Nokia recently launched Lumia 610 in India, adding to the Lumia 800 and 710 ranges it already has in the market. It plans to launch the Lumia 900 here soon.
Marko Ahtisaari , Executive Vice-President (Design) of Nokia, spoke to M. Soundariya Preetha on the “heads up” design principle the company is adopting for its products. The correspondent was at Nokia’s design studio in Helsinki recently at the invitation of the company. Excerpts:
How does Nokia plan to take forward its “heads up” principle in the design of its products?
It is about designing products in a way that allows people to have heads up. It means the user interface is planned simple, is easy to quickly look at and does not demand more of your attention. I am interested in the 50 to 100 everyday things that people do with the phone that can be designed better. It involves combining innovation in hardware and software, an innovation that helps simplify the core use of the phone. One example is what we already have in the market for some time: on the screen of your phone you see the time and some view of what notifications you would have on the screen even when the phone is taking almost no power.
Why is design an important factor in a product?
We are ahead in a trend towards purity and we are focusing the product on essentials. People appreciate attention to detail. Our key challenge and opportunity is how do we apply the same level of attention to detail to all ranges of our products. Another challenge and opportunity is material innovation. We are meaningfully different because of quality and attention to details.
Apart from design, the other key areas that make the difference include photography features, continuous innovation, and features related to location and motion on our products (maps, drive, and public transport).
Can you elaborate on the plans to extend some features of the smart phone to all ranges?
Nokia recently launched Asha touch products, introducing full touch experience at new price points. We can do these kinds of hardware and software combinations, and can innovate in all price points. We cannot restrict innovation to a category of products.
Moving forward, how would you like Nokia products to be?
It is designing phones that feel human yet extremely advanced, phones that feel very organic and beautiful. Design is the soul of a product. It plays a key role in building products better, and it means consequent attention to details.
Design also stands out by re-imagining and improving what people do every day with phone and designing the product is such a way that people can use it heads up. It allows people to be connected to each other.
