Interview with Daniel Meyer on the Future of Mobile Design

In summer 2004, Daniel Meyer, a student at Central Saint Martins College of Art & Design in London won a Nokia sponsored competition called The Future of Mobile Design.

Daniel’s Nokia 111 that won the competition

There were some remarkable designs in the competition, a couple of which are displayed below, but Daniel’s design stood out because he looked beyond the solid dimensions and capablities of the phone, exploring the wider role that mobile phones now play in our lives and identifying a trend that has started to emerged in the mobile industry.

Two of the other entries, “Blog-a-lot” and “Multi-sensory”

Mobile Phones have become so ubiquitous and integral to our lives that aesthetic qualities are beginning to influence our choices, rather than purely the functionality of the handsets. When mobiles were a luxury item, to some extent it didn’t matter what they looked like because the attraction was their simple mobility and convenience. Now that the mobile market is maturing, people take these things for granted, and are looking for devices that appeal to them on a more personal level. We are starting to see the introduction of mobiles as fashion items, and the recent launches by Prada and Dolce & Gabbana are probably more than a passing trend.

Daniel’s winning entry, the Nokia 111, took this concept a stage further by focussing on the personal relationships people have with their phones. In the same way that a family heirloom such as a watch can have sentimental value as well as functionality, a mobile phone is more than just the ability to make telephone calls. When you are away from home a photograph or a piece of jewelery can be a way of staying in touch, and similarly a mobile phone is both literally and symbolically a way of staying in touch with home. Daniel used this symbolism to explain his concept of “electronic furniture” - technology that has a home as well as a use.

We caught up with Daniel to ask him a few questions about the competition, and his interest in the mobile industry.
What do you do at the moment and has the Nokia competition helped your career? 

At the moment I am finishing off my MA at Central St. Martins. The response to the Nokia competition has been great, and especially the media coverage and the attention it generated were overwhelming.

How was the summer placement scheme with Nokia? Did you learn anything about Nokia’s vision for the mobile phones of the future?   

My time at Nokia was very exciting; I learned and saw a lot of new things. But naturally it is all confidential. All (I hope) I can say: There is some very cool stuff coming!
And what about your own vision for the future of mobile phones? What do you think are going to be the most important developments in the industry over the next few years.  

With more and more computing power, bigger and higher resolution screens and higher wireless connectivity, I can imagine the mobile phone becoming a portable personal portal that not only humans communicate with but also technology, i.e. it could make all your data, media etc accessible to stationary devices such as  for instance playing or screening devices.  

Why do you think your design won the competition?  

I looked at technological trends as well as what people do with their phones and they liked the human centered design approach.  
We like your expression “electronic furniture”. Can you tell us a bit more about this, and where did the inspiration come from?  

This comes from looking at two trends. The first one is the disappearance of electronics as optical centerpieces, e.g. the Phillips flat screen that turns into a mirror when not in use. So consumer electronics are moving towards a more ambient position, so they are more of a background feature.  

Philips Modea Mirror TV

The other trend is the emergence of the mobile as the portable house phone. Many young people only have a phone line for internet access, especially with the sort of contemporary techno nomadism that is becoming more apparent.  

Furthermore I am interested in the psychological aspect of it. A mobile device is designed to be on the move, it therefore is at home everywhere, which is practically not far from nowhere. Whereas a piece of furniture, for instance a chair, has a place where it belongs. It is that sense of belonging somewhere that I wanted to integrate, hence the device converts into a piece of furniture (a picture frame) when getting home, thus deserving a dedicated place similar to a picture frame. 

We came across this quote of yours on the internet…“What interested me was the human side of things. It’s all about people – technology is made to serve us, not the other way around. Simplicity is beauty.” …Are there any products you can think of that epitomize your ideal at the moment?

Fukasawa and Hecht

I admire the work that Neoma Fukasawa and Sam Hecht with Ideo, and I think the printables project (below left) they did for Epsom is a particularly good example. Fukasawa also designed a concept phone called the Info.bar (below right) which generated quite a lot of excitment in Japan with its simple eye catching design and its colour changable keys that the user can customise to their own design. Fukasawa himself said of the Info.bar phone, “Cell phones are now recognised as the most often-used electronic device. They are not just a communication tool but one that expresses an individual’s identity and can be like fashion.

Epsom printables project and the Info.bar phone

Three mobile, o2 mobile phones, Free phones, Orange.com, Phone shop, 3.com, Orange phone