Nokia's Cellphone Anthropologist

holy_calamity writes "New Scientist have an interview with a Nokia researcher who uses anthropological methods to study how people use their phones. His work currently focuses on watching how people in emerging markets like Africa use their devices to inform designs. For example, after finding that in Uganda many people use one handset, they shipped a version with multiple separate address books. There's also a slideshow of Chipchase's research images."

Comments

Re:Cellphones as "enablers"

[SinGunner]

So you want products that are made in the here and now to work in a country that's 5 years or more behind the wealthy, advanced markets? What's the point in designing something to work on old or limited tech when we already did it the first time around? Reduce, REUSE, Recycle.