Distractedly Intimate - Your Users on Mobile

This talk will explore three themes: We Are In Love, We Have Changed, We Are Not Really Here.

We Are In Love
Humans often hate their computers, but they love their phones. It is truly our most intimate device. We take it everywhere we go, including to bed. We share all the moments of our lives with it, sometimes on camera. It connects us constantly to the people we love the most. The keyboard separates us from the computer, but touch brings us closer to our mobile device(s). From how we spend our time (many of the most popular applications are games) to the natural extension of a custom ringtone to a dedicated space on the device for our partner, love is a design consideration.

We Have Changed
From personal tracking devices to selling sheep via instagram, these devices have changed the way we live. Whilst we are more in control of, and have more information than ever before, increasingly people feel overwhelmed, suffer from decision fatigue, and seek out solutions like the “disconnected vacation”. A decade ago, such a thing was just “vacation”.

We Are Not Really Here
Whilst we carry out devices with us constantly, our attention is split between them and the world around us. They are the accompaniment to our commute, whilst we wait in line, whilst we watch TV. Our attention is intermittent, and incomplete. Multitasking has a cognitive overhead comparable to being intoxicated (see the effects of texting whilst driving). Ideas like “phone stacking” aim to address this lack of presence in our human interactions, but when we design we must design for the distracted user. What does this mean?