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Friday, October 7, 2011

'Design for All goes Mobile' at Over The Air 2011

Mark Bridge writes:

One of the speakers providing inspiration for the mobile developers at Over The Air 2011 was Denise Stephens, co-founder of Enabled by Design. Her presentation, called ‘Design for All goes Mobile’, explored how good design could help mobile phone users live more independently than they would otherwise be able to.

I spoke to Denise afterwards and started our conversation by asking what ‘Design for All’ meant to her.

“I would say Design for All is the design of products, services and systems which are relevant and usable by as many people as possible, including people who have disabilities but also older people. For me, Design for All is designing to help mainstream accessibility. I’m quite tired of niche products that are solely aimed and targeted at older people and people with disabilities, so I’d like to see more mainstream products that have been designed to incorporate accessibility and usability.”

“I’ve grown up as a consumer and, after being diagnosed with MS, suddenly it felt like the design of assistive technology... it’s almost like it didn’t really matter about me any more. It was like ‘Oh, you have a disability, therefore you have to have lots of white and grey wipe-clean plastic items in your home’.  Whereas I was more interested in iPads and iPhones and things that were ‘sexy’ design.”

Mobile devices tend to assume a wide range of senses - sight, touch and hearing come to mind as the obvious ones - so I asked Denise how a developer could possibly consider all of these when ‘designing for all’.

“I think the easy answer would be that it’s impossible to cover all the goal posts. One design is never accessible to everybody. But you can be aware of your audience, aware of what people’s needs are. The way of doing that is to speak to people, to interact with people, to test your product or system or service throughout the design process and keep getting feedback - and in that way hopefully you can try to address people’s needs.”

We went on to talk about what mobiles can do to make life easier - and what app developers can do, too - before looking to the future.

“I’d just like to see far more user engagement - involving people from the start of the design process and getting people involved throughout the design process. I know I talk about ‘Design for All’ but I’m very keen to say that one size doesn’t fit all. So ‘Design for All’ can help to address a large majority of people’s needs, but at the same time one design can’t be accessible to everybody.”

You can listen to my full conversation with Denise Stephens on our website, via iTunes or by downloading the MP3 file. The podcast also includes interviews with Andy Williams of the Metropolitan Police and Craig Heath of Franklin Heath.
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Opinion Articles

The end of unlimited* mobile data has almost arrived

Mark Bridge writes:

Unlimited mobile data. Once upon a time, it seemed that everyone offered it. Not that mobile data was ever really unlimited – there tended to be a ‘fair usage’ clause tucked away in the terms and conditions – but the word ‘unlimited’ was used a lot. The fact that it was always accompanied by an asterisk didn’t seem to trouble trading standards departments.

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You can't stop the news when it goes mobile (part 2)

Mark Bridge writes:

Last month I was struck by the way video streaming service Bambuser was being used by citizen journalists.

Now comes news of a different kind of photo-journalism. Instead of shooting behind-the-scenes images of a general election, prisoner Michael Long has been using his mobile to record from behind bars.

Author: The Fonecast
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A radial menu for iPhone 5? It's not such a radical idea

Mark Bridge writes:

As sure as eggs, there’ll be an iPhone 5. It’ll be announced on 6th June 2011 if you want my guess. And the latest rumours are suggesting it’ll have ‘radial menus’.

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Apps World: Screach, Sony Ericsson and the Wholesale Applications Community

This week’s edition of The Fonecast includes a report from Apps World, which took place in London on 30th November and 1st December. As the name suggests, the event was all about mobile applications, their development, the technology that’s used and the ways that apps are marketed.

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Is Microsoft about to back down from locking Windows Mobile 7 users into its Marketplace app store?

Mark Bridge writes:

In this week’s podcast we talked about the ChevronWP7 ‘unlocking’ solution that allowed the installation of Windows Phone 7 applications without the need to use Microsoft’s Marketplace application store. Unlike previous Windows Mobile handsets, new WP7 devices can only add applications that are offered via the Microsoft Marketplace.

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Recent Podcasts

Reviewing our 2015 mobile industry predictions... and looking forward to 2016

Podcast - 15th January 2016

Iain Graham, James Rosewell and Mark Bridge return to review their mobile industry predictions from last year. Which mergers, partnerships and developments did they forecast correctly... and which didn’t work out as planned?

Later in the programme, the team anticipates some of the topics that will be hitting the headlines during 2016.

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Podcast from Mobile World Congress 2015

Podcast - 6th March 2015

Mark Bridge learns about the mobile technology trends at Mobile World Congress 2015 by chatting to James Rosewell of 51Degrees, Dr Kevin Curran from the IEEE and Chris Millington of Doro.

They talk about wearable devices, wireless charging, mobile operating systems and much more... including some of their favourite products from the exhibition.

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Looking back at February: from security scares to multiple MVNOs

Podcast - 27th February 2015

We're taking a look back at the biggest mobile industry news stories from February 2015, including allegations that the UK's security service tried to breach SIM card security by hacking into one of the world's biggest SIM producers.

We also talk about the planned BT and EE merger, the creation of two new UK virtual networks, some acquisitions in the mobile payment arena and a new Ubuntu smartphone.

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Interview with Chris Millington of Doro about mobile retailing, wearables and technology for older consumers

Podcast - 24th February 2015

In today's programme Mark Bridge talks to Chris Millington, who's Managing Director for Doro UK and Ireland.

They discuss the state of mobile retailing in the UK, the future of wearable devices and - as you might expect - smartphones for seniors.

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A month of mobile: O2 counts on 3, Microsoft counts to 10 and Apple counts its profits

Podcast - 30th January 2015

We're back with a month of mobile industry news, including takeover talks and takeover rumours. O2 and Three are said to be discussing a merger... but is there any truth in the suggestions that BlackBerry could be up for grabs?

We also discuss Apple's record-breaking quarterly figures, the highlights of CES and the launch of Microsoft Windows 10, as well as saying farewell to the current version of Google Glass.

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