Date published: 01.09.08 - not release date

A mobile phone for the blind

Inspirational concept for blind people takes top prize at inaugural MEX Mobile User Experience Awards

London 28th May 2008, MEX, The Mobile User Experience – Ben Scott-Robinson’s Blind Phone was last night named MEX Mobile User Experience Innovation of the Year. Beating stiff competition, the Ben Scott-Robinson design recognised the lack of an affordable handset available to 12 million people who are blind or of limited sight in Europe, and created a fully realised concept that would dramatically improve the mobile experience for the consumer.

The inaugural MEX Mobile User Experience Awards, sponsored by Nuance, TAT and Immersion, has been an open design challenge to the mobile phone industry, designers and students seeking to address the challenge of making the experience of using mobile devices better for all. Ben Scott-Robinson recognised that as phones become ever more complicated mobile communication is a frustrating experience for those with restricted sight. This award winning design dramatically rethinks both the physical design and the user interface to remove the requirement of a screen or any visual input or feedback.

"This Competition was all about encouraging the mobile industry to think about the importance of designing for diverse consumer needs," says Marek Pawlowski, Founder of MEX. "The entrants have really impressed across the board, with tremendous thought and innovation in every submission. Deciding on the overall winner was incredibly challenging, but ultimately the BSR Blind Phone was absolutely standout to the judges. It perfectly encapsulated both the awards brief and the essence of MEX."

“Products for those with disability is an area in the mobile space which has been much ignored, so is a huge opportunity for better design,” said award winning freelance designer Ben Scott-Robinson. “To be recognised as Innovator of the Year is fantastic. MEX has delivered the opportunity to develop the design for the Blind Phone further forward to an actual prototype, something which would probably never have happened without this award.”

The winners were:

MEX Mobile User Experience Innovator of the Year
Winner: BSR Blind Phone; runners up MyView & Taptu

Commercial category
Winner: Taptu; runners up Zeemote, Mobyko and Vuzix

Freelance category
Winner: Cloudaware; runners up BSR Blind Phone, Flat Music Player

Professional category
Winner: My Link Wireless Accessory; runners up TheAlloy’s Couple IT & MoDist

Student category
Winner: MyView; runners up Context aware & Pixie TV

View all the entries here: www.mobileuserexperience.com/mexdesign.

-Ends-

About MEX, the Mobile User Experience conference

MEX, the Mobile User Experience conference takes place on 27th & 28th May at the Wallacespace, London. Mex helps executives to gain a deeper understand of customer behaviour and translate that knowledge into better mobile products. The key objective is raising awareness of user experience, issued as a strategic priority for everyone in the value chain, encouraging the mobile business to put consumer needs at the heart of the industry. The 10 point 2008 MEX Manifesto forms the heart of the conference (see www.pmn.co.uk/mex/agenda08.shtml)

For more info about MEX, or the Mobile User Experience Awards please contact:

Gary Marshall
XL-Communications
Telephone +44 77 3322 4654
Email. gary@xl-comms.com