‘You Guys Are So Expressive’

The Finnish superbrand’s design specialist Juliana Fereira shrugs off comparisons with the iPhone

The world’s largest mobile phone maker Nokia is perhaps the only consumer product company in the world to be the market leader in every single country it operates in. But what’s at the heart of the €50 billion Finnish company and what has made it failure-proof for nearly two decades? Design, says Juliana Ferreira, who heads the company’s interaction design. It’s Nokia’s innovations—both the exterior, physical design and the interface design—that have helped the company stand out in an increasingly commoditised handsets market. Ferreira, the 34-year-old Brazilian who trained as a graphic designer, visited India recently and spoke to Open about the ‘inside story’ of Nokia phones.

Q What is interaction design? Why is it so important for Nokia?

A It’s all about understanding people and their needs and tailoring our products accordingly. At the interaction design team, we are creating a global language with iconography based on how people respond to signs and images around the world. Homescreens and personalisations are about creating a model where people can build their own experiences independent of their backgrounds, lifestyles age, and user groups. Basically, it’s about how to make your device your own. Traditionally, people think about the device on the basis of how it looks from the outside, and that is the determining factor of its success or failure. But digital design can completely change the device. People play with icons and widgets on their phones to customise it. The main difference between us and our competitors is that we are creating a model with which anyone can customise. Customisation is often seen as time-consuming and complex, undertaken only  by people who are very familiar with technology.

Q But isn’t that something most of your competitors offer?

A I believe they do. The Nokia N97 and the other devices where we are allowing customisation are the only devices that offer the possibility to personalise widgets so extensively.

Q What is the importance of the homescreen? Does it really affect buying decisions?

A Do you know that people actually spend 85 per cent of their mobile phone engagement with the homescreen?

Q That sounds a bit of an exaggeration. Isn’t the homescreen a static page after all, and how much time would anyone spend just looking at widgets?

A A number of things. It could be as basic as checking the time or date, or linking through a shortcut, or showing your baby’s picture on the wallpaper. But with widgets, they can check the day’s weather, the news headlines and several information services on the homescreen, without actually getting into an application.

Q How extensive is Nokia’s consumer research? Any design insights from your stay in India?

A Women in India are considered less engaged with technology. So you would assume that they’d want a simple, clean, less cluttered homescreen. But actually they think having an empty screen might reflect a lack of sophistication because an empty screen could mean the phone is not high spec. At the heart of everything we do is going out and talking to people to understand what they need. A lot of our senior design executives spend long hours, sitting face to face with consumers. The idea is to know their lifestyles.

Q How has iconography evolved over the years?

A You just have to look at the music icons. We went around trying to understand how people consume music. There’s a certain difference between generations in terms of older people being more familiar with consuming music on a physical object, such as the CD, whereas the younger generation is more accustomed to downloading music through digital files. So our new music icons have to represent that change. More recently, look at how the phonebook has changed. The phonebook used to be a place to store numbers and email addresses. Now we don’t necessarily remember people’s numbers or email addresses. We remember the person, and that’s reflected in the iconography. Earlier, the phonebook icon used to be a notebook with a handset. Now, the phonebook has a person on the front because it’s about people first. Today’s iconography is a lot more interactive.

Q Personally, what attracted you to interaction design?

A I was quite young when I started as a graphic designer because I was always interested in visual arts, and the communication aspects of art. But then, I abandoned the idea of being an artist because it felt too self-focused. What really interests me about interaction design is that it gives me the opportunity to influence people’s lives by designing the tools that help them communicate and experience the world.

Q Is touch technology the most important breakthrough in recent times?

A I’d say it is. But it’s not the only one. There are people who want to interact with other methods. We actually introduced touch technology back in 2003. The important thing for Nokia is to have a broad portfolio of products. If you want a direct interaction with the device through touch, you have the N97, if you want a hard qwerty keypad, we also have that. Our research tells us different people want different things. There is no evidence to suggest people want to move away from keypads to touch tech.

Q Some critics say you’ve fallen behind the curve when it comes to design, especially in the light of Apple’s iPhone. In the last quarter, you lost significant market-share in the smartphone category in the US.

A Well, that is only if you consider only one aspect of technology and one set of consumers. We cater to so many different markets. So we have completely different goals as companies. I don’t think you can do this kind of comparison.  Everything we do at Nokia is driven by design. From the lowest-priced phone to the highest. Design is in every single aspect of what we do.

Q Nokia has designed several India-specific phones. How do you evaluate them?

A You guys are so expressive. It’s a very visual nation. People are excited by technology and they want to squeeze more out of everything. Nokia had the challenge of addressing the inability of many consumers to afford expensive handsets. Our made-for-India products are designed keeping all these things in mind, and the numbers prove that we’ve done a terrific job.

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TR Vivek