Spreading Fairphone’s philosophy across consumer electronics

Abstract

The goal for this project was to determine opportunities for Fairphone to expand their portfolio and develop and validate a concept that deserves to carry the Fairphone name. Hence the title: ‘Spreading Fairphone’s philosophy across consumer electronics’. The project is split into three phases: Analysis, Conceptualization, and Materialization. The analysis consists of a product exploration into the very wide domain of consumer electronics, on the market, trends and developments and the potential user. The results from these studies provided insights that helped determine potential products for Fairphone to develop. One of those product directions was the starting point for the conceptualization phase. A more specific design brief, accompanied by a design goal and an interaction vision served as guidelines for explorations, prototyping and interviews to derive concept directions. A process of iterative prototyping helped to design the final design proposal for Fairphone: The relive are modular headphones that can record binaural audio when shooting a video with your mobile phone. This adds a 3D sound effect to videos, allowing the viewer to experience the recorded moment more lifelike, as if he was there. This perfectly fits the current market, where new ways to immerse the consumer into different types of content are being explored (e.g. virtual reality, 360 degree video). The accompanying app allows users to effortlessly record and share binaural audio and video. The app contains a section with curated or popular videos that are not only experiential, but also informative in line with Fairphone’s mission or other sustainable initiatives.