Mobile Design UK

Mobile apps vs Mobile web… you’ve no doubt got your point of view, bring it along and join in the discussion on the constraints and benefits of each.

Over the course of the evening we’d like to look at what makes a successful app in terms of desirability, feasibility and viability, and are thrilled to have Mark Curtis, Jason Fields and [TBC] present their views on the topic.

Mark Curtis
www.flirtomatic.com
www.handmademobile.com

Mark is co-founder and CEO of Handmade Mobile, the company behind Flirtomatic, whose mission is to reinvent dating as entertainment for the mobile generation. Flirtomatic has over 2m users and a ground breaking and successful approach to making money on the mobile internet.

He is also a co-founder and board director of Fjord, the digital innovation company headquartered in London and with offices in 4 countries. In 2005 he wrote “Distraction – Being Human in the Digital Age” (Futuretext) about the effects and direction of digital media on society.

He previously co-founded CHBi which became Razorfish London in 1998 and has been working in digital media since 1993. His background before this was marketing.

He has five children and likes running, cycling, food, wine, mountains – not always together.

Jason Fields
http://app.itize.us

Jason is a user experience designer and strategist having spent more than 15 years in the online and mobile web space. Originally from Los Angeles, then San Francisco he currently lives in London with his wife and son and works for the BBC as a UX&D department head. In his spare time he writes the design focused iPhone app review blog app.itize.us, a curated presentation of the best designed iPhone apps available.

We have asked Mark, Jason and [TBC] to reflect on their own experiences and industry case-studies to help explore the following questions:

• What’s the value in having a native app vs a web app?
• How can design help to improve the desirability, feasibility or viability of an application?
• What’s the return on investment for the brand, the end-user and the developer?
• Who is making money, getting traffic and traction?
• Which is a better channel to get your message across?

Once again we’d like to thank Forum Nokia for their generous support of Mobile Design UK. We’re booked back into the Tavern Room at RSA (on John Adam Street) on Monday April 19th, 2010, and as usual the doors open at 6:30 with presentations kicking off at 7:00pm.

Tavern Room @ RSA House
8 John Adam Street, London
Monday April 19th, doors open 6:30pm
[ view map ]

Registration for this event is now closed.
To register for any spots that become available please add yourself to the waiting list on the Yahoo Group.

Admittedly it’s been a while since our last event, but I’m sure it’s been said before that “all good things take time”? Regardless we’re very excited to announce the next Mobile Design UK event entitled ‘The Typography Session’ - which has (once again) been generously sponsored by Forum Nokia. It’s scheduled for Wednesday November 25th, 2009 (sorry about the short notice) in the Tavern Room at RSA on John Adam Street. The doors will open at 6:30 and we’re aiming to get things underway by 7:00pm. Tavern Room @ RSA House 8 John Adam Street, London Wednesday November 25th, doors open 6:30pm [ view map ] [Update] Registration for this event is now closed. If you would like to attend please add yourself to the wait list and we’ll try and get you registered to attend if/when we receive any cancellations. The final speaker list for the evening is now available (below). We’re very excited to have Steve Graham from Fjord, Jerry Cinamon, design historian and previously Chief Designer at Penguin Books and Julie Strawson from Monotype Imaging join us to share their perspectives about the state of type on devices and where things are going.

A book designer looks at Ebooks & readers

Gerald (Jerry) Cinamon
Design Historian

Jerry trained as a graphic designer in America, then spent many years designing books for Penguin Books (where he was eventually Chief Designer) and many other London publishers for which he won numerous awards. Presently a design historian, he has written about the Penguin design-director Hans Schmoller (Monotype Recorder, April 1987), the illustrator Alice B. Woodward and the Glasgow-style designer Talwin Morris. His major study (and the first in English) of the famed German letterer and type designer Rudolf Koch was published in 2000 by Oak Knoll and The British Library. He is now compiling a reference book of German graphic designers during the 1930s.

Jerry is a member of Letter Exchange, Calligraphy & Lettering Arts Society, Penguin Collectors’ Society (contributor to The Penguin Collector), the Double Crown Club, A TypI and the Art Workers Guild. He has lectured on the work of Koch, Ben Shahn, and his own work at Penguin.

Design & Type Issues in the Context of Electronic Program Guides (EPGs)

Steve Graham
Service Design Lead
Fjord

Originally Steve designed promotional material for the Cannes film festival in the early nineties but later honed his craft for digital design at Syzygy AG from 1996 where he designed online solutions for Pepsico, WPP, BP and Telewest, amongst others. Steve’s diverse skills would later secure him a position as Art Director for Crown Business Communications in 1999 where he specialized in live events devising broadcast graphics and sets designs for major blue chip clients. Later, Steve returned to his passion for screen design and helped to set up Atomic Interative where he spearheaded web and mobile Java game design concepts.

The former Creative Director for Fjord, Steve specializes in the creation of digital interfaces and experiences as a Service Design Lead. He’s was involved in the design of NOKIA Lifeblog and more recently the GSMA award winning Yahoo! Go and BBC iPlayer mobile, and SFR’s digital brand DNA redesign. Steve has an MA in Communication Design from Central St.Martins College.

Taking Typography Mobile

Julie Strawson PG Dip. MCIM
Director of Marketing, Europe
Monotype Imaging

Julie has design directed many projects in her career in a diverse range of international technology companies including e-commerce, speech recognition, font and imaging technology and is a qualified member of the Chartered Institute of Marketing.

As a 10 year old, Julie learnt to typeset hot metal at home with her father and has had a love of type ever since. At Monotype Imaging, home of the Monotype, Linotype and ITC typeface libraries she spends her time working at the confluence of the print, desktop and mobile worlds, with graphic designers in agencies, brand holders and mobile companies such as Vodafone, Nokia and Samsung. Julie has insight into the real challenges facing designers who want to bring rich typography to the mobile space. This includes first hand experience of launching the unique mobile font personalisation solution, Flipfont™.

[Update] Unfortunately registration for this event is now closed. If you would like to attend please add yourself to the wait list and we’ll try and get you registered to attend if/when we receive any cancellations. As usual drinks/nibbles will also be available, thanks to Arabella from Forum Nokia for organising this once again. If for whatever reason you cannot attend after registering please post a message to the group so we can free up your space for someone else. Lastly, if you are interested in speaking at an upcoming event, would like to showcase your project or even sponsor space and/or refreshments for an event please do get in touch via the Yahoo Group, Twitter or email us at ‘hello at mobiledesign.org.uk’.

[Update] Registration for this event is closed as the event is sold-out, but please feel free to add your name to the waiting list should any spots open up. We’re pretty excited to announce the details for the upcoming Mobile Design UK event generously sponsored by Forum Nokia and scheduled for Thursday June 4th, 2009 in the Tavern Room at RSA on John Adam Street. The doors will open at 6:30 and we’re aiming to get things underway by 7:00pm. Tavern Room @ RSA House 8 John Adam Street, London Thursday June 4th, doors open 6:30pm [ view map ] We have a fantastic lineup with a special visitor from across the ocean: Barbara Ballard from Little Springs Design (who’s also speaking at the Mobile Web 2.0 Summit) , Robert Hamilton from Google, Younghee Jung from Nokia Design and our very own Bryan Rieger from Yiibu - expect a wide range of insights, cheats and tricks, cross-atlantic observations and experiences that lends itself to a lively discussion on all things  mobile and designing for it. A description of each of their presentations, along with a short bio can be found below. So register quickly by adding your name to the Yahoo Group records. As usual drinks/nibbles will also be available, thanks to Arabella from Forum Nokia for organising this once again. If for whatever reason you cannot attend after registering please post a message to the group so we can free up your space for someone else.

Speaker Bios and Presentation Descriptions

Barriers Insider insights into how Google creates products for mobile users around the world

Robert Hamilton Produktchef, Google Robert Hamilton has worked in digital media and communications since 1994 when he set up the interactive division of leading London advertising agency Lowe Howard-Spink. He created the UK’s first banner advertising (sorry folks), was responsible for award-winning work for General Motors, Lloyds Bank and Smirnoff. He also led the ground-breaking eurosoccer.com project in 1996. After several years working as a strategy consultant for clients including BT, Shell and Virgin, he founded Scan Mobile in 1999. Scan raised $10m in June 2000 and created the world’s first SMS shopping service, used by Vodafone and Orange, as well as the highly successful Text and Take Home for Argos. When Scan was acquired in 2003 Robert joined Orange Group where he spent several years designing new products and services. Now a Product Manager at Google, Robert is responsible for the development and in-life management of several Google products for mobile devices.

Symbian? What’s That? On Blackberries, iPhones, and Silicon Valley.  Working with operators, content providers, and startups in the U.S. marketplace.

Barbara Ballard @barbaraballard Founding Principal, Little Spring Design and http://design4mobile.mobi Barbara is Founding Principal of Little Springs Design, a full service design agency providing the heads of marketing, product, and user experience the help to optimally engage with their clients over mobile phones. She has been working on mobile services, devices, web sites, and applications since 1998. Barbara contends that mobile user experience goes beyond simply designing for the small screen, as the mobile is both more and less than the PC. She has recently published “Designing the Mobile User Experience” to help user experience professionals make the transition to mobile.

Gestural Interaction

Younghee Jung Designer and design researcher for Nokia | http://younghee.com/ As sensor technology becomes more advanced and affordable, there is an increasing interest in incorporating ‘natural’ ways of interacting with technology products. However there are unique constraints in doing so with mobile technology products as they are used in various social, physical, psychological, and cultural contexts. This talk will cover how the user research was designed and conducted for understanding basic principles of designing gestural interaction with mobile devices, with the highlight of the findings.

Modelling the mobile user experience

After becoming increasingly frustrated at having to produce copious amounts ‘documentation’ that nobody actually ever seemed to read (or interpret in any meaningful way), Bryan set-out on a quest to discover (and re-discover) simple and (hopefully) useful design tools. This talk is about one such tool…. “We become what we behold. We shape our tools and then our tools shape us.” - Marshall McLuhan Bryan Rieger @bryanrieger Yiibu | http://bryanrieger.com Bryan is a designer and researcher with a background in theatre design and classical animation. He has 15 years’ experience as developer and information designer and has worked across all media, including print, multimedia, video, the internet and mobile. Bryan has worked with clients such as Apple, Microsoft, Nokia and Nickelodeon. Bryan became obsessed with all things mobile while on sabbatical in South East Asia watching people do simply amazing—and unexpected things—with their mobile devices. So spread the word to all those who are involved in designing and developing for mobile services, products, applications and devices. If for whatever reason you cannot attend after registering please post a message to the group so we can free up your space for someone else. Lastly, if you are interested in speaking at an upcoming event, would like to showcase your project or even sponsor space and/or refreshments for an event please do get in touch via the Yahoo Group, Twitter or email us at ‘hello at mobiledesign.org.uk’.

Poster design by Luke Bowler While possibly a little later than expected, we’re very excited to be announcing that the next Mobile Design UK event will be held on April 22nd, 2009. This time around the event is graciously sponsored by Seren Partners and will be held at their offices located at 55-57 Rivington Street, London (about a 10 minute walk from Liverpool Street Station). The doors will open at 6:30 and as usual, we’re aiming to get things underway by 7:00pm. Seren Partners Limited 55-57 Rivington Street, London Wednesday April 22rd, doors open 6:30pm [ view map ] A big thank you to all of the speakers who have taken time-out of their schedules to share their ideas and projects at this event. The line-up for the evening includes; Nick Richards from Intel, Tom Hume from Future Platforms, Matt Pollitt and Daniel Demmel from ustwo™. A description of each of their presentations, along with a short bio can be found below. Please register for the event via the Yahoo! Group by adding your name to the list of attendees.

Speaker Bios and Presentation Descriptions

Introduction

Catherine Lawford Managing Director Seren Partners Ltd. Prior to joining Seren, Catherine was Director of Product Delivery at AOL and Head of ARPU at BSkyB. Before this Catherine held several key positions at the UK’s first digital interactive TV company, Open, including Head of Operations and Head of Design. Catherine initially joined the Open JV whilst a product manager at Panasonic. At Seren Catherine recently led a qualitative research project into the changing social networking environment for MySpace. She also led a functional branding project for Orange.

Making Mobile Video Work?

Nick Richards www.nedrichards.com Interaction Designer, Intel The failure of mobile video and tv has been known industry wisdom for years and years. Yet the massive and growing success of desktop web video in the shape of YouTube and iPlayer has shaped the industry more than almost anything else in the last few years. What would happen if we tried again to make mobile video work? Hopefully good things, and things that you can see today at http://www.bbc.co.uk/mobile/iplayer and http:/www.bbc.co.uk/mobile/live if you have a decent phone. I’ll tell you a bit about how we designed it. Nick is an Interaction Designer. He currently works at Intel in London on stuff that he’s not allowed to talk about right now but that is very exciting all the same. Previously we worked for Fjord on fun projects like iPlayer mobile and for Orange on stuff he’d mostly like to forget.

Knocking Down Walls

Tom Hume @twhume Managing Director, Future Platforms Tom will share some thoughts on experiences on how and why to knock down the walls between design and development. Tom is MD of Future Platforms, a 15-strong software company that’s spent most of the last decade getting mobile software products designed, built and launched; right now they’re working for Microsoft, the BBC, Puzzler Media, and a few others. He’s one of those wild-eyed agile types, holds a Designers & Art Directors Association silver nomination for his work in interactive media, and writes online at tomhume.org

Generation UX

Matt Pollitt @MattPolls Mobile UI Designer, ustwo™ Daniel Demmel @daaain Experience Designer and Design Technologist, ustwo™ A light hearted look over the short history of mobile UI and UX, and were it might go in the future. This short talk will specifically look at the progression of mobile UI, personalization and overall user experience over the last decade or so, and how we as mobile designers can push the boundaries to create fresh, intuitive interfaces and user experiences. Matt is a mobile UI Designer @ ustwo™ and has been actively working on mobile application and UI design/development over the last 3-4 years. When not working or geeking-out about new interface concepts, he is normally partaking in what feels like the longest commute know to man, from Hull (east Yorkshire) where he is currently based, to the London studio. Daniel (aka dain) is an experience designer and design technologist, working hard to align both design and technology under the holy grail which is called UX. having formal education in economics and marketing he manages this by putting both designer and developer pride away and concentrating on the user`s (= the “real” customer`s) problem instead. Again, please register for the event via the Yahoo! Group by adding your name to the list of attendees. Hope to see you there. Lastly, if you are interested in speaking at an upcoming event, would like to showcase your project or even sponsor space and/or refreshments for an event please do get in touch via the Yahoo Group, Twitter or email us at ‘hello at mobiledesign.org.uk’.

On 23 February we held our second event, graciously sponsored by Forum Nokia. The event took place in the lovely Tavern Room RSA (ok, the name is a bit gloomy but the room was lovely!) and was attended by just over 30 people.

This time we were able to record the night’s proceedings and have posted the video footage on Vimeo. Presentations have also been uploaded to Slide Share and we plan to record all future events for the benefit of those who cannot attend.

Here’s a brief recap of the event:

The evening began with a short presentation by Arabella David who introduced the Forum Nokia Design Program. Forum Nokia has been busy of late increasing the number of resources available to designers throughout Forum Nokia and within the rapidly growing Design and User Experience Library. Recent additions include Visual Design for Mobile Devices: A Guide for Newcomers and Design Update: China. Arabella also introduced some upcoming initiatives to provide designers with a variety of tools, templates and documentation to assist designers who work with mobile technologies. There will also be a new Forum Nokia design portal which should be launching soon (i’m sure Arabella will post something to our Yahoo group once the new section is live).

The second presentation by Scott Weiss (@sdweiss) of Human Factors International described a recent in-house research exercise aimed at optimizing Transport for London’s online services to suit mobile devices with a robust XHTML browser. Scott’s team began by identifying the key subsets of TFL’s wide online offering that would be best suited for mobile—in this case, the trip planner and service disruption guide. Scott’s presentation offered some great examples of iterative design aimed at providing the right pieces of information at the right time and designed specifically for the mobile context. He also provided some ideas around the display, wayfinding and navigation of maps within a XHTML browser. Audience comments focused on the difficulties inherent in the design of this type of service given that many London transport users are tourists with no knowledge of the UK postcode system and the lack of mobile access on the underground. Unfortunately Scott is currently unable to release his presentation slides but a video of his talk is available on the Mobile Design UK Vimeo archive.

Our third presentation was by Antony Ribot (@ribot) of Ribot Ltd. Antony spoke on a variety of subjects around the topic of emotion, behaviour and human context. How do real-world interactions affect those with your mobile device? How do learned mobile-specific behaviours affect those in the “real world”? Will emotional attachment be re-introduced into our digital interfaces with the help of haptics? Anthony also discussed the value of sketching during the design process—both as a means of experimentation and a way to include stakeholder in the design process and obtain buy-in on ideas early on. Both presentation slides and video of Anthony’s talk are available.

The next presentation was from Gil Kahanna of Seren Partners who presented details of several mobile projects undertaken during his time at the BBC. The first project was conceived to present interesting BBC content that might otherwise remain buried in an archive and connect it with audiences at the right time and place. QR codes were affixed to exhibits at the London Zoo containing downloadable content bundles including graphics, audio and video of the zoo’s inhabitants. Once collected, the content was stored within a Flash Lite application allowing children to easily enjoy the media and determine what other content might be out there to find. Children found the activity engaging and sometimes—even more engaging than the animals themselves (who were fast asleep during the visit!)

The second project took place at Kew Gardens and focused on content creation rather than collection. Photos were captured by children to illustrate the answer to a series of questions. These were then uploaded via Shozu. A team at the BBC then editorialized and posted the content on the web and onto live displays throughout the park. Video of Gil’s presentation is available on Vimeo.

The final presentation by Marek Pawlowski (@marekpawlowski) from PMN - Mobile Industry Intelligence provided insight into ways to overcome pain points and create a great mobile user experience.

1. Differentiation may translate as ‘add more acromyms’ in industry speak but for the customer it means ‘personal expression’
2. A little help goes a long way and can rapidly accelerate users from the simplistic to the sophisticated.
3. It takes great design to bridge the divide between the constantly connected world of the PC and the frequently disconnected environment of the mobile.
4. Great experiences happen at the intersection of innovation and practicality.
5. Below the line interaction elements play a significant role in forming the user experience.

Marek also announced the dates of this year’s PMN Mobile User Experience Conference. Check out the newly published MEX manifesto for details of this year’s conference themes. Marek’s slides are available along with video of the presentation.

Many thanks once again to Forum Nokia for providing a fantastic venue and refreshments. We are planning our next event to be held in April. Dates will be announced soon on the web site and mailing list.

Mobile Web Europe is around the block (16th-19th feb). I have been in touch with Helen Keegan and asked her advice on places one should go to on the unofficial circuit. Having got lucky winning an exhibitor visitor pass from Purple Labs, I hope this can be of some guidance for people who find themselves in the same boat. Okay - so here’s just a list of places, if there are anymore you think should make it here, just add a comment. Hope to meet you at MWC. List of must - do unofficial events from Helen (Beep marketing)  & Rudy (Mtrends) Sunday, February 15, 2009. [caption id=”” align=”alignnone” width=”180” caption=”Tech Crunch UK”] Mobile Sunday: The fourth annual MobileSunday An unofficial, informal and generally cool and funky gathering of mobile bloggers and their chums - will be taking place in Barcelona on the eve of this year’s Mobile World Congress (formerly known as 3GSM) on Sunday, February 15, 2009. Register here: http://www.amiando.com/mobilesunday.html TIME: 19:00 - LOCATION: Club Mix, Comerç 21 PS: Helen advised that there is the most amazing firework festival in the old town on Sunday night - St Eulalia’s Feast and she’s planning to go there before going to the Mobile Sunday gig If you want to read more about this festival- a detailled description from Wikipedia Monday, February 16, 2009.

MoMo Peer awards “The MobileMonday Mobile Peer Awards Barcelona are among the most influential events in the mobile industry and, with over 1000 attendants, the point of reference in startup innovation during the Mobile World Congress.” From MoMo site TIME: 16:00 - 20:00 LOCATION: Petit Palau, Palau de la Música Catalana, calle Palau de la Música, 4-6 19th February 2009

We’re extremely happy to announce the details for the upcoming Mobile Design UK event generously sponsored by Forum Nokia and scheduled for Monday February 23rd, 2009 in the Tavern Room at RSA on John Adam Street. The doors will open at 6:30 and we’re aiming to get things underway by 7:00pm. Tavern Room @ RSA House 8 John Adam Street, London Monday February 23rd, doors open 6:30pm [ view map ] I’d really like to thank our gracious presenters for participating in this event; Scott Weiss from Human Factors International, Gil Kahana from Seren Partners, Antony Ribot of Ribot, and Marek Pawlowski from PMN - Mobile Industry Intelligence, as all are sure to bring a wealth of insight and experience to the evenings discussions. A description of each of their presentations, along with a short bio can be found below. As the venue only holds 50 people registration has been closed at 50 people. If for whatever reason you cannot attend after registering please post a message to the group so we can free up your space for someone else. At this point registration for the event is now closed. If you’d like to be placed on the wait list please add your name to the wait list via the Yahoo Group to be notified if any spaces become available.

Speaker Bios and Presentation Descriptions

A Concept for Mobile Assisted Way Making for London Transport

Scott Weiss @sdweiss Executive Director-London, Human Factors International Scott will take existing user experience modalities and iterate them into a conceptual design for Transport for London (TFL). This presentation will embark from his World Usability Day rant about the existing mobile user interfaces (both good and bad) that are deployed by TFL, and culminate in a first draft UI compatible with today’s XHTML mobile browsers. He will present a set of storyboards to demonstrate his ideas as well as some conceptual user interface snapshots. Scott Weiss is the Executive Director for Human Factors International’s London office, where he leads UI design, usability research, user experience curriculum development, and usability institutionalisation efforts for clients including AT&T, BT, GSK, Thomson-Reuters, Vodafone, and many others. He is well known for his passion for the mobile user experience, his first book, “Handheld Usability” and related blog (http://handheldusability.wordpress.com), and his frequent and world-wide public speaking and teaching. Scott has spoken in the US, UK, Europe, Singapore, and Hong Kong on wide ranging mobile user experience topics. He recently spoke at Informa’s Mobile User Experience conference in London on the iPhone’s competitive opportunities, where he also taught a workshop on User Experience Strategy and Implementation. He chaired Handsets World USA in San Diego, where he also presented the Mobile Design and Development Platforms workshop. He presented Documenting Mobile 2.0 Information Architecture at the Euro IA Summit in Amsterdam, and presented Mobile Social Networking at the Monetize Web 2.0 & Mobile Social Networking Conference in London.

Stories From the Field

Gil Kahana Consultant, Seren Partners Gil will speak about two exciting projects he worked on at BBC New Media which were about using your mobile to collect information from physical objects and posting video comments next to plants. He will also share a few stories about user research he completed in Russia and India last year, along with some final thoughts about social networks sneaking into our daily mobile routines. After obtaining a Master’s degree at Central Saint Martin’s College in Communication Design, Gil discovered the world of mobile user experience as an interaction designer at BBC New Media. At the BBC he worked on some fascinating innovation projects including location-based content and cross-platform content delivery. Gil is currently working as a consultant at Seren Partners helping companies like Nokia, Orange, Vodafone and O2 to make better products by using User-Centered Design methodologies.

The Process of Design

Antony Ribot @ribot Co-founder and CEO, Ribot Utilising his last 9 years of work in the digital industry, Antony will give a talk on how the development and integration of a design process can make for a mobile application with improved user experience. Antony is one of the founder members of ribot - a UK design house/ideas lab that focuses on user interfaces, interaction design and the user experience for small screen devices. He spent his early years with London-based tomato, during which, amongst other things, he earnt a D&AD pencil award for a interactive web project for Levis. Inspired by the simple things in life, he then went back to University to study ants, bees and termites, where simple agents work together to form complex systems with emergent behaviours.

15 minutes of Positive Mobile Experience

Marek Pawlowski @marekpawlowski PMN - Mobile Industry Intelligence It’s easy to fixate on what’s broken in mobile user experience. We’ve all heard the horror stories: new handsets full of bugs, important features hidden behind complex menus and product marketing teams more concerned with megapixel count than usability. However, amid the gloom of specification sheets and indecipherable acronyms, an increasing number of bright stars are starting to shine. As part of the upcoming Mobile Design UK meeting, we want to know about your most positive mobile experience! Please email, text or Tweet (@marekpawlowski) your favourite example of truly user-focused mobile design to Marek Pawlowski. He’ll be highlighting 3 examples in his talk ‘15 minutes of Positive Mobile Experience’. Please keep your suggestions short and ‘Tweet’ - i.e. no longer than you’d send in a text. Again, as the venue only holds 50 people registration has been closed at 50 people. If for whatever reason you cannot attend after registering please post a message to the group so we can free up your space for someone else. At this point registration for the event is now closed. If you’d like to be placed on the wait list please add your name to the wait list via the Yahoo Group to be notified if any spaces become available. Lastly, if you are interested in speaking at an upcoming event, would like to showcase your project or even sponsor space and/or refreshments for an event please do get in touch via the Yahoo Group, Twitter or email us at ‘hello at mobiledesign.org.uk’.

Tom Jenkins, Nokia, presenting on ‘A day in the life of service and UI design at Nokia Design’. Wednesday, 3rd December was the inaugural event for Mobile Design UK. Presentations (from Nokia, Lastminute.com Labs, Trutap, and Flirtomatic) will be up on Slideshare soon (expect a followup blog post!), and we’re expecting the next mobile-design focused event to be in February. If you didn’t manage to make last Wednesday, here are a few of the things you missed: Tom Jenkins, Nokia Design, gave some insights into Nokia’s working processes; Ali Driver of Trutap confessed an aversion to wireframes and Visio whilst talking about rapid prototyping in Flash Lite; Mathias Dahlstrom of Lastminute.com Labs discussed the challenges of internationalization in the mobile application ‘fonefood’, and Jaeseung Chang, Flirtomatic, discussed how it really is possible to do inhouse usability testing without a huge budget. We’re extremely pleased with how it went: we had a diverse audience of around 25 people who had heard about the event by word of mouth and via the website, Upcoming and Yahoo! groups. Photos are on Flickr with the tag: mobiledesignuk. Thanks to Flirtomatic for providing their office space along with the wine, drinks, and snacks! We’d also like to thank our excellent speakers for the presentations, along with everyone who showed up for their involvement.

Hello all- We have been putting finishing touches to final speakers and what they will be covering. The format will be 5 speakers with each speaker getting 15 mins followed by 10 mins Q&A. Here we go:

• Tom Jenkins, Nokia Design- A day in the life of Nokia Design’s Service and UI Design team. From research in African villages to hacking hardware interfaces to designing in a company whose strategy is shifting focus from devices to services.
• Mathias Dahlstrom, Last Minute.com Labs- Fone Food Thoughts on trying to handle Locales, Languages and Countries on a small screen
• Ali Driver, TruTap- Rapid Prototyping for mobile using Flashlite. Using Adobe Device Central and how to incorporate it within your design workflow
• Jaeseung Chang, Flirtomatic- Cheap & Quick Internal User Testing. Lessons learned from doing internal user testing - Dos & Don’ts Doors start at 6.30pm for a 7:00pm start. The address is: Europa House, 2nd Floor  54 Great Marlborough Street, London W1F 7JU Google map

Over the past year or so I’ve had the pleasure of meeting many individuals who for whatever reasons now find themselves tasked with designing all manner of things for a wide assortment of devices. Many of us come from backgrounds in print, multimedia or web design — others from HCI or industrial design and a few even have backgrounds as varied as applied mathematics or entomology. All however seem to have had one thing in common: the need to share knowledge and collaborate with other designers working with mobile technology.

We often regularly attend events such as Mobile Monday or Barcamp, and conferences such as Over the Air, MEX and Future of Mobile but these are often much more focused on the needs of developers, management or marketing folks rather than designers. As a result there is often very little opportunity for many of us to discuss design related issues or concerns with our peers. Of course there are on-line groups such as Mobile Design (which happens to serve as the inspiration for Mobile Design UK) or IxDA but these rarely offer participants the opportunity to meet and interact in person. What many of us seem to be looking for is something akin to a design focused mash-up of Mobile Monday and Barcamp.

So, with that in mind I’m kicking off the idea of Mobile Design UK with the aim to provide an open forum for UK designers working with mobile technologies to share knowledge, encourage exploration of technologies, tools and ideas, and showcase the UK as an influential hub of mobile design to the world.

We’re hoping to have our first meeting before the end of the year and would encourage anyone who is interested in participating to join the discussion in the Yahoo Group, follow via Twitter or check back here regularly.