D.I.T. Cell Phone-A possible future for cell phone interactions

Abstract: This thesis project identifies an issue of limited interaction options with cell phones and considers it to be a design opening and opportunity, rather than a problem. The design opportunity presented in this work is for shaping of future cell phone interactions by allowing users to design their own cell phones. To explore this provocative yet complex design opportunity a programmatic design research approach is used. The design program in this thesis is referred to as the ‘Design-It-Together cell phone’, or the DIT cell phone, design program and can be described as a design research effort into how users working together to design and make their own cell phones could offer a new set of perspectives and possibilities in shaping future interaction options with cell phones in contrast to an industry lead cell phone design and development process. Furthermore, the motivation for this thesis is not problem-based but rather exploratory, where the intention is not to build an ideal phone but rather to explore the opportunities and challenges faced by the design program, and what that can mean for shaping the future of cell phone interactions. A comprehensive exploration of this design space was done in nine main explorations or nine main experiments. Each experiment was formulated to challenge a perspective of the design program. The results of the explorations generated a repertoire of examples relating to understanding the current situations and predictions for future possibilities for cell phone interactions. Interpretation of the design program was done by analyzing this repertoire of examples from the perspective of n nine specified dimensions of the design program. The dimensions acted as a guide in thinking about possible futures of cell phone interactions within the design space of the program. Interpretation of the design program in this way allowed for comprehensive scenarios to be created of what the future of cell phone interactions could be like, as well as gaps and bigger picture impacts of the design program. The overall results and contribution of this work adhered to what is expected from a programmatic design research approach and is stated here as knowledge generated from explorations and interpretation of the DIT cell phone design program, based on the generated repertoire of examples, which helps shape possible futures for cell phone interactions.