calls, has a dedicated button.
Checking a prepaid account balance, also very important, is
available using a direct keypress.
By making important functions
directly available from the keypad, MotoFone enables users to
more easily access the phone’s
features by harnessing spatial
memory.
January + February 2008
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Navigation and Spatial Memory
Nesting functions in hierarchical menus is in direct opposition to the design goal of taking
advantage of spatial memory. For
almost every phone, the same
physical space of the screen is
used to represent divergent kinds
of information and functions, and
there is often very little space
available to provide orientation
cues. In one context, the information shown on the screen might
represent an address book; in
another context, it is an SMS
message composer or a music
player. Reusing the physical space
in this way runs counter to people’s natural bias toward a spatial
understanding of systems.
Addressing this in the design
of mobile devices is difficult:
Displays are small, and the functional demands are high. Good
user interfaces provide users with
context about their location in
a system (such as breadcrumbs
in website navigation). But even
in typical mobile phones, this
objective is often difficult to realize. Without the luxury of large
screens to provide orientation
cues, mobile phones rely heavily
on short, descriptive screen labels
and people’s memory of where
they are in the system. For those
who cannot read, however, understanding these labels becomes a
difficult task, as there are no spatial cues to prompt memory.
Through in-country research
and concept validation, the
Motorola team established a core
feature set for MotoFone that
was both useful and appealing
to target customers. By reducing
the amount of functionality available, the main navigation could,
in turn, be flattened to a single-level menu that provides direct
access to important functions. In
this way, SMS (often necessary
to check prepaid account balances), ringtone selection, alarm
clock, and system clock settings
are all primary functions directly
available from this menu. This
approach mitigates the need for
users to remember where, within
a complex internal hierarchy,
each piece of functionality is
located.
Environmental Factors
In addition to struggling with
literacy, people in developing
countries often have quite specific practical needs in relation
to mobile phones, compared
with those living in wealthier
parts of the world. Through the
course of the MotoFone project,
the Motorola research and design
team spent a great deal of time
carrying out contextual research
in many developing world countries. The team found that phones
are very often used outside, so
screens need to be highly readable in direct sunlight. Power supplies are often unreliable, so battery life becomes a critical issue.
And users are very price sensitive, so tracking phone spending
is an almost continuous activity.
To address these issues,
MotoFone makes use of a large
Electronic Paper Display, like
those used in some e-books,
which is exceptionally readable in
full sunlight. Battery life is rated
at more than 12 days. Customized
prepaid tracking features allow
users to directly check their
prepaid account balance with a
single keypress. But perhaps most
important, many design elements
of MotoFone are focused on supporting people who cannot read.
Designing systems for nonliterate users creates a unique set
of demands and opportunities
for designers. When creating
products for nonliterate people,
designers should consider the following best practices:
• Harness collective literacy.
Understanding the competencies
of the group must be considered
along with those of the individual.
• Leverage familiar images and
metaphors that are culturally meaningful. Without written words,
appropriate design of symbols
and icons becomes critically
important.
• Draw on well-developed skills,
such as spatial memory. Make the
most of people’s ability to remember spatial relationships.
Bringing mobile phones to the
developing world can have a considerable positive impact on people’s ability to improve their lives.
Designing such products in an
appropriate way only enhances
that opportunity.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Gabriel White led the interaction design for MotoFone
while working for Motorola
in Beijing. Currently, he is
a principal designer at frog
design, a strategic-creative consultancy,
based in Palo Alto, Calif. He has a keen
interest in designing products for social
change, and also publishes a blog dedicated to mobile interaction design at www.
smallsurfaces.com.