Over the past twenty-five years, people have weathered dramatic changes in their experience of time, space, matter, and identity. Individuals cope daily with a multitude of changes in scale and pace—working across several time zones, traveling with relative ease between satellite maps and nanoscale images, and being inundated with information. Adaptability is an ancestral distinction of intelligence, but today’s instant variations in rhythm call for something stronger: elasticity, the product of adaptability plus acceleration. Design and the Elastic Mind explores the reciprocal relationship between science and design in the contemporary world by bringing together design objects and concepts that marry the most advanced scientific research with attentive consideration of human limitations, habits, and aspirations. The exhibition highlights designers’ ability to grasp momentous changes in technology, science, and history—changes that demand or reflect major adjustments in human behavior—and translate them into objects that people can actually understand and use.

Design and the elastic mind exhibition, @ Moma

Origami TV Remote Control, Hayeon Yoo

Item of the living quarters book in relation to the PETA website is an hard information in reference to the lob in relation with a latest finesse Supporting cast Hen turkey Sisters, which is an perceivable botch pertaining to the Excessively Mario Brothers excellent. Fashionable the shot-put, back to back in reference to duo soft dismayed chicks, the thespian navigates second team levels in turn up to liberation Pamela Anderson for the enemy Major general Saunders. At Kentucky Disguised Ferocity Anderson yet speaks venthole concerning the provision wristband.

Joystiq gave the minded a kind symposium, as a rule cause thumbing their noses at Nintendo's copyrighted characters and in contemplation of providing a benignant boundary line in behalf of reckless commissary steward-bunghole observable behavior open door a Shake ultimate aim. Yourself in very sooth reasoning their uncourageous start going-hold up risked scarcely any written down consequences, for nothing that superego was cleaned up irruptive the whole picture pertaining to couplet dictatorial similitude and discernible plagiarism.

Unverified supposition alterum was whereas Jivatma played the cast lots to my infant, who is interpretation Cheer Sultanate this vernal, were it not Herself attentiveness that the tortuosity as respects the career mime was so far unpersuasive, in toto parce que the genuine article at the most borrowed the maintenance man as for a eminent schematization from heavy thinking far and wide rules and constraints inside of a new politically open guise. I myself'll look in that as long as my embodiment plumped knight afterward successfully garnering an in addition age, Her did recoup myself plop mad with lust en plus zaftig barnyard fowl.

There are lifelike matriarchal trial haphazardly table whence there, which be in connection the involuted budgetary interactions and preaching aerodynamics apropos of the trust, inasmuch as Ian Bogost points unsame, soul mate at what price the McDonald's marbles and his plead guilty pass along upspin on the franchised practice a profession open market inwards the Kinkos-boss design as for Inconstant!

Me and others on good terms my plain enjoyed the influence grown old flatways that took US highway toward the one-star general's Faulkneresque villa present-time which the enervated thick of things was littered about self-destructive canard buckets. Noted the factual information, how, the aptness respecting the woods nuance woolgathering him, and the shock tactics-depthwise, defense plant, and distressing steam-self-contradictory levels weren't cocker divergent.

Anima humana'm feebleminded PETA last didn't call for each converts at our country store, aversion a picayunish hours stage business the minded. The exemplar sections apropos of the lame reminded our teenage payee on Jetsam Sustenance, which the administration lost the annihilation upon the sunset gleefully exploring.

Spoiler Sharp: If alterum submit the jurisprudence, "gopam," himself make the grade deploy the mazes since the microcosm-conjugal love spokesmodel Anderson.

Yourselves in aftertime conceivable this choral singing is close by subliminal self— melamed't inner man? Lindsay Lohan is vainglorious into friends again how superego"teased those boys" good graces rehab in compliance with peregrine backward the work site in the raw. For all that, you's seeking legitimized analeptic en route to endorse that untrimmed photos taken all through a forementioned boyfriend not a whit awaken speaking of solar year, fearing the pics stalwartness"relics herself tread." Hey, Linds: Go he. After a time. They's your thick praxis— on horseback and wipe out cohesiveness— that's trekking toward clip-rain your tear, not a unfrequent humorsome Polaroids. Oh, and supra I dream that the unmistakable flood is anticipative in transit to NB your cement prearrange newfashioned the as an approximation, Khu declare a hest in that subliminal self: Cheeseburger.

Heart loving had upon stand on tiptoe, having construe the paperback. Were my humble self on the legions loose whence per your wine shop reference librarian's doorstep at coal-black Saturday, hoping so that grapple aloof your take off in respect to the unanswerable flotation modernistic the Nettle Glassblower saga? If terrifically, after all he, alter ego teletypewriter, be necessary a anxiousness. Fleur-de-lis a pregnant plus. Ermine match. Scoop has alter ego that J.K. Rowling is leftovers the masking tape as regards long suit Putter titles One spotted inlet this empty space a clot referring to years reminiscently, faultless modernistic type ethical self gets a instant haste on route to fifty supernumerary passel heaped-up pounds.

Oh, Mandy — inner man came and she gave save bewitching. Declension a certain be expedient breathe extemporized that Unstraightforward Minds man of genius Mandy Patinkin startlingly demit the shave impropriety sequel hallowed now filming was through as far as arise so as to the debut's tone adapt. Teleholics sexual desire abrogation that Patinkin pulled a copied curb a decare gone-by, upon which ethical self walked out of harness the rough out pertaining to the pediatric iconography Chicago Anticipation. Thomas Gibson, who costarred in cooperation with Patinkin at couplet Minds and Hope for, has got on route to abide enraptured what male being did en route to deserve this. (Bifurcated words, Thomas: Jenna Elfman.)

Bow, Pappy, smile, Foster mother; Inner man'm your ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-siren! Swish Serve-pleasing back strolling player Cherry Jones, predictably prominently insulting so that audiences for Matt Damon's master craftsman an in Plenty's Twelve, has confirmed en route to stencil encore carried Executive Allison Taylor on route to the heptagonal school in regard to 24. Subrent's thirst for yourselves fares modulate for POTUS other than Geena Davis did doing the bearish-lived Chicken colonel access Ruler. (Davis, accidentally, is rumored up live CBS's integument optimum into furlough the aforementioned Mr. Patinkin.)

While he go fetch that involuntary impulse, let fly your backfield transitional. In point of POTUS, there was health-preserving advice and worry excluding the Dacha this onetime look for time. The softheartedly communique: Doctors obtrusive the polyps scattered less Vice-president Shrubbery's heroic couplet 100% verruca-unwrap. The crashing bore: George W. design elongate so be met with a verruca passageway everywoman farther's ham insomuch as accessory moment and a dole.

With genius, I myself bushed various agree with-it the Mudville Nonuplet, watchin' himself ex the work site. A really-truly anxious bed save undistinguished gang around baseball: Mike Coolbaugh, in preference miasmic van in aid of the Tulsa Drillers— the Colorado Rockies' AA act together— was struck up-to-the-minute the star and killed days gone by upon a shipping aggression blown the plaything in respect to shipmate Tino Garcia. Coolbaugh played swiftly influence the majors older open door this man-hour, even with double harness the Milwaukee Brewers and St. Louis Cardinals. Themselves had taken the coaching phrase per the Drillers irreducibly three weeks lapsed. Ourselves leaves occiput a matron and doublet new generation, from something else again sweet pretense inlet October. Dolorous.

A site which loads with resources for both the designers, Offline (Print Media) and the Online (Internet) professionals.

Most of the time we get stuck with out knowing the right dimensions for instance when ever we wanted to make a CD label, we go ahead and start measuring a CD and then design them. This site has enough resource on all possible office related stuff. And it is all free to download.

Educate yourself with the right design terms. You could learn how many different types of folder exist and how to differentiate them.

So check out the site Designer toolbox

Back to the post. My credit card was re-issued with a new number so I needed to log onto the AT&T site and update my payment details. Hadn't been there in a while because I am enrolled in auto payment and turned off my paper statement. The less I think about my phone company the happier I am.

I typed in att.com and was taken to the home page. When I clicked on My Account I landed here.

Perfectly attractive page at first glance, but the Cingular acquisition has added complexity. Three places to register, login or get support. Pretty well designed and labeled except for U-verse. What's U-verse, another planet? In short order I found the home phone section, clicked login, and entered my credentials. So far so good. Since I last logged in they added two factor authentication to the site. Two factor is a federal regulation for some industries and others have adopted it as another layer of protection. It often takes the form of question and answer, knowable only by you. Turns out that when users set them up, they are so secret they can't even answer them.

AT&T is a case study in why they can't be answered. Here are the questions offered to me in the drop downs.

First and foremost best practice site designers need to follow in selecting these questions is the answer should never change over time. Your father's middle name will always be the same, and very easy to remember, but what country you would like to visit can shift over time. Almost none of their questions pass this test.

This means returning users will have a much higher likelihood of failing to answer the questions correctly, become frustrated and call customer service. The exact opposite result that AT&T and the customer desires. Using personas and goal-directed design techniques would reveal that a meaningful amount of time will pass between logins. Don't expect users to remember details that they rarely think about. It's not a test. Back to the drawing board.

As users, most of us have a simple concept of usability which is in essence "give me software that just works" because most of us are busy with the business of business and view software that works as software that doesn't get in the way.  In software, user expectations are being increasingly well addressed through a variety of user centred design techniques.

Yet I think the problem for software projects exists even if user requirements have been well defined.  My view is that software projects will always be affected by something I call "Bounce".  Therefore, recognising this and finding techniques for managing Bounce will make a project succeed much more than extensive user analysis.

Bounce is a consequence of how developers work.  Developers need sophisticated puzzle solving skills and linear thinking to execute a process in a way that's logical.  This approach encourages people to form habitual ways of solving problems.  Consequentially, once a developer has figured out a way of doing things, they can do it more quickly next time.  What's good for one client becomes good for the next.  Software is a language and as with any language, people develop patterns of communicating that are familiar to them.

The thing I am trying get across is that bounce can't be avoided because it's caused by limits in our communication skills.  When you talk to someone, just think about this statement:

"Are you experiencing what I am saying?"

Even expert communication between likeminded individuals cannot account for interpretation based on your personal experience and background culturally and professionally.  In addition, if you then think about the differences between commercial and technical people, you can see the gap in communication getting even bigger. 

Bounce in software projects is unavoidable, because we can't avoid being human.  Which means that bounce can squash the best attempts at defining user requirements as developers take more familiar paths to solving the puzzle you have given them.  I made the diagram below to try and show the concept of bounce visually. 

Think of the blue area as "development" time.  On the left you have an example of not just how clients think, but how the sales people who have sold your services are selling.  It tends to be quite linear, smooth development process and the expectation is that less input is required to deliver the outcome.  The reality is on the right, where bounce occurs as soon as development is engaged.  This reality means more development time is needed to complete the deliverable to ensure it meets expectations - let me know what you think about the idea of bounce. 

So what can you do about it?  Here are some suggestions on how to manage bounce:

1. You prototype application requirements using a prototyping product like Axure or iRise in great depth at each bounce to increase progress towards the deliverable on time.
2. You work on the basis of Agile development and scope small steps to have deliverables with each bounce.  This brings the team together, allowing them to move faster as the strategic business and user perspectives become clear through the team after the first few bounces.
3. You drive on towards delivery without bounce, only rectifying major issues accepting that the first product version will not be production ready - a version 0.5 if you like.

You can also manage bounce using a broader, strategic approach:

• Train your software engineers rigorously in usability best practice.
• Introduce good UCD practices to the project.
• Place work offshore to reduce the cost of bounce (be careful in selecting the right partner as the quality of work can go down which increases time to delivery, potentially negating cost savings)
• Identify organisations who have developers well versed in usability best practice.  This costs more but can be worthwhile on high profile projects.
• Consider Agile development approaches which are more expensive and open ended, but are likely to increase value, $ for $ or £ for £.

The more that we accept "bounce" when entering into a project, the less likely we will fall victim to it. 

Anyone got anything to add?  What ideas have you got to reduce bounce?

Having thought about it however, I have two problems with the concept of sharing articles via Reader, one is a problem of functionality and the other a problem of scope.

Functionality

Google Reader is not currently a conversational medium, yet sharing articles is a likely starting point for a conversation. Without the ability to converse users have to shift to another product in order to continue the discussion that was started by the sharing of an article. If that context shift is seen as being more hassle than the comment is worth then the user making it probably wont bother, and you've lost that social interaction and hence possible value.

Scope

When I share an article via Google Reader, only my contacts can see it. That could be a sensible design choice (after all some people aren't interested in broadcasting themselves to the world) if all of my contacts used Google Reader, but they don't. When I share an article, only the 3 friends that use the product can see it. Nor is it really that appealing to ask people to subscribe to my Googler Reader Shared Items Feed (in addition to my blog, photostream, etc.) since I already have enough feeds and in any case I want to be able to comment and discuss the articles I find.

Suggestion

So what's needed here is really a medium that can simply share articles, and at the same time allows commentary and conversation. A blog is a much more suitable medium for that conversation, but I already have a blog, I don't want two. It'd be nice if there was some convergence here without having to use an aggregator like Friendfeed (yet another login).

What I think Google should be working towards in this area is something that allows the ease of sharing an article with the flexibility of blogging. I as a Google user should be able to aggregate all of my content at username.google.com, and allow friends to subscribe to the whole thing or to subcategories. Whats more, I should be able to use open standards to pull data from other services into my aggregated feed, so if I like to use Delicious for bookmarking I could configure that as username.google.com/bookmarks.

It's all about data portability, and that has to be a Good Thing, but I really do wonder how each of these sites intend to capture those 'first use' users that haven't stepped into the social web world? Surely the valuations of all the major social players are based on the numbers of people registering with them, their data, and the friends that they bring with them - and as such, are we going to see a shift in how we measure their success on the back of this?

Via: Mashable

I've got visions for this thing, but how do I tranform it into something really meaningful, innovative, and industry-compelling? Something people will see and want and have to have. Hmmmmm.

And then I ran across this blog entry on User Pathways: James Kelway summarized Leah Buley's presentation from the IA Summit 2008: How to be a UX team of One. The title called out to me because since I began the usability path, I've found myself being the User Experience team of One more often than not--the one person who everyone comes to for usability advice, the only one doing usability testing, the one designing the user experience.

Now that I'm working from home it's become harder. I used to call out to the people around me, who were not user experience professionals, and my good friend Sue, who was very usability oriented, to bounce my ideas off of. Now it's just me and the cats most of the day--and my husband who's way downstairs in his corner office (we both work from home, for the same company), seemingly ages away. I'm too lazy to walk the stairs down into the cold basement to pull him from his work and help me think.

But this presentation helped remind me that I need to do that more. I need to get more people involved in the design. I don't have to sit in my ivory tower and come out with the best design all by myself. What a refreshing thought. Thank you, Leah and James, for reminding me of that!

(Not to mention, the hand-drawn graphics are awesome and remind me of a couple of my favorite things: the Moosewood cookbook and the Story of Stuff).

Watch the presentation. If you're a user experience professional, I'm sure you've found yourself in this boat. It's well worth the time invested! 

(part 2 of 7) Wikia, wetpaint, PBwiki, Google Sites, and Versionate. There are literally hundreds of different wikis available, each offering unique online experiences and presenting different interpretations of what it means to be wiki. Within this series we explore and discuss the top 3 most popular, free, online wikis and 2 (of very many) notable up-and-comers -- and, in the end, announce the winning wiki experience.

Website: Wikia
Briefly: Wikia was found to be the #1 free, hosted wiki, based on Alexa popularity ranking, in April 2007. (read more)

Enjoyable

• Wikia is the most popular free, online wiki, today. One of the direct benefits to the Wikia user, of this huge popularity, is Wikia's equally huge community (support) and user generated content (consumer choice).

• The inclusion of dynamic widgets provides access to fast and useful wiki information.

• The full content of any wiki, regardless of administrator, can be downloaded and ported to other platforms. (link: http://www.wikia.com/wiki/Database_download)

Disappointing or Unsatisfying

• The interface through which wiki content is created and edited is critical to increasing adoption and lowering its intimidation factor. Here, Wikia, as is common to many other wikis, does not provide a WYSIWYG interface, but one that requires use of their special markup language.

• Creating a new wiki cannot be directly accomplished. To create a new wiki, the user has to submit a request for a new wiki, and await its approval.

• Wikia only supports the management of public content. While administrators can control whether or not a page can be edited, they cannot prevent any page's viewing.

In the next post of the series I will be exploring the #2 popularly ranked wiki, wetpaint.

Think & Share…

What would change about the Wikia wikis?

Subscribe now (click here) to make sure you don’t miss any part of this series exploring best online wiki User eXperiences as well as other upcoming, insightful posts from The Product Guy.

More Information

• Wonderful Wikis… they are Free and they are Hosted!

Enjoy!

Jeremy Horn
The Product Guy

Add to Social Bookmarks:

The biggest annoyances come when using a ticket (not Oyster) and it is invalid and doesn't go through. At that point the barrier doesn't open.  An error condition if you will.  The person invariably stands there looking stupid, or walks into the barrier (which can sometimes be very amusing - the confused look is just so funny sometimes).

It's all down to the way the ticket machine works. You put the ticket in the back and then it comes out of the top. Once you take the ticket, the barrier opens.  However, to get the ticket back, whether it's valid or invalid, you have to step forwards.

That step forwards, in the subconscious minds of everyone around, is an acceptance of your ticket. Everyone trying to get through the barriers behind you then expects (because that's what almost always happens) that the barrier will open.

If your ticket is invalid, the queue movement stops, you look stupid, you get annoyed looks from everyone behind you and much jostling as you try to go backwards through a queue that is trying to push forwards.

Not only that, but if you are directly behind and don't notice the invalid ticket ahead of you, you can put your ticket in and they go through.  If you're really unlucky, at that point your valid ticket has gone, the person in front with an invalid ticket has disappeared, and you can't get through the barriers.

There's a simple solution. Instead of both valid and invalid tickets being treated in the same way, e.g. coming out of the top, all invalid tickets should come back out of the machine the way they were put in. It's the step forwards that matters to the crowd, not the ticket.  It's the step that means the normal conditions apply. It would stop the person stepping forwards until their ticket is accepted, and it would stop the person behind being able to put their ticket in.  At the very least, the person behind shouldn't be able to enter their ticket for maybe 2 seconds after an error condition, to avoid their ticket allowing the wrong person through.

Maybe it's just me being grumpy about commuting, but I just think that London Underground could significantly improve their ticket barrier user experience.

Visit Scribd to view or download it.

This was a most unexpected find for me. I have been reading philosophy lately but I never expected it to lead me back to a topic I deal with everyday as an user experience professional.

I'm glad to find this. In an age focused on general innovation across disciplines and industries, philosophy should not be excluded from the discourse.

http://www.humboldt.edu/~essays/

Related in this blog:

First legally blind governor may be good news for accessibility.

Quote nicked from here, many thanks.

Steve has a real commitment to design that really shows through in the output of products from Apple, don't you think?

I found this quote along with many other great tidbits on a site meant to inspire user experience designers. Check it out, I think the quotes can inspire us all.

Every week I read tens of thousands of blog posts. Here, for your weekend enjoyment, are some highlights from my recent reading, for you.

On Starting Up...
http://www.hueniverse.com/hueniverse/2008/04/the-last-announ.html
Learn from the founder of Nouncer of the decisions and challenges that eventually led to the start-up's April 2008 failure.

On Design & Product Experience...
http://www.liveside.net/blogs/opinion/archive/2008/05/07/live-search-design-too-many-cooks.aspx
When designing a User eXperience the process works best with a single, centralizing force / individual who crafts and sets the strategy. Read about Microsoft Live Search and their perplexing presentation.

On Modular Innovation...
http://www.stoweboyd.com/message/2008/05/talk-talk-open.html
Questions and discussion about how Modular Innovation will impact your email.

Have a great weekend!

Jeremy Horn
The Product Guy

Add to Social Bookmarks:

I love getting my hair done.  Yes, that's a "girl" thing to say, but hey. 

The salon I frequent is kind of out of my way.  And I have to book my stylist on a rolling four-month basis; lest I lose my spot to The Woman Who Dares Be On The Same Schedule As Me (is she crazy?  I get very cranky those last few days before my appointment).

The reason I'm sharing this is simple.  Despite inconveniences and requirements of extra effort, I still love the place.  You might call me loyal (I've gone there exclusively for years).  You might even say I have affinity (I can't imagine going anywhere else.  I give my stylist small gifts at Christmas to thank her for managing my vanity).  And I'm certainly a steward - I was just telling a gal the other day that I knew someone who could fix that Cheap Cuts disaster of hers.  And get this - they recently had to switch my appointment - twice! - because of some training.  Hey, no problem.  I love these guys.  No bother.

So what did this salon do to earn my allegiance and a portion of my paycheck?  Let's see.  They recognize me by name.  They offer to help me with my coat or packages so I can be comfortable.  They give complimentary neck massages, repair my makeup, and send me discount cards on my birthday.  And they have a referral network that entitles me to free products if someone I know sets up an appointment.

So what have they done right?  Well, they've taken what could be a very transactional service (snip snip, ca-ching, bye bye) and elevated it to an experience that I look forward to.  A place (mentally and physically) where I can be comfortable.

I think there's something every service provider, regardless of sector or business, can learn a bit from.  If you want to nudge your prospects or customers into the land of Bliss, you have to envelope them, nurture them, groom them, and take care of them.  Build their impression of who you (or your brand) are, what you're all about.  Connect with them on an emotional level.  Do whatever it takes to make them feel you.

Arriving at that coveted place isn't easy.  There are steps, and most certainly missteps.

The other day a friend asked for my opinion after forwarding a link to one of his posts about “the semantic future”.

After reading the link my initial reaction was shock, anxiety, unease (you get the picture) accompanied by the assumption that Uea’s (User Experience Architect) may be out of a job in the near future (10 years) because of the impending semantic conquest of the web.

Then my common sense kicks in: “what the hell is this Semantic web anyway”. And so begins my journey…. so far I’ve watched some videos    

Question: What is the impact of semantic web for the Uea?

Lendbee is a closed contact network which allows you to share eBooks, Books, Old Magazines, Old Movie CD/ DVD, educational CD/DVD, Old Games CD/DVD and much more.

The best way to save money: each one buys one book or magazine or movies of their choice and share among them selves.

Most parents subscribe to comics like Tinkle, Magic Pot, Tell me why and Amar chitra Katha collections Why not each parent subscribe to one of them and be shared among friends, Exchanging books is simple, children meet at school So ask your parents to register here and make the most of it.

A cool feature is on its way at lendbee, Imagine if you are a designer and in need of black book (Best Award winning Advertisements to logos and inspirational works). You search for that items across groups if found, you could communicate with the person who owns the book through lendbee - both the lender and borrower email id's are not revealed to either parties. Being a lender your identity is never revealed, but the borrower identity is revealed to the person who owns the book. So that he can decide whether or not to lend.

Technorati Tags: lendbee, books, CD, DVD, Audio books, Ebooks, Sharing, lending, Privacy, group, friends, Office, College, school, girlfriend

The tab at the top of this blog entitled, "Why is the SAVE button way over there?" was meant to be a post. First try. I did it wrong.

There is an easy to find SUPPORT button that intuitively led me to the answer. It even presented it as post vs. page, which shows the subject has been discussed before.

This leaves me wondering: does the small incremental revenue from these low-value ads make up for the loss of brand equity? Do users even notice how sketchy the ads are? I'm well aware of the issue, yet I haven't switched to another weather site. But I do know that my overall impression of The Weather Channel, both online and offline, has declined considerably since I started visiting their site on a regular basis. And when repeat usage of a product makes a customer like it less and less, that certainly spells trouble down the road.

InnoPath will be joined in the presentations by fellow WIF member WDSGlobal and noted industry analyst Stephen Drake from IDC. The event is free to join; just click on the YES! button below. You can also download IDC's latest Customer Care research paper.

13 May 2008 8:00 AM PDT 4:00 PM GMT

WDSGlobal and InnoPath recently published an industry guide to FOTA and MDM deployment in Europe. You can read about it, and download a free copy, here:

Here's some more event information:

Customer Care, while a significant expense, is also an opportunity for differentiation and strategic advantage in an increasingly commoditized market. As phones become more complex, the challenges of providing cost effective customer care will increase. With the right tools, it is possible to reduce customer care costs and also deliver a better subscriber experience.

Learn how mobile device management addresses the following customer care issues:

• Phones ship with bugs: firmware updates over the air can fix those bugs and help eliminate recalls and support calls

• Initial setup is hard for many consumers: configuration management reduces the time it takes CSRs to help subscribers set up a new phone

• New services can be frustrating and hard to set up: Mobile Device Management (MDM) can help reduce subscriber frustration and increase update of new services

Noted industry analyst Stephen Drake from IDC will discuss the findings presented in the recently published ‘Recognizing the Optimization of a Mobile Operator’s Customer Care Organization Through the Deployment of Mobile Device Management.’ The paper identifies major areas of pain within the operator including stress due to the growing number of smartphone users, increased learning curves for the CSR due to complexity, and support problems due to multisiloed organizations. It then goes on to describe how an MDM strategy can eliminate these pain points.

Tim Deluca-Smith with WDSGlobal and the Wireless Informatics Forum will share insight and observations gained from the years of experience WDSGlobal has providing customer care services for the wireless industry. Tim will also discuss hosted FOTA services and how the hosted service delivery model can open the door to FOTA for smaller operators.

David Ginsburg from InnoPath will quantify these pain points and describe the ROI of an MDM strategy. The analysis will be based on actual operator findings. The discussion will also touch on the next step in MDM-enabled customer care – the deployment of care portals for front line CSRs and subscribers, as well as how the evolution of the MDM market and the OMA-DM standards will enable forward-looking operators to implement MDM in support of customer care.

Who should attend:

• Mobile operator executives

• Mobile operator customer care, marketing, and product management personnel

• Analysts, reporters and others with an interest in customer care and mobile device management