Origin of Korean's Geekness

Why Koreans are so crazy about electric contraptions such as mobile TV + phone? This 41 years old cartoon may explain what is source of their geekness. My hero cartoonist Mr. Jungmoon Lee created this vision for a kid magazine "Sae-So-Nyun"(For New Boy) in 1965. It shows an imaginary life style in AC2000. Going school camp at Moon by rocket is not realized yet (still need multi million dollars) but you can see a guy who hold mobile television plus mobile phone and saying "Hello!". Did he predicted well or made a way to this?

1. Solar powered home (Not popular yet)
2. Radio newspaper (Realized. That's Internet!)
3. Computer can do everything (Never)
4. School camp at Moon (Not yet)
5. Electric car (Realized but still need some time)
6. No pollution (Not realized)
7. Robot janitor (Realized but still expansive)
8. Moving road (Interior version available)
9. Home medication (No)
10. Study at home with TV (You can but still need to go school)
11. Recipe on kitchen TV (Realized but my mother never use that)
12. Mobile TV phone (Perfectly realized!)

Public Collect Call Phone

This look like a mundane home phone but it is dedicated collect call public phone installed at a convenient store. Anyone can make a call without a penny. Even you don't need to know collect call prefix as well (ex.00700 in Korea).

It is shame that public phone is disappearing from street. Years a go (Before pager era), whenever I try to call my girl friend, I have to go phone booth from my home just for privacy. I still remember how my heart was beating when I make a call to her home and wished that she can pick up the phone instead of her father. But that's just old story now.

Nowadays, it's really hard to find a coin public phone. I believe phone card public phone is not public at all. In many countries, international calls is only available with some special public phone.

Back to the collect call story, problem for this business is 'privacy'. Many people don't accept call from stranger or unknown CID (Caller's number). The other side may don't want to pay for your call of course. If you can input your name or short message such as "frmAlfUrgent!"as Caller ID for placing a collect call might be helpful to make a call to a mobile phone.

Supplement: Added at 15 Aug.
A few days a go, I tried this service by myself. As soon as I pick the handset up, I can hear some DTMF sounds (Probably prefix number for collect call service) and make a call to my phone. Caller ID seems just normal home phone number. The receiver would have no idea it is a collect call or not in any way.
It doesn't make sense at all for me at least.

REFERENCE
SKTelink

Worn-out

This is a digital door lock for a gate of apartment house. It has 18 floor and 36 families share this gate lock daily. As you can see, you can assume which keys are frequently used nor never used. You may guess the code combination consists of "3,4,5,7,#".

In real world, usage of a product and environment can be different as time goes. We can't live happy ever after. Paint and gilt color will be worn-out by hand touch.

That may be big difference between old craft man and modern industrial designers. It seems ID guys and product makers don't think enough about the life span of their product. They often just focus on freshness in catalog photo or on shelves only.

How can we keep it fresh as possible? Or how can we make it possible to be antique with history?

Bushman's Toilet

It is a toilet gear for traveller at Zanzibar, Kenya, Africa. It was installed when a safari camp is settled down at wild desert.

1. If Nature call you, bring this shovel and walk out for a while as much as you find a place for private business. (Middle of desert or bush)
2. Shovel up sand and make a hole.
3. Refresh yourself.
4. Arrange the hole and shovel up sand over a hole.
5. Back to camp and stick it at as it were

Of course, you may use a bottle of water instead of a toliet roll.

It may be really rare experience for people. Human needs a private closed place for long time to do that. I can guess your smart ancestor would also try to find a quiet place as possbile to avoid interuption by a wild beast.
The behavior, finding a place to excrete may be origin of individual privacy.
People have to choose a place between privacy concern and security concern.

I hope to use that shovel. It looks fun anyway.

Special thanks: I found this photo from Meilan's blog. Meilan allow to use this photo for my blogging. Thank you very much.

REFERENCE
Meilan's Blog
Wikipedia: Toilet
Toilet of the World
WC International blog

Etiquette on Road

In this video, blinking emergency lamp (Blinking both side of turning lamp for 2~3 times) means "Thanks" in Korea. It is not warning.

Generally the emergency signal light means "I have trouble" but depend on situation and pre-context of road status, it can be translated into a variety of meanings.

1. "My car is in trouble" : IF car is parked on road shoulder and bonnet hood is opened, it demonstrate car is in trouble and waiting for a help. It is really important to avoid a clash with other cars in dark night. If the car is just parked on road shoulder, it may means "Sorry, I just parked here for temporary". Natural may call him/her.

2. "I'm in hurry": Blinking emergency lamp and go faster and takes every space between cars to go forward. You might run like an ambulance. If your wife start to delivery new baby, you can use this trick. But you can't be exempted from speed ticket.

3. "Excuse me": break in the lane of right(or left) turning from the other lane.
Driver may be a stranger in town or just want to save some time. It means also "I'm sorry but I'm in hurry"

4. "Thanks" : Short 2~3 times of blinking. You can show your gratitude to people who behind you.

5. "I'm in parade" : Sometimes car Hobbyist club members make a parade in the road. Their cars are blinking together and make a formation in the middle of road. Generally it is illegal in Korea but if it is official parade, it can be special exception.

6. "Speed down!" : In highway, if you have to slow down rapidly, this signal may emphasis "Slow down" with break-light. It may be useful to avoid collision from behind. It is useful when the road is in a dense fog.

SO WHAT?
Communication between cars has some variety but is based on old technology and regional & cultural tradition.
For example, short high-beam headlight changing is offensive gesture for car that runs in front of you but it may be showing gratitude in some countries.

Can we develop more sophisticated way of signal using digital technology?
In future, cars on same road may be able to talk each other and share road information and driver's intention. For instance, if your car send emergency signal through radio, all cars which run behind you including cars can't see you from distance can be slow down together as well.

REFERENCE
Half bakery
Yahoo Korea Driver Tip
Donga-ilbo article about safe drive
How signal lamps works

Outstanding Cracker

Yesterday, I was shopping at supermarket. While I'm enjoying a variety of snack corner, I just realize there is an outstanding snack package that catches my eyes among all color/flavor snacks on shelves.

"Charm Cracker" is simple saltine cracker. Because the package design is simple white color with simple small graphic, it is outstanding from noise of promotional messages.

It reminds me of iPod's minimalism. Actually the Charm cracker has its own cult. It is great for making a canapé for party. Eating with cheese or jam is good as well. It is also popular among parents who concern about kid's health try to feed it instead of too much salt/sugar combination snacks.

SO WHAT?
To be outstanding, simple is best among glittering noises.
It is another good example of "Keep it Simple, Stupid!"

Reference
Charm Cracker by ORION
Zunk's Blog: Charm cracker is cute

24 hour open sale person contact

This is a promotion poster saying "If you are interested in this space, please call me" at a empty shopping mall. You can see two person's office number and mobile number to contact with for asking about rent the space.

In many region, mobile number is regarded as personal privacy information. So it can't make sense to write down mobile number on poster. These two guys may receive some subsidy from the company but they could have a call from customer at 11pm. Actually It means they open business for 24hours.

If you are good sales person, it will be better to contact your client through your mobile. Especially, many sales person such as private banking manager want to keep their customer file personally. If you move to another company, you can bring your customer together.

SO WHAT?
For business sake, your mobile phone may need to reveal in public such as poster or web page. Having multiple number (mobile subscription) or multiple phone may help you. Otherwise how you can handle those two world with a mobile phone is a still question.

One Button

Futurist always has said about "Pressing just a button to make your life better" but it is seldom true.

I love this gadget. It think it is one of best gear I can recommend to ask your sponsor to purchase for field research.
NEXTO CF OTG is a mobile HDD backup storage for digital camera, camcorder.
It supports CF card reading, USB host and battery. Back-up is really fast(Hitachi 2GB need 6 min to transfer). I really hate to lost a chance to take a good scene because of memory full. I don't need to worry about camera/camcorder memory any more! (But there is still big problem with battery. Let's talk about it later)

But it is not the reason why it captures my eyes. It has only one button for operation.
The key "Copy" is surrounded with two color LED lamp and B/W LCD screen.

If you start to back up from CF card, step 1: Insert card and step 2: press copy button.
Actually it can recognize two kind of input. Short and long press. If you turn it off after copying, press the button for seconds. Even it can browse directories and managing files beautifully with just one key.

SO WHAT?
I really wonder how the developer could focus on core features. Probably she/he was not free from marketing and internal-geeks who want to have more. We need to ask ourselves sometimes when we make something. Why making simple is so difficult for every designers? Can we stop worrying about every possible fault scenarios? Can we be free from temptation to add more features?

REFERENCE
NEXTO OTG
Another USB backup HDD box from USGEEKS

iPod Privacy

San Marco Poice arrested a man named Ron James Guzman and charged him for aggravated
Sexual Assault of Child and possession of child pornography on his video iPod. This crime can be sentenced to 40 years in prison. Personally I support a death sentence for this kind of crime.

Otherwise I just wonder how the investigation finds his illegal iPod content. Actually it seems many people concern about their content in video iPod may cause privacy problem.

In case of MP3 player, usually there is nothing to hide or to make serious trouble for privacy. Unless you pumped the volume up to crazy level, next man can't overhear what you are listening to.

But visual content is different. Of course watching porn at public space is sexual harassment. Especially mobile users in crowded commuting train concern about next guy who may be interested in your video iPod or mobile phone message. Frankly I have to confess my professional curiosity make me observe other travelers SMS sometimes in bus or train. Sorry!. So that's why privacy film to protect you from scratch and curiosity at same time is getting popular among commuters for privacy sake.

What if you lost your iPod or leave it on desk for a while, other people might intrude your privacy easily. 5th generation video iPod has lock feature as you can see in the picture above. It looks great but it is really annoying to use.

SO WHAT?
We need little more privacy in mobile video player such as video iPod than MP3 player.
Don't make me wrong but I understand a 30ies man watching "The Melancholy of Suzumiya Harumi" in metro subway train might looks strange enought to be misunderstood.
Anyway, if a police man wants to see your iPod, you need to show it to convince others that you are not a Hentai (a pervert in Japanese).

Browsing Corridors

This is a bookstore at Kangnam, Seoul. Kyobo bookstore is just like a big Barns & Noble. I started my physical intelligence browsing here yesterday. In terms of purpose, it is quite similar experience with Internet browsing. But there is still something special. I have favorite genre and corner for bestseller just like a bookmark but I can see also much new & old stuff I can't imagine before by chance. While browsing corridors, judging a book by cover or title may be unfair but actually it helps to attract my intention. I can pickup and look through it for seconds. It is more rich experience which can not be replaced with internet bookstore yet. Another reason why I love bookstore is that I can observe people how to shop a thing more closely than other place.

I could observe some interesting things from there.

1. Pick some interesting books but left out in other place before checkout. It may be trouble to shop manager.
2. Pick a book from bottom of stacks. It may be cleaner.
3. Usually book shoppers don't use any container or cart. Carrying books by hands before checkout. Of course, it is hard to see a big cart at bookstore (At least in Korea) Some times it weights really heavy for me (It could be a reason for observation 1)
4. Experienced book adviser is really handy. People often have only vague keyword or slightly wrong author name to find a book.
5. I saw an advertisement before bookstore by online-book store. “Browse books in Kyobo but buy book in discounted price at ####.COM from home” But how can I avoid impulse buying? And people enjoy reading new book on the way back to home at train or bus.

Photo Free Zone

Usually commercial place in shopping mall doesn't like user experience researcher like me with camera. If you try to take an interesting thing in there, ear-plugged security guy will suddenly pop up and will stop your recording. An user experience researcher is dangerous as much as a terrorist or industrial spy.

But a home interior item shop, Kosney at COEX where is most popular and biggest shopping mall in Seoul welcome any photographer. Of course, "Photo Free Zone" is a marketing strategy to attract young people.

Kosney merchandizing manager said. "We believe Kosney shop can be an entertainment space for playing and enjoying with our beautiful product." in interview with Sbiznews.com

Taking a photo with digital camera is popular game and playing for Korean youth. For them, Kosney shop with beautiful stuffs is great place for playing and shopping together. And many photos will be posted on blogs and it will spreads to others as an user generated content.

Yes, shopping, taking a photo and playing are all same kind of behavior for entertainment. Why do you spend your money for making promotion pamphlet? It seems a stupid way of wasting resource for them.


Reference
A young lady, Sue pose at Kosney
Another girl at Kosney
Daum article about Kosney

Anti Design

This blue block on side of car is anti-bump urethane sponge coming with brand new Hyundai car.

It is to protect cars on side and keep the car clean as possible before delivery. These are supposed to be removed when a car is delivered. But in many cases, customers love this urethane block and keep it for a while. Even though it make new car ugly, drivers believe it help to keep new car clean.

From designer viewpoint, that urethane block hurts beauty of car design. It is anti-design. You can find similar case every where in gadgets. Almost every note PC user keep Intel Centrino and Microsoft windows XP ready sticker on palm rest. Many walkman users keep feature sticker (ex. 32hour long Li ion battery) on it. I'm sure any designer wants to have such an unnecessary sticker when draw rendering and making a mockup model. All stickers come for marketing reason. Many iPod user sbuy iPod because of sleek design. But really many iPod users put their iPod into protector which make iPod thick and ugly as soon as out of box.

SO WHAT?
Anyway, people love it and keep it as possible. I observe and name it as "Honey moon" phase. Until having heart breaking first scratch, people want to enjoy mint condition of the product.
Why don't industrial designers make a beautiful add-on protector if people really want to protect good design? For example, first layer of product should be sleek, slim, minimal and cool. The second layer can cover all vulnerable surface with more a variety of materials. I believe designer should have final touch for a product. Don't let marketers ruin your design anymore.

Reference
If Microsoft makes iPod

Superman and Phone booth

Superman returns but he may be in trouble to find a quiet place to change his super suit. Because phone booth is disappearing from street.

Once it is common cityscape you can find every modern city in the world but landline phone companies realize phone booth is not their revenue venue any more and decide to retreat from street.

Anyway Superman still need a place to change his cloth and I also need a quiet place to make a call with my mobile phone from noisy street. We share same concern for privacy.

Otherwise vandalism may be great danger to phone booth. Often it is filled with waste and dirty advertisement. Box type phone booth with door is often not a pleasant place.

Can it be saved and survive as a public instant private space just like a public toilet?

Michael Salemi who invented new in-door phone booth think he can find a new market opportunity. In US, there is over 700,000 restaurant and 40,000 night clubs. Phone booth is great place to keep privacy for their guest. Salemi’s Cell Zone cost $2400~$3500.

SO WHAT?
I believe people still need a phone booth though telcos doesn’t need it anymore.
Mobile phone service company may be new sponsor. Indoor phone booth is more safe and clean than outdoor phone booth which is hard to manage.

Mean and tools may be changed as time goes but people’s basic need is not changing easily. Every body including Superman need a temporary privacy in public space for some times. It is just time to evolve.

Reference
USA Today article: The Phone Booth Returns