Location Based Services: Not Just GPS & Foursquare

30 November 2011

HOW TO DESIGN FOR LOCATION

http://images.fastcompany.com/upload/United-States-Big.jpg

Hi

I’m @farrahbostic

I run The Difference Engine

These are a just a few thought starters & provocations to challenge what you think you know about LBS...

And get you thinking about how to design with it

WHAT’S ALL THE FUSS ABOUT?

http://theappwhisperer.com/2010/09/15/got-your-iphone-4-yet/

A Location-Based Service (LBS) is an information or entertainment service, accessible with mobile

devices through the mobile network and utilizing the ability to make use of the geographical position of the mobile device.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Location-based_service

VENN DIAGRAM

Location based

services

GPS/GSM enabled devices

MOBILE

BUT THERE ARE 3 THINGS WE GET WRONG ABOUT MOBILE

Phones are the conduit

To the internet

To content

They’re expensive phones, but cheap computers

1. MOBILE ≠ PHONES

“Gartner says smartphone sales grew more than 50% [in Q12010], accounting for 19% of worldwide device sales compared to the second quarter of 2009” Electronics Weekly, 2010 “Within 5 years the number of users

accessing the Net from mobile devices will surpass the number who access it from PCs” Morgan Stanley, 2010

“High-speed broadband Internet access, now in 63.5% of homes, has created a better user experience for watching online videos and nearly a quarter of households have smartphones, enabling consumers to “place shift” and watch video wherever they are.... While mobile online video viewing is still fairly limited, year over year growth is notable at 51.2%” Nielsen, 2010

“By 2013, video will occupy an estimated 66% of mobile traffic” Cisco, 2010

MOBILE = CULTURE

I'm here because of

Dongbangshingi

INVOLVED

CREATIVE

CONNECTED

ACTIVE

2. Mobile ≠ Technology

MOBILE IS MANY DEVICES

It’s smartphones

And dumbphones

And tablets

And wifi enabled, internet-connected cameras, media players, e-readers, etc.

AND LOCATION-BASED SERVICES ARE NOT JUST FOURSQUARE & GOOGLE MAPS

EVEN WIFI ONLY DEVICES CAN USE LBS

FROM TRACKING DEVICES TO TRACKING MOVEMENTS & CRISES

NeedMobile based data entry and input in austere conditions

CapabilitySMS input as well as smartphone and data-enabled support.

3. Mobile ≠ White Guys

YOU DON’T HAVE TO BE RICH

• 39% of 18-29 year olds earning less than $30,000 per year own a smartphone (on par with the national average).

• Just 8% have no cell phone at all.

YOU DON’T HAVE TO BE WHITE

African-Americans and Latinos are more likely than whites to use their cell phones for non-voice applications such as using the internet, playing games, or accessing multimedia content.

44% of black and Latino adults are smartphone owners, compared with 30% of whites.

YOU DON’T HAVE TO BE A MAN

40% of all US women own Smartphones

Of younger (15-24) American women, 55% own Smartphones, leading the world in adoption

YOU DON’T HAVE TO BE “UNATTACHED”

32% of US Moms owned a smartphone in 2010 v. 20% in 2009

32% say they used the Mobile Internet once a week in 2010 v. 20% in 2009

And mobile phones are in use at home, as well as on the go - an ever-present part of moms’ lives

Source Sept. 2010 Millennial Media’s SMART report

SO WHAT DO YOU DO?

A FEW GUIDELINES

Design for utility - offering people something they really want or need (or will).

Design for responsiveness - knowing there is no one standard OS or device.

Design for where people are - connecting your experience to the nearby and tangible, but also knowing where the signal is.

Design for sharing - but understand not everything is public.

A FEW EXAMPLESAND YES, THERE ARE QR CODES

GIVE DIRECTIONS

http://www.moma.org/interactives/exhibitions/2011/talktome/objects/146366/

SEND A WARNING

http://fffff.at/qr-stenciler-and-qr-hobo-codes/

ENHANCE THE ENVIRONMENT

SOLVE A PROBLEM

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/mobile-phones/8601147/Tesco-builds-virtual-shops-for-Korean-commuters.html

CONNECT PEOPLE WITH OBJECTS

NFC - near field communication - could soon influence how we engage with credit or debit card payments, travel, check-ins, medical alerts, and so on.

Ultimately, NFC (through RFID tags) delivers on the notion of an “internet of things” by tagging objects you can connect to via a mobile device.

http://www.touchanote.com/ http://www.springwise.com/entertainment/london-museum-visits-enhanced-nfc-technology/

FOSTER PLAY

“Augmented reality when applied to the body is this amazing place where the aesthetics and evolution intersect, and the authors of this new soft biology are a handful of engineers and computer programmers as flawed as the users controlled by their interfaces.”

http://www.digicult.it/digimag/article.asp?id=1880

THANK YOU.