“One man is equivalent to all creation. One man is a world miniaturized.” This project, while concentrating on “feminine” attributes, presented the results from a study of miniaturization acceptance among people. The theoretical background of this study was drawn from technology acceptance and diffusion of innovation theories, which were augmented with issues related to changing lifestyles in India as well as mobile use. Gender was used as a moderating variable to ascertain how feminine attributes could drive a product under interface.
I focused on the influence that Ubiquitous Computing (UC) technology had on the lives of people, and in bringing into life new design experiences. I found that the product structure and human interaction with the devices changed dramatically with the rise of UC technology in everyday life.
This was a human-centred design approach rather than a technology driven one. Yet, significant development had to take place in technology in order to realize the proposed design. People wanted to see technology disappearing from their lives when it went beyond what it could do, became an experience or built an emotional connection with devices which otherwise are loaded with technology. Therefore, miniaturization of technology did not necessarily mean making things small and miniscule; instead, it was about making technology disappear from people’s consciousness and recede into the background. I tried to associate mobile phones with the elegance of women’s best friends like jewellery, pets or close companions, subtly merging with her lifestyle.
I am now looking forward to further progress in the areas of computing hardware miniaturization, battery design, display technology, sensor technology, tracking accuracy and reliability, general vision, sound-based tracking, scene understanding, and overall comfort of people with the device.
