There just so happens to be a great blog/essay/article in the NYTimes today on how thoughtful design, and those who actually put pen to paper, the designers, are evolving through this current economic recession.  The case to be made is that designers are placing more emphasis on ways good design can help solve a problem.  In other words, the economic downturn is forcing designers to look at how to make products, services and buildings meet everyday social and environmental challenges.

http://arieff.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/04/08/designing-through-a-depression/

Nowhere is this thoughtful sense of design more needed than in the design of wireless devices. We are now caught up in one of the most hyped wireless technological phenomenon of the moment, the Touchscreen; the Apple iPhone being the original ubiquitous successful progenitor of this interface. But everyday we hear that more and more manufacturers are following Apple’s lead and devoting more of their models to this particular user interface.  Going down this route potentially runs the risk of leaving some people without access to a wireless device. Yes, the touchscreen is a rather novel and sometimes intuitive way of accessing the features and functions of the cell phone. The iPhone is just so cool. But what if you have problems with mobility in your fingers, hands or arms in which you are unable to make the appropriate sliding, pinching, or grasping movements necessary to navigate your way through the menus and applications on the device. Or what if you are visually impaired and can’t see or orient the screen to begin with.

In contrast,  there are many great design elements that have been incorporated into cell phones that make the device easy to use for everyone.  Take into account the raised nib on the # 5 key.  This lets you know you are smack dab in the middle of the keypad, and is particularly useful to those with visual limitations.  Or the vibrating function of a device that alerts a person with a hearing impairment of an incoming call.

It is in the same vain of outside-the-box thinking about how these simple innovative solutions came to be that we can apply to making touchscreens more usable to all people.  One of the fascinating developments of the touchscreen interface is that so much of their uniqueness and potential flexibility lies with a relatively open and highly adaptable operating system that allows much of the innovation of these devices to be driven by third-party developers in the form of specialized software applications. We can hope that these forthcoming customized applications will allow an ever greater number of us to enjoy all the features these devices can bring us.

I was particularly enthused to see that the author brought up the notion that  “of every designer who stands guilty as charged for designing platinum cell phones there are now — as there were six months ago, a year ago, a decade ago — far more designers quietly working on more purposeful pursuits.”

Here's a tip o' the old hat to those designers!

I’d welcome the start of dialogue here on MyWirelessReview.com about ways good thoughtful design could meet your wireless device needs. Thoughts, ideas, comments?

-Ben