if you remember when Nokia released its first Communicator, which was introduced in 1996. The major features were fax, email, smart messaging, world clock, making notes, managing calendars, etc. That's called...
the PDA aka Personal digital assistance, which was running under Symbian OS, much before the rapid evolution of Android, iOS and BlackBerry smartphones. That was a product particularly built for the niche users, but not all users. Let me tell you a small story...
An age of mobile phones without a data plan.
Approximately $32 or 2000 INR was the monthly budget for a design student like me while I was doing my design specialization in the year of 2000. This budget used to take care of all my basic expenditure starting from eating out, buying design materials for the courses, etc. If you're lucky,...
you could end up buying a T-shirt of 150 INR or $2. Forget about owning a mobile phone plus paying for the calling charges unlike few folks who could afford a mobile phone. There were only two reasons...
to keep a mobile phone; voice calling/receiving or sending/receiving SMS. And there were no data plans, and of course. No Facebook, no Twitter, not even Gmail. Having an email account was a pretty big thing by that time. And how can you forget about the popular email clients before 2003? Hotmail, Yahoo, and Rediff; just to name a few. But...we're in the year of 2015.
Keeping a smartphone is like keeping a pen in your pocket.
A lot of things have changed over time. And we're living in the rise of smartphone hub. Why do we need a smartphone today?
- You love front-facing smartphone cameras and keep taking selfies.
- Smartphones are so affordable that a beggar can have a Whatsapp group called "Thi Strit Bizines" (though he's not educated).
- A gangster uses a special smartphone app to harass its customer by using different voice modulation features.
- A child keeps a track record of his mom/dad.
- You can't bluff anyone that you're not well; you checked in a pub last night.
- Your wife comes to know what you ordered by looking at the pushed notification message from Amazon while you're away.
- You can reschedule all your meeting via calendar app while enjoying your vacation.
- You can share your new born baby photos from New York to your grandpa in china instantly; even a video chat of course!
Those are some of the smartphone usage patterns. Now...
how many of you really use the basic features being a designer?
Is the topic of smartphone out of context accordingly to you? Let's look at...
how it is related. Why don't you use a cell phone rather than a smartphone ? Think about it. Did you buy a smartphone just because all your colleagues have, or to use it as an entertainment device? However, that's one of the facts. Does your...
smartphone help in your design career? You don't think so.
There are million apps that are designed for people (just like you). Now tell me how many apps have you used or keep them for daily usage? Though you start with...
Mobile First while giving an interview, but you still use web based applications. Why do you think people, as your target users would ever want to try your mobile app? Because they're just like you. You think...
smartphones are for fun & entertainment.
As I mentioned before, the first reason for you to get a bigger smartphone is entertainment so that you can watch movies, play those colorful ball game calls candy crush saga, the restless man who never stops and keeps running called the "Temple Run" on the go, right? Besides entertainment, what else do you accomplish by using your smartphone? How will you...
come up with a next generation Mobile app design if you never bother to download similar apps to see the entire interaction model and the way they are designed? For instance,...
do you think Twitter will ever come to you and say, "Hey mark! Would you like to try our tweet with comment feature that we recently launched?" Of course not! You only remember...
what Twitter, Google+, Instagram apps are all about. But, can you tell me what are some of the new features they came up recently with or how they solved some of the problems? Approximately...
90 percent, the answer is no if you ask some some of your colleagues including yourself! In fact, this is even one of the most questions asked by most of the design hiring managers, "How do you stay up to date with the latest design trends & technologies?" Use...
smartphones as tools to success
Don't use your mobile phone just to make free calls/messages using a data plan. In fact, Read top design articles via subscribing to their RSS feeds via reader apps like Feedly, Newsify, Reeder 2, Reconnaissance, Faast, etc. You should be warmed up before accomplishing your very first task at work, and not by watching movies & playing games especially in the morning when you are fresh. Don't call yourself...
a rockstar designer by using the outdated design techniques especially when you work along with the core team; front-end engineers. Find what's new from SmashingMagazine, UXMag, A List Part, etc. and add those articles into your Pocket app so that you can read them later and stay up to date with the latest design trends. Have you ever...
imagined what happens when a new designer joins your team and talks about how some of the frameworks, dynamic design style guides, etc.? You end up nodding, "..hmm." Then you try to find out how the hell he/she came up with this information being practical. Install...
some of the apps for your daily design inspiration such as Behance, Dribbble, etc. and check out what others are uploading/commenting during tea & lunch breaks. Upload some of your...
design ideas, concept sketches on popular Google+ communities, LinkedIn Groups or Facebook Groups while you are at work, and engage with the comments/suggestions via using their mobile apps when you're stepped out of your desk. Do you always...
forget things to do? For example, if you forget to follow up with your clients, scheduling a meeting, submitting a design brief on time, etc. then use some of the to-do list apps like Sunrise Calendar, Wunderlist, Any.do, Todoist, etc. All you have to do is set an alert 15-30mins before an event. It's that easy. Ah!...
Enough of applications, did I talk about design courses?
The popular Udemy has got 25,000+ courses and taught by expert instructors worldwide having both Free and Paid. In India, there are short term user experience courses available from different companies/organization and you have to pay 25,000 INR or $400 to start with. The best thing about...
Udemy is that you can take up several UX courses and pay as low as 6,100 INR or $99 to start with; especially good for those who can't afford to take up a 2-4 years full-time course without leaving their current jobs. The best part is that you can use Udemy mobile app and download all video lessons before going to bed using your home WIFI network, and keep viewing them at any time especially while you are commuting. If you're...
a designer, you can't skip writing. Can you?
If you're a creative person, you come up with a lot of unique ideas; every day. Those ideas are precious, and you forget to write it down especially while traveling. Do you know...
the most powerful device that you own is your smartphone that stays in your pocket most of your time, and nothing else? Now, you just have to...
install one handy application called Evernote, that's it. Now put down your ideas that you need to work later on. All notes would be synced up with your desktop in real time. I use myself Evernote as organizer to maintain a to-do list, minutes of the meetings, project plans and some ideas to my blog posts. Try it, it's free. And yes, if you are on a mac, you can also use its default app called the Notes if you don't wanna download Evernote. I've given...
some examples as how to utilize your smartphone; smartly. Now, I will leave it up to you to decide what and how you want to accomplish. I have no doubt, this is one of the questions would be asked by most of the design hiring authorities, "how many applications do you have in your favorite smartphone?" That would confirm whether you really use them or talk about them. So how do you...
utilize your smartphone, and what are your favorite apps? I would love to hear them loud from you.
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