This was disclosed by Younghee Jung, Nikki Barton and Jonne Harju, three of the six senior design specialists at Nokia, during a meeting with a group of Southeast Asian journalists at the Nokia China campus in Beijing early this month.

"I think personalization and convenience are the key that people look for in designing mobile devices," Jung, senior design specialist at the Nokia Design Studio in London, said.

Being connected is still the most important feature, but the idea of what "being connected" means is really changing, she said.

"Mobile phones have become the digital device that is carried all the time. People want it to fit their lifestyles more closely and intimately, ranging from expressing their personal style to customizing the ways in which they want to be connected."

Barton, head of digital design at the Nokia Design Studio in London, said that one of the biggest challenges in designing for digital right now is ensuring information is displayed seamlessly and as consistently as possible between platforms and devices.

"With such a multitude of formats and services it's key to create the best user experience possible for each audience," she said.

"It's also a design challenge to keep things simple and understandable so that features enhance rather than detract from people's experiences," she added.

Harju, senior design manager at the Nokia Design Studio in Espoo, Finland, agreed, saying that design is more about the end result rather than aesthetics.

"I'm interested in how things come together in a holistic way," he said.

"For me, design is not only about the surfaces of the product but *the whole package' including the user experience."

Jung, who grew up in South Korea, further said that she finds the mobile industry to be without boundaries.

"My work is mostly about speculating about the future so naturally my work is more focused on people. People's behaviors and motivations not only change slower than technology, but also provide an anchor point for guiding the development of technology," she said.

"In a way what I do can be described as adding flesh and personality to new technology so that the product developers understand how it can be made useful, desirable and adaptable by people.

"The challenge for me is how confident we are in presenting such stories about the future, which cannot be prescribed as a formula. I am keen on *designing' better ways of how we involve people in our design process, which is essential to the quality of work we deliver."

Jung was of the opinion that good design makes people happy ... and that if something is designed well, the overall experience of the user will be a positive one.

"The overall experience is the key word here as it takes a great deal of effort for a designer to consider various factors surrounding the use of the product beyond the object itself," she said.

Jung gave the example of how, if someone designs a cup, he or she will consider how it will be bought, used, washed and stored whether as a single item or in a group of other cups.

"It gets substantially more complicated when the product is used for many purposes like mobile phones are," she added.

In regard to how the Internet is changing or influencing what and how she designs, Jung said that the Internet is the key reason that the definition of "being connected" is changing.

"It has expanded the ways in which people can communicate. The Internet has introduced much more diverse communication tools to the mass well beyond real-time voice communication," she said.

"Soon, very few people will be virgin to such a digital communication experience. In thinking about the future scenarios of our products and services, it is crucial to understand how people's existing behaviors will evolve and change with them."

- JP/Hyginus Hardoyo

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