Nokia Open Studio: Nokia Asks Slum Residents to Design Their Ideal Future Mobile Phones

Nokia ethnographers Jan Chipchase and Younghee Jung share their experiences in conducting the Nokia Open Studio design contest in 2007 across three slums around the world -- Dharavi (Mumbai, India), Favela Jacarezinho (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil), and Camp Buduburam (Accra, Ghana) --

Ethnographic research methods guide the design research phase for innovation as far as creating opportunities through which we can understand the present living and underlying motivations behind why people behave the way they do. But it often does not let us see beyond the barriers of the present living: people who are not using technology not because they do not need it but because they cannot afford it; people who do not have time or social network to introduce them to new tools. Through open studios, we wanted to lift these barriers and understand how people see the relevance of technology in their lives, sometimes for the future, sometimes in relation to what is lacking today. It is not a marketing tool, and it is not a tool to hunt ideas to implement in products directly. But it is a tool that supports our thinking and projection about the future. (Younghee Jung)

Despite what you might assume for a studio, the most valuable output of the Open Studio is not the designs, but in providing an alternative way for people to articulate their wants and needs - within the context of their community. (Jan Chipchase)

The 220 entries included a range of creative ideas that ranged from simple statements, to complex conceptual representations, to highly symbolic expressions of their needs and desires. Ideas represented through the entries can be broadly divided into four overlapping themes -- device symbolism, functional enhancement, mobile convergence, and magical function --

- Device symbolism: Entries that used the device’s shape to symbolically represent the entrant’s preference, heritage, profession, and what they desire in the future through the shape of the device.

- Functional enhancement: Entries that focused on specific functions as solutions to problems or issues they are facing as individuals or communities.

- Mobile convergence: Entries that created attractive combinations of known functions on one mobile device, to enable easy access, especially in private contexts.

- Magical function: Entries that addressed the most important issue in their lives in mobile context, without any technical references or relevance to communication.

The underlying motivations represented through the entries included cost saving (combining device functionalities and enabling battery charging by solar energy), increasing convenience (combining device functionalities and wearing the mobile phone, often as a wrist watch), expressing identity, and enabling social change.

The conclusion reached by Jan and Younghee is at the center of my lowest common denominator design philosophy for MobiChange --

Their submissions highlighted that innovation in the context of these communities is not about newness of technology but relevance to the individual’s needs, usage contexts, and adaptability, especially for those who are exposed to the spread of technology or technology-driven products in a non-linear fashion compared to more developed markets.

For more details on the Nokia Open Studio see these two posts by Jan Chipchase and Younghee Jung.

Here is their paper and presentation on Nokia Open Studio --

Here is Younghee Jung's talk at Lift 2008 Conference --

-- and here is another video interview with her --

Here is a BusinessWeek slideshow on Nokia Open Studio.

Here's a presentation by Younghee Jung and Jan Chipchase that locates Nokia Open Studio in the context of their work at Nokia Design Studio --