The Infobar A02 is the latest Infobar handset created by Fukasawa for KDDI's design series au.

Fukasawa, who is also known for his work with Japanese brand MUJI, collaborated with interface designer Yugo Nakamura to design the handset and its interface.

The user interface is iida 2.0, a version of Android that allows users to customise their home screen with their favourite content.

Like Windows Phone 8, iida is based on a scrolling screen of variously sized tiles which can be dragged and arranged as the user desires.

"The movement or manipulation is very intuitive," he explains in the movie (above). "So people don't need to read any kind of manual or anything – you intuitively understand."

The phone's sounds were created by Japanese pop star Cornelius.

The Infobar A02 launches next month and comes in three colour options: grey, blue and a combination of red, white and lilac inspired by Japanese koi carp.

Above: movie demonstrating user interface

Other Infobar handsets include the C01 model, which features buttons in different colours, and the Infobar 2, an early concept for the phone designed in 2007.

Recent work by Fukasawa we've published includes a set of minimal dials to monitor air temperature, pressure and humidity and a wooden stool with a steel footrest – see all design by Naoto Fukasawa.

Other phones we've featured include a mobile that charges using the heat in your pocket and another that's powered by sugary drinks – see all mobile phones on Dezeen.

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for KDDI appeared first on Dezeen.

Interview: struggling smartphone maker BlackBerry hopes to wrestle back lost market share with a new touchscreen keyboard that will eradicate the "embarrassing" mistakes common on rival smartphones. "Sometimes it's kind of scary when you get your own emails back and you read them," said BlackBerry's head of design Todd Wood.

"Text input is something that we knew a lot about and we thought, let's apply all the intelligence, all the technology we have to make writing and composing and communicating much more efficient and more professional," Wood told Dezeen.

Canadian company Blackberry, which changed its name from Research in Motion at the beginning of the year, is launching two models that use the new BlackBerry 10 operating system – the fully touchscreen Z10 (top and below), available since January, and the forthcoming Q10 (bottom), which has a full QWERTY keyboard as well as a touchscreen.

According to Wood, the new operating system is a response to the growing number of users who had taken to carrying two phones with them – a BlackBerry for business and an iPhone or other touchscreen for personal use. "We solved it with a feature called Balance, where you can easily switch between the environments of business and personal and you can have different apps and different content on both," says Wood.

But for those unwilling to make the switch to a touchscreen device, BlackBerry will still be developing QWERTY phones like the Q10. "As a design we almost own the category," he adds.

Read the full interview below.

Emilie Chalcraft: BlackBerry is launching two phones this year that use its new operating system – the touchscreen Z10 and the touch with keyboard Q10. What do they offer that older models don't?

Todd Wood: These are the first products running on our new operating system, BlackBerry 10. This is something we've created from the ground up. It's built on an operating system that we acquired two years ago called QNX, and it's really suitable for multi-tasking.

We believe it's the future of not only mobile communications, but something we're calling mobile computing. Because you can do virtually any of the multi-tasking apps or services on the go, while you're mobile, and that's quite unique.

All of your communication and social feeds shows up in the hub. You can glance, or "peek" at the hub to see if you have a new message or alert, or you can flow over to other applications like the alarm clock or calendar or maps.

Emilie Chalcraft: BlackBerry is best known for its integration of the full QWERTY keyboard into the phone, so why would you want to move towards a pure touchscreen model like the Z10?

Todd Wood: We have 79 million customers that love their BlackBerrys, and they're primarily keyboard BlackBerrys. These are for people that can type without thinking and love the tactility of the keyboard, and that's great. But we as designers started to notice this phenomenon of people carrying two devices, an all-touch and a BlackBerry – it's often the case of having one business device and one personal device.

So that was one problem we wanted to solve, and we solved it with a feature called Balance, where you can easily switch between the environments of business and personal and you can have different apps and different content on both. Then your business is happy and you're happy, because you have everything you want in one device.

The other problem that we saw that we really wanted to do something about was to do with large displays. They're fantastic for browsing, fantastic for viewing movies, maps and pictures, but the problem with a large display on these touchscreen devices is it's very difficult, and sometimes embarrassing, to type on them.

Emilie Chalcraft: What do you mean by embarrassing?

Todd Wood: We noticed that there are websites that post the most hilarious misspelled messages, and sometimes it's kind of scary when you get your own emails back and you read them. So we realised that's a problem that people have with the accuracy and the efficiency of typing.

Text input is something that we knew a lot about and we thought, let's apply all the intelligence, all the technology we have to make writing and composing and communicating much more efficient and more professional.

The [new] keyboard offers a mode where you can actually have the system suggest words and you can flick these words onto the page, so you don't have to type out frequently used words or names, or long words.

Emilie Chalcraft: But is a full keyboard still more accurate than a touchscreen?

Todd Wood: For some it is, if they're really hard-wired or they have this muscle memory for the keyboard. I've actually been using the Z10 for a number of months and I've become really good at it so I'm willing to switch, but I think that a lot of our customers aren't quite willing to switch, so that's why we've offered the choice.

Emilie Chalcraft: So although it may seem like you’re trying to phase out the keyboard, you're actually retaining that design element because people like it so much?

Todd Wood: Absolutely, it's very iconic. As a design we almost own the category – anything with a QWERTY keyboard, you call it a BlackBerry. But also, what we were excited about was that the engineering can really make something different and better in the world of touch and all-touch devices.

Emilie Chalcraft: The BlackBerry is obviously is a very popular phone for business customers, so are you trying to move away from that customer base with this new touchscreen phone?

Todd Wood: It's really about reframing the problem and realising you can be in an enterprise of one, if you're a freelance journalist or whatever, and you're balancing work and personal.

So we're designing for that person – someone who's hyperconnected, someone who's getting stuff done, and we know that often it's the case of multi-tasking to get things done. And just like we liberated email from the desktop so you're not chained to your desk anymore, in a way we're taking multi-tasking away from the desktop and putting it in your hand.

Emilie Chalcraft: Four or five years ago, BlackBerry was at the top of the market, but since then you've been rapidly overtaken by Apple and then Samsung. How do you propose to compete with those companies?

Todd Wood: Smartphones have become a very big business for our customers and the carriers, and with that big opportunity comes competition. I think the very positive side of all of that is that we're all striving to make things better, so it's really driving innovation in the category.

Through this evolution in the category there are clearly two typologies of devices. There's the one that's most familiar, with the QWERTY keyboard, and that's a category that we own. Then there's the all-touch, which is almost like a Ford or a sedan – just the new normal.

I think then we start to look at the differences between the sedans. There is the brand – and I think you'll see clearly with our product design that it's a BlackBerry – and then it comes down to what makes the user experience better than the other brands, whether it's the applications, like BlackBerry Messenger, whether it's the quality of the display, or just the graphic of the device where we have the distinct edge-to-edge glass.

Emilie Chalcraft: You recently named pop star Alicia Keys as the brand's creative director, but a few weeks ago she was spotted tweeting from her iPhone. Why would a company choose a celebrity as its creative director, especially if they don't have any design training?

Todd Wood: The interesting part in the collaboration with Alicia Keys has to do with our Keep Moving campaign. She is really an iconic personality. She's somebody who is getting things done, working with and using Blackberry as a creative tool and as a communication tool through various applications. She'll be very instrumental further downstream through marketing activities and relationships with the core BlackBerry people in the music industry.

She doesn't have any industrial design background, so it's not clear exactly how we'll work together, but I think that's something to be inspired by and surprised by.

We're a very open brand to collaborations. We've worked with Porsche Design to do a very premium, or "ultra-premium" BlackBerry in the past. They have their own store network where we could experiment with materials that for mass production would be difficult to do – the real leather back, the fully machined seamless frame, etc. So those collaborations are always important.

It's a different way of working. We don't do everything ourselves. We are very open to the developer community, so that could mean being open to brand collaborations, whether it's Alicia Keys or Porsche Design.

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misspelled messages" appeared first on Dezeen.

Designer Richard Clarkson has created a conceptual smartphone with a rotary dial.

The Rotary Mechanical Smartphone combines a digital touch-screen on the front with interchangeable mechanical dials on the back.

The painted surface of the case will wear away in time to reveal the electroplated copper beneath.

More mobile phones on Dezeen »

Here are some more details from Richard Clarkson:

Digital vs. Mechanical – Rotary Mechanical Smartphone is a concept designed by Richard Clarkson that combines and synthesizes digital technologies and physical mechanical systems in order to elicit more value in our everyday objects.

The rotary mechanical smartphone is based on the idea of incorporating more feeling and life into our everyday digital objects. In modern times these objects have come to define us, but who and what defines these objects? Are we happy with generic rectangles of a touchscreen or do we want something with more tangibility, something with more life, something with more aura?

I have looked at where industrial design has come from, and where it might be going to, and by doing so have tried to create an object that is true to both, a harmonious combination of mechanical parts and digital technologies.

Rotary mechanical is a question not only about the ever increasing ‘digital take-over’ of everything in our lives but also what is lost when this happens.

There are two interchangeable brass dials, a true rotary dial and a button dial, the act of changing these is inspired from changing the lenses on a camera.

The body is electroplated copper which is then painted and designed to improve aesthetically as is wears.

The design of the phone references both steampunk and minimalistic genres to combine and contrast the different forms and surface finishes.

The post Rotary Mechanical Smartphone
by Richard Clarkson appeared first on Dezeen.

London designer Dominic Wilcox created this stylus that straps over his nose for using his touch-screen phone in the bath. Update: this project is included in Dezeen Book of Ideas, which is on sale now for £12.

Called Finger-nose Stylus, the device is made from a handheld stylus embedded in fibrous plaster.

It allows the user to securely hold the phone with one hand and operate it with their nose.

Here are some more details from Dominic Wilcox:

I sometimes use my touchphone in the bath. I know it’s stupid. One problem I encounter is that when put my left hand in the water without thinking, it gets wet and unusable for touchscreen navigation. It is too risky to try to hold and navigate with one hand. I found that I could use my nose to scroll but I couldn’t see where my nose was touching precisely. It was at that point that I came up with this idea of a nose extension ‘finger’ that would allow navigation while my phone is firmly held by one hand.

I did send a tweet from the bath last night which was typed as ‘Hello I am tweeting with my nose’ unfortunately due to the phone’s
auto-correct it sent it as… 'Hello I am meeting with my nose'.

I lost 2 followers.

It’s also handy when out and about multi-tasking. I imagine it would be a great accessory for iPad users.

I bought a handheld stylus that I embedded in the plaster nose. The plaster comes mixed with fibres that make it look hairy.

Although this is handy for me in the bath it touches on possible uses for people without use of a hand. Though the design could be made more ‘subtle’ for everyday use maybe coming from around the neck.

Movie: Finger-nose Stylus by Dominic Wilcox

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Can’t see the movie? Click here.

Watch more movies on Dezeen Screen »

See also:

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Etre Touchy by Etre	Phone charged by heat in your pocket	By a Thread by Dominic Wilcox

Dominic Wilcox is included in our book, Dezeen Book of Ideas. Buy it now for just £12.

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Milan 2011: Swedish designers Claesson Koivisto Rune unveiled this mobile phone design at Superstudio Piu at Tortona Design Week in Milan.

Called Folded Leaf, the phone for telephone company Huawei is bent in the middle to lessen the risk of scratches to the screen when placed face down.

It has a flattened surface on the back, allowing it to rest face up and be operated with one hand on a table top.

See all our stories about Milan 2011 »
More about Claesson Koivisto Rune on Dezeen »

Here are some more details from the designers:

FOLDED LEAF

A new mobile phone design by Claesson Koivisto Rune

Folded Leaf will be exhibited at Superstudio Piu, in Zona Tortona, during Salone del Mobile.

The following text is an abstract from the book ‘FOLDED LEAF / CLAESSON KOIVISTO RUNE’ published by Huawei to accompany the exhibition of Folded Leaf, launched at Superstudio Píu, Salone del Mobile, Milan 2011

Barely two decades old, the cell phone market has experienced exponential growth as mobile communication has become central to most of our lives. As the technology continues to mature at breakneck speed, so does the pace at which new product iterations reach the market. Huge consumer demand has given rise to frightful competition between producers. As technical advances have enabled superior functionality, the tendency has been to just keep adding more and more features. Lured in by the promise of yet more options (culminating in the latest generation of ‘smart phones’), it is no surprise that many of us are questioning the need and inherent complication of so many buttons, options and add-ons.

This reality was core to the design brief set by Huawei to Swedish architecture and design studio, Claesson Koivisto Rune, which was appointed by Huawei to work on a new mobile phone design in 2009.

As a reaction against overloaded functions, the motivation was geared towards confidently reducing the device to the essence of a phone, whilst enhancing the design attributes and creating a beautiful object. Stefan Munther, Head of Concept Creations at Huawei, explains, “We wanted to reach the delicate balance of a classical mobile phone but with no compromise on design and quality. It is our aim to launch the industry’s first truly design-driven phone that is accessible to all.”

Claesson Koivisto Rune’s mission was to create a design that re-engages with a more simplified and intuitive notion of communication and that sidesteps the functional hyperbole of many smart phone devices.

“It was my impression that the team at Huawei were initially attracted to our studio because we have an eye for architecture and furniture design, Our multi-disciplinary approach means that we were unlikely to approach this project like an experienced mobile phone designer.” Reflects Ola Rune. “We talked about designing a ‘phone-phone': the kind of phone that focuses on the core functionality of making and receiving calls and text messages.” Rune recalls. The idea of simplifying the offering and inviting a more intuitive response to the device’s functions seems quite obvious. Strangely, it is often a secondary concern for the industry.

Every aspect of the phone has been designed with the user in mind. Claesson Koivisto Rune were keen to achieve a design that would offer an enhanced physical and ergonomic user experience and that would complement and support the features of the human body.

As the name suggests, the shape of the Folded Leaf takes its cue from nature. Primarily, however, the gentle fold in the body references the curvature of two familiar and successful phone typologies: the classic (if not slightly cumbersome) handset of the late 1930s and the ‘clam shell’ or ‘flip’ phone of the late 90s. These designs possess userfriendly qualities, namely a well-considered ear-to-chin angle as well as a more instinctive distance between ear speaker and microphone. The result is a body shape that is more ergonomically attuned – its contours complementing the natural curve between ear and mouth. Furthermore, the phone is ‘cupped’ and almost cradled by the hand when in use, either when held to the head for a conversation or when gripped in the hand to navigate its various functions.

When it comes to portability, the phone’s gentle fold is designed to respect the curvature of the human body – after all, the chest, hip or thigh are not flat surfaces. Therefore, the handset becomes a more natural accessory for its user – slightly rounded so that it feels natural to grip yet with some defined edges so that it doesn’t slip out of the hand like soap. “Every curve, facet, angle, and proportion optimises the user experience,” Eero Koivisto proudly states.

With all of these ergonomics considered, one can’t ignore our obsession with miniaturisation. In our quest to make phones ever smaller, many have shrunk to a size that is too fiddly for most human hands. In contrast, the need to pack in multiple features has turned smart phones into rather uninviting and clunky communication tools. Is it fair to say that the industry has drifted in its correct engagement with the end user, in favour of meeting other performance-related expectations?

The point of balance is in the lower half of the phone, which means the weight is centred in the palm of the hand making it easier to use the buttons. The relative length of the phone allows for a better sized keypad that doesn’t require miniature fingers to handle.

The underside of the phone is flat and allows the phone to sit flush on a tabletop without compromising on the structure’s integrated curve. As a result, the display lifts slightly and is angled towards the user, enabling better screen visibility and reduced reflection. Furthermore, should the phone be placed face down, the angle in the body prevents the front from scratching.

The desire to reduce the thickness of the phone was only made possible by scrutinising the internal circuitry and calculating where space saving could be afforded. Due to the component parts, it became clear that there was no need to achieve a uniform thickness, so the design studio made best use of that fact by angling the top half of the phone and tapering it off to a point. This detail defines a new visual direction unlike any existing design on the market.

As is typical of Claesson Koivisto Rune, the formal characteristics of their designs are often softened with one or two subtle ‘smile-inducing’ interventions. In the case of the Folded Leaf, the tiny camera on the back has been shaped to mimic the human eye, playing on the fact that it is quite literally an eye on the world. “We sometimes refer to this design as the ‘eye phone’,” jokes Koivisto.

Max Fraser

List of design features of Folded Leaf mobile phone design

1. Volume control. Clearly labelled + and - minus symbols in raised relief. Easy to locate and intuitive to control in mid conversation.

2. A comfortable angle to talk
An optimal angle between the mic and speaker makes for comfortable calls. The fold in the phone’s body is also adapted to your body, making the phone comfortable to carry in your pocket.

3. A separate on/off button
Keeping the functions of the phone clear makes it easier to use.

4. Speaker
Although Folded Leaf is thinnest near its top edge, there is enough room for a good performance speaker integrated into the front of the phone.

5. Comfortably-sized and clearly read keys
A clearly read font, a minimum of graphic symbols and keys that fit your fingers.

6. Microphone
Positioning the mic near the bottom of the phone’s front minimizes the risk of accidentally covering it with a stray finger mid conversation.

7. The Eyebrow
The loudspeaker helps frame the camera ’eye’ and provides speaker phone sound.

8. Look in to my eye - and smile!
The camera becomes a surprising and even memorable feature that has a haptic association to its function.

9. The Facet
This flat surface allows the phone to rest face-up on a surface. It is stable when messaging with one finger. Also, it helps in gripping the phone during calls. Finally, it gives Folded Leaf a sculptural quality that is pleasnt to the touch.

10. Integrated USB port
When not in use, the port is closed and flush with the rest of the phone’s body. It flips open for charging, data transfer and connecting to the hands-free headset.

11. OLED display
The OLED display has a higher density of pixels, making images and text clearer. It is also brighter than todays standard displays yet needs less power helping prolong battery life.

12. Navigation button
The depression in the middle of the five-point navigation button is easy to feel and fits the thumb well. It also help locate the thumb when pressing the button to select.

13. No scratches
The fold in the phone’s body protects the display screen from easily being scratched when laid face-down on a surface.

See also:

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AE+Y Mobile Phone by Yves Behar	Punkt. DP 01 by Jasper Morrison	Eco-friendly phone for Nokia by Daizi Zheng

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