Personalizing the shared mobile phone

Abstract

Sharing mobile phones, an enduring practice in developing nations, finds insufficient empirical effort or theoretical scrutiny as a sociological phenomena. Predominant conceptions of design for a mobile phone are aimed at independent and private behaviour as the device is perceived and designed to be a private object for personal use. In this paper we draw attention to the need for designing personalized spaces within the shared or familial culture around the mobile phone. We report on a qualitative case-study of shared mobile phones in low-middle income families in Mumbai city and Dharamshala, reframing personal communication devices as shared objects. © 2009 Springer Berlin Heidelberg.