Making Data Tangible

This is an amazing and initiative project I hope you enjoy reading all about it.

The Blog came from this website: http://www.adaptivepath.com/blog/2009/05/18/mobilglyph-making-data-...:

Rachel Hinman and her team of experts embarked on a mission to solve the Mobile Communication Problem (MCP).

Entering contact information into a mobile device is not a trivial task. Phones are *not* optimized for text input, making this important task an awkward and time-consuming interaction for even the most proficient user.

Research done in rural India for their Mobile Literacy project identified the task of entering and saving a contact information as the single most challenging tasks for non-literate users to perform. Yet it was a task identified as one of the most beneficial aspects of owing a mobile device. More than a means to easily contact family and friends, They identified that for rural Indians, a contact list in a mobile device was essential to skillfully overcoming infrastructure challenges.

Rural India is a region of the world with limited infrastructure. Dirt roads and limited access to transportation makes travel slow, access to electricity is limited, and the most common way to distribute information is through word of mouth. People rely on their family and social networks for more than emotional support: people are the infrastructure.

Information in rural India isn’t centralized through census information, medical and health records, or a regional phone book. Therefore, the contact lists on mobile phones become an extremely valuable mechanism for creating ad hoc networks that enable information sharing. For example, several research participants recorded the blood type of the contacts stored in their phone’s address book. These users were able to act on this information when medical emergencies occurred in their village. They could quickly identify possible donors for blood transfusions and alert their network of the need — all through a simple piece of information stored in a mobile device.

In rural India, contacts stored on a mobile phone are more than a set of people users can call, it is a primary mechanism for overcoming infrastructure challenges. Solving the “save a contact” problem for non-literate users became a primary focus for their project.

Both primary and secondary information provided inspiration for solutions to the text entry problem. Their team began to gravitate to the notion of “physicalizing” data and the way that humans give abstract concepts a physical form to aid in cognition. Tokens and money are great examples. Money is an abstract concept made tangible by coins and notes. Weights used on markets scales are another way people make abstract numeric information concrete. Instead of a number, the physical representation of a weight serves proxy for communicating value and weight.

They then began to explore creative ways to make text and numeric information physical. Their question became: How might we make a physical representation of person’s name and phone number?

During their ideation sessions they tossed around a lot of ideas about tokens. When they looked across the mobile landscape, they realized QR codes and the QR code reader applications on many phones would be a viable solution for their text entry problem.

Initially used for tracking parts in vehicle manufacturing, QR Codes are now used in a much broader context throughout the world for both commercial tracking applications and convenience-oriented applications aimed at mobile phone users. QR Codes can store text, contact information, images, video clips, and even games. These codes frequently appear in magazines, on signs, buses, business cards or and on products in stores. Instead of slowly entering information into a mobile device through the keypad, users simply take a photo of the QR code. Information embedded in the code can be seamlessly transferred to a device.

QR codes could hold an image, name and numeric information. Instead of text and numbers or abstract icons, images embedded in the QR code could serve as the primary mechanism for the UI. From a system perspective, They envisioned village mobile phone stores as a hub for this activity. With minimal investment, store owners could create cards for customers as a service and become a hub for information sharing. Most importantly, the MobilGlyph system would make data tangible — making it easier for literate and non-literate users to enter and save contact information into their mobile phone.

This is just an amazing idea and has helped millions of people across india and the world solve the "save contact" problem. This technology has lead to communication skills to rise and the functionality of the peoples lives to increase.

Please watch this video to gain more insight. http://www.urgentevoke.com/video/making-data-tangible