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experiences from abroad

I call myself a design ethnographer. I immerse myself into the cultures and lifestyles of the end user to create simple, usable and intuitive experiences. The mobile experience is what this site is about – tapping into notions of brand, user experience, usability applied to WAP, SMS, MMS, 3G and more. Global adoption of mobile communication is hitting its second wave, and I intend to witness the expansion and adoption first hand.

As I write this first entry, I am sitting on the South Island of New Zealand – working on a research project on mobile branding and user experience. I’m on a ‘semi-sabbatical’ for a few months, traveling, teaching, writing and observing. The research alone will take me to four countries before the end of the year, and in the end I hope to gain new insight into the mobile world. While researching, I found an excellent overview of mobile research methods that was painstakenly put together by the author of MobileCommunity.com. Also a comparison of usability evaluation methods from UserDesign.com. Both relevant and helpful!

New Zealand is a small country that is fast adopting to technology, and slow to change in culture. There are no zip codes here. Approximately 2.8 million people here have mobile phones out of only 4 million people total, so the adoption rate is quite high. But it costs about .70 cents NZ (.50 cents US) to make a phone call or receive a call on your cell phone – so few use it for talking, mostly having it available for emergencies or in the younger crowd, SMS messaging. I believe there are steps being taken currently to improve the pricing and expand service providers to release this country from a mobile monopoly. The time zone here is a day ahead and 4 hours behind the US, and so it is an ideal location to work remotely and still be in touch with the States. Maybe I’ll open a remote office here one day?

Posted on October 27th, 2004 in Thoughts
Tagged as , ,
Written by Kelly Goto

4 Responses to “experiences from abroad”

Comments

  1. Erik says:
    October 27th, 2004

    kelly - love the new site. definitely a launching off point. great work!

    erik

  2. Parshu says:
    October 27th, 2004

    kelly - love ur thoughts and writing. I too am trying to dive deep into the ocean of ‘user experience on the mobile’ and trying to figure out user behaviour. Maybe, we will meet each other while journeying.

  3. Kelly Goto says:
    October 27th, 2004

    Parshu - thaks for your comments. This post was actually written while on a sabbatical in New Zealand i 2004 - I try and travel and get inspired as much as possible midst technology and gadgetry - I find my time with people and places the most riveting experiences.

  4. Shannon Cockerill says:
    October 27th, 2004

    Hi Kelly,

    Have you ever texted AQA on 63336 in Uk or Ireland? AQA answers any question in minutes from your mobile, we get over 12,000 questions answered per day ranging from advice on what to wear, shopping comparisons, train times, chat up line advice, relationship advice, pub quiz, technical support, help etc etc.

    It’s a fun service that provides quick, quality, concise answers to any question. Most of our users are in the 18-35 years bracket. We’ve answered over 5 million questions.

    To use AQA, UK phone users text 63336 (cost £1), Ireland text 57275 (cost €2), or if you can’t wait until you arrive into the UK, you can ask a question free from http://www.63336.com. Would be great to test us live….

    Did you try a can of L&P, a traditional hangi, and some fresh paua fritters while in NZ? Yummy!

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