Out of the Box: Finally, a Useful Manual for Mobile Phones
Print is definitely not dead with the “Out of the Box” mobile phone instruction manuals. Thanks to Vitamins Design’s Adrian Westaway and Clara Gaggero, teaching the tech illiterate how to operate a smart phone may not be such a problem.
Out of the Box works kind of like a picture book. The picture is your mobile phone and the instructions point directly to it in order to show the user precisely how to turn on, say, Wi-Fi or Bluetooth.
In the video demo, the parts of the mobile phone (SIM card, battery, chassis and battery cover) are already packed into the instruction book. The user is then instructed to place the SIM card and battery inside the mobile phone and start it up himself. It looks like even a kid or an old person can do it without any problems since the instructions are concise.
Another manual is provided to teach the user how to navigate through the many different menus in order to make the mobile phone perform a certain function. The user simply has to turn to the section which includes the instructions to whatever he wants to accomplish, place the mobile phone in the space provided and follow the bulleted steps. The sections are divided much like an old school address book so getting to a specific part of the manual will be a breeze.
The demo photos of the Out of the Box manual include other possible implementations, such as the use of picture cards and map guidelines. It really looks promising and if this gets to be marketed for real, a big chunk of the non-tech savvy population may just be convinced to buy their own smart phone.
Since Vitamins Design worked with Samsung on this project, it may just open up a new market for the Korean brand. Hopefully they will use recycled materials to make it a bit friendlier to the environment.
Out of the box – book from adrian333 on Vimeo.
Tags: Bluetooth, gadgets, manuals, out-of-the-box, SIM-cards, technology, Wi-Fi
