and there is no way of crossreferencing information in an integrated way.

The context
blue collar, self employed workers, who work alone or in small teams and are mobile.
According to Eurostat 51% of the working people in Italy in 1999 were self-employed. Potential industries include: Construction workers, Painters, Handymen, Beauticians, Electricians, Plumbers, Gardeners, Event organizers, Interior decorators, Repairmen, Service technicians, Hairdressers.

The Solution:
Creating meaning throughout the different parts of the phone. Flow aims to help self-employed workers to manage their business by transforming the phone's content from discrete bits of data into meaningful flows of information.

To understand how this solution was reached read about the User Research
To learn more about the solution read about The FLOW concept
To understand how it might actually work look at the Scenario