Publication: Unid Magazine January 2010

NokNok is a product based on the more and more individualizing world we are living in an the role interactive products play in that world.

A lot of interactive products have enriched our lives, but at the same time these products create barriers between people; people become more individualistic and single minded. A lot of people stare at their laptops, phones, mp3 players and often forget to look around them and to experience the ‘real’ world.

With help of NokNok I tried to change this ‘absent presence’ behavior by redesigning a mobile phone (focused towards the telephone conversation) in such a way that the actions and interactions needed around the conversation are aimed to avoid ‘absent presence’ behavior of the user.

One of the issues NokNok tackles is the sometimes loud behavior of a mobile phone user in a public space. Users are not aware of this loud behavior since they are involved in their virtual world, while the social surroundings of the user might be annoyed and disturbed by this behavior. Within my concept I tried to discourage this behavior by giving feedback when you’re talking too loud for thesituation you’re in; Through translating your own sound to vibrations. Next to this I redesigned some other aspects of the mobile phone conversation, such as a more tangible way of making a call (by knocking).