Who is in control of your brand?

When one of my new team members (Johann) started 4 months ago I learnt an enormous amount about Albinism and the implications on the senses. I also discovered a lot about how the human sense system is used in day to day life and how tiny things like gutters on the street, face recognition and touch screens interfere and interact with us in unusual ways.

Johann explained how important computer accessibility is for people with vision impairments and how there are some amazing technologies being researched to help overcome these problems.

Touch screens are inherently flawed.

Touch screens and other input devices are taking over our lives, we’re ditching the keyboard, tap, steering wheel and other fundamental input devices for the sleek and simple.

While this is improving the way we interact with devices and technology in many ways, there’s a fundamental issue. Simple put current Touch Screens are inefficient.

For the touchscreen mobile phone users out there you’ll know what I’m talking about, when you’re typing a message to a friend, doing a search or playing a game you have to actually look to find the keys, taking your eyes away from whatever else you could be looking at.

Remember back in the good old Nokia 5110 days you could talk to your friends, send an SMS in class walk and see where you were going because you knew where all the keys were, you could feel them.

We’ve actually lost touch.

This means we’re using Sight, a very important sense, to do the simple function of finding the keys. And as a result it’s causing lots of errors, it takes much more focus/concentration and the accessibility issues are obvious.

Lots of people are trying to work around this issue.

Aden found this interesting new approach to touch screen keyboards called 8pen, although I’m not sure if it’s the best solution. (Hat tip @gavinheron)

And there are plenty of techniques being developed like…

Thankfully there’s a solution to the original problem.

The concept used is called Piezoelectricity which can send tiny highly targeted vibrations that actually emulate a raised surface. It doesn’t tickle, hurt or zap you, it just feels like the surface is actually raised.

In theory (and it’s being tested by research master minds in a few universities around the world) as you touch the emulated raised areas it actually feels exactly like a button and you can feel your way around the keyboard.

The Piezoelectic technology can raise an area quickly then just as quickly remove the raised area. This means software designers will be able to change the surface of the screen in whatever way they want to give you the best user experience.

Awesome. I reckon.

Practicality issues that come to mind.

• Can it made at a viable price point?
• What will it do to your battery life?
• Can it break?
• How accurate/sensitive will it be?
• Does it need extra processing power?
• How much bigger will it make my slim touch screen device?

I don’t know, it just seems like it’d make using touch devices a whole lot better.

I wonder if I’m just losing my mind or if it would actually help.

Disclaimer: I’m not a scientist, UX expert or design guru, all the opinions are based on some brief research and chats with my colleague Johann. If somethings wrong, comment to correct me just don’t judge me. Please.

Apple as a company has continued to make an impact on the world, most recently and significantly with the iPhone.

The iPhone hit the ground running with fantastic reviews, great publicity, and all thanks to a solid marketing strategy. The question of whether people bought the product and recommended it to their friends relied on a quality product.

And as usual (with the exception of MobileMe.com)  its a combination of questioning the norms, a customer centric approach to product, quality first releases and a consistent delivery of their core message of being different – all building on the powerhouse that is APPLE.

All the hype of last year, has landed them a 32% share of the smart phone market globally (48% in the US). And all within 24 months (from PR to now).

How long have Blackberry, Nokia and all the rest been at it…? Clearly they’re not focused on the right things.

From modmyi.com

The iPhone pretty much destroyed the year goal of 10 million units with 13.7 million iPhones sold thanks to 4.3 million being sold during the quarter. Furthermore, the AppStore did extremely well reaching 15,000 apps and 500,000,000 downloads (which Apple kept 30% of the profit from and declined to announce how much that profit was). The iPhone is now in 70 markets and Apple is continuing to expand their mobile phone influence to other areas. Apple also now has hold of 32% of the smartphone market — 48% in the U.S.

Apple are a case study of a fantastic company who focus on customers, quality product and marketing in every aspect of what they do. Sure they’ve made some stuff ups, but we will continue to trust them because they’re honest, transparent and constantly talking to us.

I wonder how much of an impact will be made without the leadership of Steve Jobs…?

I posted a question on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook asking people if they loved or hated their iPhones… These kinds of questions often spark interest, but this one certainly got some traction.

I have one and love/hate it, but can’t let go of it. What do you think of your iPhone?

This is what a range of my contacts said:

Ian (Source: LinkedIn)

Love it and hate it. Isn’t enterprise ready( can’t make apprs with one of your contacts for example). When it can do this and have a half decent battey life then it’ll be close.
Catch your soon Simon.

@starr_sonic (Source: Twitter)

An iphone is the definition of love!

Les (Source: Facebook message)

Hi Simon, do you have one ? There are lots of pros and cons to it.
I dont have one, I have a Nokia N95 but considered one, as well as the Blackberry Storm & also the Nokia N97 coming out soon. They all have pros and cons, storm didnt do all that well in reviews, iphone – well, you cant mms off it, nor can you use the laptop to send sms’ which I do a lot.

Various (Source: Facebook status)

Timothy Neilen at 15:11, on 19 December.
I love it, but it decided to pack it in.. it just won’t turn on or charge, so I’m getting a new one.

Rino Del Zoppo at 15:12, on 19 December.
LOVE IT – the minor issues are outweighed by the fabness of the rest of it – one gadget to take with me now – instead of a phone and ipod and a diary. LOVE.

David Messer at 15:21, on 19 December.
Love it, but i like anything with an apple logo on it… http://i.i.com.com/cnwk.1d/i/bto/20081217/appleonapple_07.jpg

Luke Revill at 15:24, on 19 December.
I have about 20+ mobile handsets, none of them is an iPhone.

Rino Del Zoppo at 15:24, on 19 December.
hahaha brilliant pic. mmmm apples.

Rino Del Zoppo at 15:25, on 19 December.
lol at luke – 20 brilliant phones will never equal an iphone. you are right.

Simon T Small at 15:28, on 19 December.
haha! no iPhone haters around?

David Campbell at 15:29, on 19 December.
Love it! except for when it crashes when you’re half way through doing som…..

Rino Del Zoppo at 15:30, on 19 December.
david – just turn it off and on every few days…. keeps it running clear… i find anyway.

Luke Kowald at 19:06 19 December via Facebook Mobile
I love it.

It’s an aesthetically beautiful and easy to use device.

It does have some current drawbacks that we’re all likely familiar with (including not being able to cut and paste David’s Apple pic from mobile facebook), but all in all a sweet device.

Rino Del Zoppo at 01:33, on 20 December.
and you can’t forward sms or cut n paste from sms. but i am sure that will be fixed ne day. i saw an iphone tonight had been dropped – not pretty – some people do not deserve to own an iphone… no respect.

Simon T Small at 10:08, on 20 December.
in summary, apples are yummy, you are all funny, and I think I love mine.

Rino Del Zoppo at 10:29, on 20 December.
think? how very dare you? not ‘think’ but ‘know’ you know you love yours.

It seems easy so far, I downloaded the app, popped my login details in then here we are.

And ofcourse the great camera/add photo button works a charm.

It’s great and easy, but I wonder how often I’ll really use it.

Good night, am heading off for Japanese for dinner!