Nokia’s view of the future – trends research, ethnography and design
Timo Veikkola, senior future specialist at Nokia, has just written an article for usability magazine uiGarden to expand on his vision of our future – already alluded to during his presentation at the PSFK conference just a few weeks ago.
“Many shifts in society and their influences on the behaviors, values and attitudes of people are often slight and may be overlooked. Through consumer trend analysis, ethnography, and contextual inquiry we are able to forecast the emergence of new behaviors and conceptual visions. The natural progression of society and people will always offer new frontiers. One thing that we can be certain of is that things always are in a state of change. Understanding that the pendulum can only swing to a certain degree before it must, by laws of physics, swing in its opposite direction, we can anticipate the future. Development has always played a natural role in the evolution of people and thus we have an invaluable position to influence that direction in its most human and natural way.”
Timo Veikkola is a senior futures specialist within Nokia. Based in the design team, and an anthropologist by training, his job involves observing human behavior and lifestyles in order to identify signals and new trends. His observations inform and influence Nokia’s design team. His work takes him all over the world from Europe to the US, Latin America and Asia. He is Canadian by nationality, and currently lives in London, UK.
