Extending the Designs of Mobile Experiences
The article ‘Territory As Interface: Design For Mobile Experience’ discusses the project and objectives of the ‘The Mobile Digital Commons Network.’ This is a collaborative research venture between several academic institutions across Canada that looks at how mobile devices could further link humans to their urban and wildlife environments. Their goals are to witness how these mobile experiences and technologies improve, develop and alter urban and outdoor spaces. The projects that they had developed were based in urban settings in Canadian cities, such as in a city square or a park in Montreal. When reading this article, I began to think about a new’s story I had watched about how mobiles devices were helping farmers in rural parts of Africa. The farmers would use their cellular devices to save time on their daily commute to check the levels of their irrigation pumps. Many of these irrigation pumps were miles a part and walking to each one would take quite a long (wasteful amount of) time to get to. By using a mobile device app with wireless connections, farmers could check each pump to see if the levels were sufficient and the pump was in good working condition. This would save the farmer a considerable amount of time because they would not have to walk to the pump.
I know we have been talking and discussing more about storytelling with mobile and interactive technologies, but this article made me think – what about how we can create devices that assist people in their daily lives, whether that be in their work or living situations? Perhaps these technologies could also have story elements within them and help tell a story or teach/inform people more about what they are doing. These sorts of interactions that humans could have with their urban surroundings could be almost unlimited if the technology allows it.
How can we create mobile technologies that help people’s daily lives in rural communities in Canada? Would / could they also contain elements of storytelling? Could there be a game component to these mobile innovations? Would these mobile technologies then become part of their daily routines?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/aug/26/africa-innovations-transform-continent
http://www.forbes.com/sites/bethhoffman/2012/08/01/african-farmers-to-get-mobile-phone-help-farm-to-fork/