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‘.

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‘.

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:

Arabell David from Forum Nokia

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).

Scott Weiss of Human Factors International

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.

Anthony Ribot of Ribot

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.

Gil Kahanna of Seren Partners

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.

Marek Pawlowski of PMN

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.

MEX is a very different style of conference, dedicated to enhancing the mobile user experience. It brings together 100 of the most creative thinkers in the mobile business and challenges them to create a collaborative response to the 8 point MEX Manifesto through 2 days of workshops and debates. Corporate pitches are outlawed. Instead, you can expect the brightest ideas, most inspiring speakers and best business opportunities, presented in an environment full of light, air, sofas and healthy brain food.

This event in London on the 19th - 20th of May marks the 5th anniversary of the MEX conference, where the winners of the annual MEX Mobile User Experience Awards will be announced.

If you happen to find yourself in the US during April be sure to check out Design For Mobile - the first and only North American mobile user experience conference. It is a two-day conference focused on strategy and tactics for user research, product definition, interaction and other design, and usability testing. A day of workshops will precede the conference sessions.

Registration for the event is now open - with the early bird rate available until March 7th. Educational discounts are also available for students and educators.

Updates via Twitter @des4mo and #des4mo are also available.

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.

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

Tech CrunchTalk Mobile 2.0 Talk
TechCrunchTalk Barcelona” is aimed at bringing together the Mobile 2.0 startup and VC community to debate the next phase of the mobile startup world. It will feature two quick-fire panel discussions with the hottest entrepreneurs and investors selected for their leading views on the market, and with topics focused around a number of themes, including:

- What will be the mobile trends over the coming year?
- What are VC’s looking for?
- Can the power of the operators really be disrupted?
- What value can be created in the mobile world in difficult economic times?

The panel discussions will be followed by casual networking over drinks.

Exhaustive list of parties and events from Mobile Slate

2009 Mobile World Congress Party List UPDATED 02/12/2009

It’s that time again, when the world gathers in Barcelona to talk about mobile. To add to the list, email: blog AT mobileslate.com.

Sunday, February 15, 2009

EVENT: Mobile Sunday Barcelona RSVP
TIME: 19:00 -
LOCATION: Club Mix, Comerç 21

Monday, February 16, 2009

EVENT: LiMo Information Briefing and Reception RSVP
TIME: 15:30 - 19:00
LOCATION: Salon Saria, Hotel Barcelo Sants, Plaza Del Paisos Catalans

EVENT: Mobile Monday Peer Awards RSVP
TIME: 16:00 - 20:00
LOCATION: Petit Palau, Palau de la Música Catalana, calle Palau de la Música, 4-6

EVENT: MACH Networking Event
TIME: 17:00 - Close
LOCATION: Hall 1, Stand 1D67

EVENT: Symbian Foundation Party Invite Only
TIME: 20:00 - Late
LOCATION: For tickets please contact your Symbian Foundation representative at Hall 8, Stand 8A77

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

EVENT: Mobile Distillery - Worldwide Preview Event RSVP
TIME: 11:30 -
LOCATION: Hall 2, Stand 2F49

EVENT: ACCESS Cocktail Party RSVP
TIME: 16:00 - 19:00
LOCATION: Courtyard (CY10) at FIRA

EVENT: Sandisk Cocktail Party RSVP
TIME: 17:00 - 19:00
LOCATION: Hall 8, Booth 8C 129

EVENT: Yahoo! RSVP
TIME: 17:00 - 19:00
LOCATION: Hall 7, Booth #7B26

EVENT: MACH Networking Event
TIME: 17:00 - Close
LOCATION: Hall 1, Stand 1D67

EVENT: University of Oxford Forum for Next Generation Content Networking
Session No RSVP
TIME: 17:00 - Close
LOCATION: Hall 7 Stand D46

EVENT: Scottish Development International (Whisky Reception) No RSVP Required
TIME: 17:00 - 19:00
LOCATION: Hall 1, Stand E66

EVENT: Jefferies Cocktail Party Invite Only
TIME: 17:30 - 20:30
LOCATION: Plaza Dante s/n, Montjuic

EVENT: Telefónica/O2 Cocktail Party Invite Only
TIME: 18:00 - 21:00
LOCATION: AYRE HOTEL, Gran Via de Les Corts, Catalanes, 322 - 324

EVENT: Netsize Guide Launch Party 2009 RSVP
TIME: 19:00 - Late
LOCATION: Shôko Lounge Club, Passeig Marítim (La Barceloneta) 36

EVENT: Mobile Media Tweet-up and Smaato Advertising Awards withMOCOM 2020, SIMYO Invite Only
TIME: 19:00 -
LOCATION: Broadbar Club Barcelona, Carrer d’Aribau 191

EVENT: Accel Partners Invite Only
TIME: 19:30 - 22:30
LOCATION: Casa Batllò, The Julol Rooms, 2nd floor, 43 Passeig de Gracia

EVENT: Enterprise Ireland No RSVP
TIME: 19:30 - 23:55
LOCATION: George Payne Irish Bar, Plaza Urquinona, 5

EVENT: The Ink Studio - Go Rouge Party RSVP
TIME: 20:00 - 23:00
LOCATION: Dostrece, calle carme 40

EVENT: Vantrix Invite Only
TIME: 21:00 - 02:00
LOCATION: Bel Luna Jazz Club, Rambla Catalunya 5

EVENT: Lechill Mobile and Private’s annual WMC Party Invite Only
TIME: 22:00 - 04:00
LOCATION: Lotus C/Bailen 22

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

EVENT: Handmark Cocktail Party INVITE ONLY
TIME: 16:00 - 20:00
LOCATION: Catalonia Barcelona Plaza Hotel

EVENT: Tweet Up at Mobile World Congress No RSVP
TIME: 17:00 -
LOCATION: 7 Sins, Muntaner 7

EVENT: Rapid Mobile Whisky Tasting No RSVP
TIME: 17:30 - 19:00
LOCATION: Hall 7, Stand D84

EVENT: Gomonews Blender RSVP
TIME: 18:00 - 22:00
LOCATION: Bel Chica, Carrer de Villarroel, 60

EVENT: Swedish Beers, with Admob, Palringo, Silverstreet and dotMob No RSVP
TIME: 18:30 -
LOCATION: Dostrece, La Rambla at C/ Carme 40

EVENT: PocketGamer / Mpowerplayer Party RSVP
TIME: 19:00 -
LOCATION: El Lliure, Pg. Santa Madrona, 40-46 Placa Margardia Xirgu

EVENT: WIP Mobile Jameoke No RSVP
TIME: 21:30 - Late
LOCATION: Bel Chica, Carrer de Villarroel, 60

Thursday, February 19, 2009

EVENT: WIP Jam Session RSVP
TIME: 10:30 - 17:00
LOCATION: Hall 2, FIRA

EVENT: TechCrunchTalk Mobile 2.0 RSVP
TIME: 15:00 - 21:00
LOCATION: TBD

Be sure to mark Saturday 28th February 2009 off on your calendar and come join us at MobileCampBrighton. Tickets for the event will be announced shortly, in the meantime follow @MobileBrighton on Twitter for updates.

The Skiff coworking space
49 Cheltenham Place, Brighton, BN1 4AB.
[ view map ]

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‘.