Sensorial’Org

I mentioned earlier this month that I will be involved in another project this summer, now I have a little more details.

Reference: Breaking the Disposable Technology Paradigm. Also see the incredible amount of human waste.

The problem

• Advances in computation + dependence on technology => increase consumption on computation devices
• Disposable technology paradigm: expected short usage lifetime => increase in waste. In particular, cellphone waste where consumers replace their cellphones every 17.5 month
• Old cellphones are being deposited in landfills or kept around with no alternative use

The cause?

Questions

• Why did you get your current phone?
• Why did you choose this particular phone? Size? Functionality? Aesthetics?
• What do you do with your old phones?

• Companies offer free cellphones with contract renewal
• Increasing expectation of existing phones in light of new models
• Diminishing battery life (cheaper to get a new phone than to replace the battery); durability
• Perceived lifetime of a phone is independent from its functional lifetime

The challenge

• Recycling old phones is an inconvenience
• People don’t know about organizations out there that take old cell phones
• Although people save old phones because of its potential to benefit another user, people don’t necessarily want the old phone

The solution?

• Reform contract structure and incentive programs
• Mobile phone interfaces that encourage sustainable use
• Novel ways to reuse old cellphones to decrease the need for new devices
• Make phones with biodegradable material
• Make it easy for consumers to recycle their old phones

Ideas

• Indicate the user’s ownership of the phone in comparison to the phone’s expected functional lifetime
• Create a market place for phones to trade ownerhsip
• Old cellphones as a personalized gift; branded as a photo collection, mixed tape, etc
• Increase awareness of recycling options and locations by convenient means, e.g. through the phone itself
• Modifiable outer designs without changing the internal hardware
• Repurpose phones as entertainment devices in clinics and hospitals, pagers in restaurants

Rethinking the Ordinary — Links

• Ikea Hacker
• Yiying Lu’s Extra Ordinary series
• 60 Really Creative Advertisements
• 100 Really Creative Business Cards

I had my first day of work today, and… getting used to a Mac will take some time. I use the CTRL key so frequently that without it I was handicapped (until I found that the window’s key was the Apple’s equivalent, but it’s still at an awkward location on the keyboard). I’m a bit undecided about the toolbar being detached from the application window. While the integration of applications with the OS is part of reason why Mac’s are supposed to be great, and I like being see my background apps, it’s a tad infuriating when I can’t figure out how to close the foreground application or save my file.

Other than some grips with technology, everything else was pretty good. People are nice (learned five names today, although I certainly met more people than that), projects are interesting, and awesome location. In terms of projects, I’ve gotten started on two: Conquest — revisiting the navigation around the keywords “Security”, “Excellence” and “Luxury”, and Mindblossom — realigning and reworking some of its issues. Other projects for the summer will include KFC, CitiCards, and Reebok. I love the breadth of the projects I get to work on.

Creative meeting and team lunch tomorrow!

1. Will be starting an 12-16 months internship at Mindblossom as an Information Architect/User Experience Designer. Super excited for this! No more school for a whole year =D
2. Project with Professor Khai Truong. Details to come.
3. One painting/sketch per day round 2!
4. Anime North 2009
5. Clean up the Resource section, and some of the errors that’s still around the site.
6. Revamp Chiba. Although sadly neglected, people are still visiting and linking the site, and I feel bad for letting it collect dust. I still love Mamo-chan! School has just taken over.