I sometimes think there are so many mobile applications and services that we have reached a point of information overload. If you were to subscribe to say, twitter/facebook then add in the many services such as travel, weather, stocks and news, it soon becomes apparent that there isn’t any user attention-span remaining for extra or new services.

To make room for new services, I think we might need to start thinking about aggregation of services and more intelligent services. Aggregation is already occurring. Some network operators and phone OEMs are starting to do this (on the idle screen).

Intelligent mobile services are more interesting because they offer some untapped opportunities. In general terms they filter information according to the user’s preferences and context so that less information has to be digested. They may also push (alerts) to the user rather than the user having to waste timing polling (continually checking) for information.

One such idea is Massie Design Studio’s Smart Alarm. It wakes you earlier if you are going to need more time because the weather is bad.

Another idea is to work out where a user is going based on where they are, the current time and their past travel patterns. Mapping this onto locations of travel methods (roads, train, plane, ship) it might be possible to alert the user ahead of time of the timetable or alert them to travel problems. I actually submitted this idea as a feasibility study for the Digital Britain Competition but I unfortunately wasn’t one of the winners.

Nevertheless, I think there are many opportunities in mobile to make intelligent decisions with data and produce alerts rather than the user having to continually read information just to see if anything has changed.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 15th, 2009 at 4:50 pm and is filed under Mobile. Both comments and pings are currently closed.