Forum Nokia – USID Design Challenge 2008 is organizing a National Design Challenge organized by the USID Foundation for the Professionals and Students as pre-event for the 2nd India International Conference USID2008 on HCI & Design which is being organized at Hotel Leela Kempenski Bangalore from 4th to 6th September 2008. The registration for participating in the design challenge will be open till 31st July, 2008 and the entry submission will be accepted till 17th August 2008. Mr. Raman Saxena, the co-founder of USID Foundation informed that the Design Challenge 2008 is being organized in association with Forum Nokia India. Mr. Raman Saxena also informed that the Theme of the Design Challenge is “Design a Mobile Application to Empower the Farming Community of India”

The spread of mobile phones in India is growing rapidly and the number subscribers had reached 261 million at the end of March 2008. By 2010 India will have 250 million people having mobiles with Internet capabilities & built-in cameras. 100 million people can watch video on their phones. 200 million can listen to music and 200 million can have radio capability in their Mobile phones.

In the same time the challenge of food shortage is being faced across the globe. Considering this, the role of productive and planned agriculture will play a critical role in bringing food to our tables. Since India’s economy is driven by agriculture, the focus should be on empowering rural agricultural community – that is struggling to effectively grow, and sell financially viable produce despite the incessant demand.

Simply meeting the communication and entertainment needs will not mean much unless we answer the vital question, Is there a social responsibility while extending mobile connectivity throughout the world? We need to focus on how mobile phone can help the overall socio-economic development. There is also a need to focus on the kind of mobile user experience that must be delivered for these new consumers? How can you harness the power of mobile telephony to enhance the livelihood and quality of life of the farming community of India?

Forum NOKIA – USID Design Challenge 2008 is an opportunity for the professionals and students to showcase their talent by designing an easy to use mobile application (Concept & the UI) that can help in the agriculture productivity & socio-economic development of the rural population.

3 winners in both students and professional category will be awarded products /gadgets of total prize money of Rs. 160,000. The registration for participating in the design challenge will be open till 31st July, 2008 and the entry submission will be accepted till 17th August 2008. The entries will be judged by a jury composed of members from NOKIA and eminent designers from industry & academia.

For more details on Forum NOKIA – USID Design Challenge 2008 visit www.usidfoundation.org/usid2008/designchallenge

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USID Foundation (Usable Software Interface Design) is recently floated by community of Designers & Engineers who came together in May 2006 as HCI-Hyderabad to draw attention of the society and the industry specifically the Information Technology (IT) towards the Human Computer Interaction complexities, the Usability & usefulness of products & services and the benefits of the technological advancement to the society.