Design Sojourn has a cool post about a concept phone developed by Jack Godfrey Wood (a Masters student) in collaboration with Nokia.allmyfriends creates sentimental value by allowing each user to design their own ‘bead’ that they can give to people they wish to be contacted by.It is perhaps a little too cutesy for the everyday user (not to mention business guys and gals - which is where something like this could also come in handy as a form of business card exchange), but I appreciate the unique interface, and think that this is the way things are headed. It is a cool way to link memory and personality to something as boringly technological as making a call - and is a little (meaning a lot) more exciting than seeing some crappy lo-res phone camera pic and customized ringtone come up when someone calls.
Squeeze the bead of the person you want to talk to to call them; the recipient squeezes the glowing/vibrating bead to answer.
The beads can be strung on any length of ‘phone’ and worn in any way the user wants creating a visual and tactile menu of friends, family and colleagues
This also reminds me of two things: First, Moo, a neat site that lets you print what they call “mini cards” using your Flickr photos.
And also, Adam Greenfield’s amazing book called Everyware: The Dawning Age of Ubiquitous Computing which I highly recommend.
