the Apple way

I must say I did not install neither of these this to my ipod. I probably should have, but I still want it to be leisure -not work related content on it.. I’m not a math-loving person. It is in fact highly ironic that Im now designing a bank-service. I’m just hoping it will be a benefit. 

To view more on the app. functions go here for clear checkbook, and here for wesabe.

-Pay for the coffe with your mobile-phone.

Interesting news from DN today:

Telenor og DnB Nor have joined forces to establish TSM Nordic to create a standard of payment with your mobile phone. ”We see the starting of a trend where more and more people are leaving their wallet at home. Where as they still have their mobile-phones with them.” (Text translated from norwegian to english by yours truly.) 

Bent Bentsen in TSM Nordic states that “The operation of pulling out your card, enter your pin and pay, takes longer time than just pulling out your mobile phone and hold it over the card-terminal. My only fear is that we by this approach might end up with just another new fancy service that will take a long time for people to trust, adopt and enjoy.

The most exiting about this article is however that they have evolved into one of the scenarios Alice and I envisioned earlier. (One of the others was BankTelenor where Telenor created a daughter-company to have total control over all the transactions happening by RFID.) 

I was a bit shocked at first, but are now delighted as this provides us with the opportunity of narrowing our project further down towards humanizing technology,

The rest of the norwegian article can be found here.

 

Suica animation

Suica nr.1 & Suica nr.2

There must be close to 40 – 100 of different animations out there of suica pasmo and all the other traveling and paying characters.. these are by far some of the cutest. (yes, I’d gladly have my picture taken with this one.) 

Trust/no trust (strange difficult and alien.)

I got a nice link the other day towards misunderstandings of how to use the portuguese rfid-card. Being used to certain types of material in relation to RFID-cards its easy to understand how this can be misinturpreted. Haptic readability can of course throw you off if not designed after conventions you’re used to. The post can be found here. 

-thanks Jørn.

forward in every direction

The logo has an important place in today’s service driven digital/physical world and still represents a mark of trust and recognition. Logo’s confirming the content source can at a glance represent source credibility.
But its all to easy to get hung up on the logo/characters at an early stage in the design-process when the focus should be on research > to develop an understanding of what the people really need, towards what the service really should be. Services and content should help define and shape the logo rather than the other way round. I will try this now and not get stuck on the meaning of/ perception of color. (hens something blue that happened earlier.)

I believe in relation to logos -as well as gestures, that its important for people to express themselves and bond with an identity.. simply to achieve a point of recognition. -maybe even respect or trust.
Still brand values and services can’t be solved within a single logo. The logo is nothing more than a symbol recognition and a device to help support and resonate with the services on offer. But also because of that; to disregard the Logo completely would be to commit brand- and thereby service-suicide.

This project is becoming a problem yet again, as forward in these directions means even more confused.

inspiring iso.

“The study of the relationship between people and technology has been called a variety of names over the years – from computer ergonomics, human computer interaction and usability to, more recently, human-centred design and user experience.

The term user experience is now widely used, especially by major players in the industry including Apple, IBM and Microsoft. 

However, in many cases, the term is contrasted to usability which is often depicted as a much narrower concept focusing on systems being easy to use. 

Other exponents explain that user experience goes beyond usability by including such issues as usefulness, desirability, credibility and accessibility.”

 

the whole blog-entry by Tom Stewart can be found here.

 

perfect payment

The attributes of gestures?
The ergonomics and usability of gestures and how to determine the appropriate gesture.

I’m currently in the need of  finding some history of gestural interfaces as gestures are becoming a big part of “interaction of transaction” in this project, as we’re focusing on payment by NFC technology. Having had a chat on an earlier occasion with Simon Clatworthy to get some more structure on our project, we found that the importance of creating curiosity, want and envy in introducing such a service is one of the most important tasks:

The visibility of paying with gestures (NFC) 

1. Functional level: ease of use. it must function, in most cases better than cash or your standard card. (benefits > convenience > need, etc. )

2. Social level: it should be visible that you’re doing something new and different. (social scene > social status > your ranking and place in the urban hurd.)

3. Individual level: this new and different should be really cool.. (building proudness > social status > self-image > creating your identity, the way you see your self.)

4. Spiritual level: can the service enrich your life to a sense of belonging? a society contributing to saving the world by not using cash? (Feel as a part of a bigger, noble organization) 

5. Mental level: “think different”. (Branding & Marketing) Can the service provided give an intellectual challenge or in some way make you feel smarter than the guy with the brown bulky leather-portemoné, even without reducing itself to target the primitive part of the brain? (and this should not contradict to numero 1. Functional.) 

 

Considering this, we’re basically looking at how to design services + information technology and create positive effects for business, society and individuals.However its still a bit much and we’re hoping to narrow it further down, possibly by the help of Telenors Pål Malm. -if nothing more than to get the chicken and egg-problem out of the way. (mobilephone-manufacturers wont implement NFC-reading until there are services using them, services wont be used until mobilephone-manufacturers have implemented it in their most common phones; a vicious, vicious circle. )

Our project is very much based on geographical transmission; on a concept working in different parts of the world, and adaptation; improving on the existing solution/services to suit an implementation in a new (norwegian) market.