On the other side - The Flow

In my quest for finding a usage of a double sided mobile device I have tried to be as exhaustive as I can. I have put a flashlight on the backside. I have even put a mirror there for the vain mobile users. Here's my third attempt to fill that empty space. I've been thinking of the possible yins and yangs of a mobile device. My first thought was content/applications on one side and communication on the other. It may not be possible to separate those entities since they might overlap. Why not put the Flow there which I tried to describe in my previous post? It would be like a digital diary of your life. You can go back in history of your Flow as long as you would like to. From the days when you were a kid (if you wish) until now. You would also have the possibility to bookmark certain dates or events in your flow, so that you'll find them easier later on.

In some of my first posts, I was hallucinating about "context sensitive time navigators" and proposed the turntable. I don't know if that's the best way to navigate in the Flow. But since I came up with that idea then, I thought it would be nice to squeeze that one in as well. So, what you see below is the backside of your future mobile device. All events in the Flow go in the first tab, while the other tabs filter specific types of events. The Flow will not be bound to your mobile device since all handhelds will use fingerprint biometrics for authorization. That means you can access your Flow in any mobile device or computer. The Flow will be stored on the net somewhere, somehow. Hehe, when thinking about it, the Flow will be ridiculously long when you have turned 86... :-)

Scratch it!

I've been thinking a little of the idea of a context sensitive time navigator. Is there any use for such a thing? Isn't the good old scroll bar sufficient for that purpose? Maybe so. To test the idea, here's an example of how a time navigator, the turntable, could work in order to move in time. Spinning the inner circle allows the user to move in time at a faster pace than the outer circle. In an e-mail application the inner circle could represent moving by weeks, whereas the outer could a represent a more fine-grained period such as days. I don't know if a round time navigator like this would take too much space inside the frames of a mobile device. Maybe it's better to put it at the outside frame of the device? To be investigated...

Hey Mr DJ!

Have you ever visited a really fancy night club? With the coolest, the most good looking people. But there is one guy at the place who is cooler than the rest. He's often standing in a corner by himself. Looking very serious. He is Mr DJ. At least he thinks he's cooler than the rest. But really, he controls the place. He makes people dig, he makes people dance. So why do we need Mr DJ? Wouldn't be easier to put a tape recorder in a corner? No. The rhythm and beats have to be unchanged when switching songs. The change must be seamless. So how does he do it? He has some important tools. Two turntables and his headphones. Right? One of the turntables is playing the current song. The other one is used for the next song to come. With his headphones he controls the transition between the two songs. He adjusts the position of the needle on the second record until both songs are in sync. Then releases the second song to the sound system. In an earlier post I tried to argue for a round all-in-one mobile device, just for the sake of it. And how you might could navigate through your messages and content over time using the clock metaphor. Think about it. Mr DJ's turntable is exactly that. It's a circle that navigates over time. Spinning the record back and forth is a Time Machine to find tracks and tunes. Wouldn't it be cool to be in control like Mr DJ? Spinning the circle, finding your messages and content over time? Being cool, controlling your own club - your mobile device, at ease.