242 Personal Content Experience: Managing Digital Life in the Mobile Age 6.4 Designing a Mobile User Interface In the previous sections, we have reviewed and discussed users, tech- nologies, and techniques for mobile user interfaces. The dialogue between the user and the system takes place only through the user interface; therefore, UI design has a crucial role in rendering the whole system easy and effi cient to use. In this section, we will look at how to select the right technologies and how to use them, resulting in a fi rst-class mobile user interface. From the UI design perspective, we are interested in defi ning what the system should do, and the related environment. We will also describe how the system provides the desired functionality by captur- ing functional requirements and identifying the required technologies, which are then used to further refi ne components during the detailed design phase. COMMENT: FUTURE MOBILE DEVICE AND UI DESIGN APPROACHES Many trends point to the changing nature of mobile devices. Signifi cant computational and data storage enhancements matched with the ongoing human need for greater mobility within our daily activity will provide new opportunities for mobile device and user interface solutions. However to ensure that these devices connect with our daily needs and become integrated into work and leisure activities, new approaches to the design of these devices and their UIs will be required. Therefore it is suggested that the domination of a pure engineering approach needs to be transformed to include a process which considers at its core, the aesthetics, usability, and the end user experi- ence of these new devices and their UIs. This holistic approach will need to ensure that the disciplines which span Design, Computer, Social, and the Physical sciences are engaged within an interdisciplinary research and development activity. Some early exploratory work from various research groups have begun to show the potential of such an approach over traditional engineering dominated methods. As this work matures, a continual refl ection of the benefi ts of these new mobile devices should become part of the development cycle to ensure that the maximum benefi t and an enhanced user experience is achieved. Sam Bucolo Sam Bucolo is Research and Development Director in Australasian CRC for Interac- tion Design (ACID), and Associate Professor in Industrial Design, School of Design, QUT