I find it annoying when I get phone calls at bad times, when the battery is low in the mid of the conversation, and when the device seems too heavy or big to carry around with me.
To solve these problems, I suggest a new smart phone. This phone would automatically cross-communicate with my Gcalendar/schedule to update my schedule and act accordingly; thus, it would let me know my events with alarms, and it would not interrupt me when I am busy. Second, the battery life will be so long that I would have to charge it once a year. This way, I would not have to charge it every night or have many incidents where I would have to end the conversation because the battery is low. Third, the phone will be thin as a credit card for easy carry. I could put it in my back pocket without a bulge or put it in my smallest purse.
Even though these features may reduce the problems I currently have, there are still social-technical gaps in the design. The design is not fluid enough to deal with the unnoticed changes in my schedule. For example, if a meeting in my schedule got cancelled, and I forgot to change my Gcalendar, my phone would continue not to interrupt me for that time being even though I do not have a meeting anymore. Also, the prolonged life battery life may satisfy me initially, but when the battery runs low after about a year, I may find this more shocking or disturbing since I have not dealt with this problem for so long.
To address these issues, I would first understand the organizational and social impacts that could result from the design to improve it. I would observe the use of the new smart phone to see new possible impact and discover ways to reduce this gap. Then I would see if there are other computational mechanisms that could lessen the gap. If not, I would resort to technical architectures that provide supportive or augmentative facilities rather than invoking social-technical gaps. For example, the phone would remind the user to charge it when it has 30% battery life.
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I like the once a year cell phone charge idea. Hopefully that will exist one day. Also, I like that you thought of people forgetting to charge the phone since its been a year, but have you considered that they may have lost the charger in that time? After not using something for a year, I tend to forget where I put it. Also, I agree that cellphones are often too large to talk comfortably with or carry. How would you achieve added functionality without increasing the screen size of the phone?
ReplyDeleteWould your phone not interrupting you when you are busy allow for emergency situations? I think that there might need to be a better filter so that if a call is important enough than you will be able to take it (e.g. those Cingular commercials about people missing out on things because they have no bars).
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