Skrevet af Lan Thuy Pham, 2. september 2010

Younghee Jung is from the Corporate Research Team at Nokia. She starts her presentation by asking the audience: What are you excited about? Possibilities, somebody in the audience answer. Another jokes: "Hearing you speaking."
Younghee Jung is excited about new technologies and their consequences for humans, even the smallest changes. She points out that we are definitely not at the peak of human intelligence. However, we're still living in a time where we are surrounded by the excitement of the new. Her talk will be about the perception of new experiences.
She pulls in some study cases of everyday practices that varies across the globe; in particular, she says with a smile, toilets are one of her favorite topics. Squatting toilets are common in India and other parts of South East Asia. The toilets typically have a mug or bucket instead of toilet paper. Actually, it is considered unsanitary to use Western sitting toilets and only toilet paper to clean oneself. Younghee Jung points out that people often have a protective attitude about their selected pre-choice. It is difficult to learn new habits, especially with something as fundamental as going to the toilet.
While many parts of South East Asia are still using the squatting toilet, Japan is one of the forerunners in toilet technology. The flush button has been replaced with a remote control that have functions like heated seat, a choice of whether to clean "front" or "behind" with soft water jets, air purifier and more. One of the more environmental inventions are the flushing sounds; doing your daily business is associated with cultural shame, and many Japanese would flush continuously under their toilet visit to mask the toilet sounds. In order to save water, companies invented flushing sounds which have the same function as the flushing without the use of water.
The heated seats where invented because toilets were placed outside. In the winter, the toilet seats are cold and old people would actually get heart attacks from sitting on the seats. This wasn't a problem when squatting toilets were prevalent in Japan. 
Some toilets even have SSD slots where it is possible to insert a SSD card with your favorite music. Every time you open the lid, the music starts to play. People relax and "get the job done better".
Another example is Tenga, a Japanese male masturbation device: "It might take two to tango, but only one to Tenga". Tenga has experienced an upsurge in popularity and now comes with a long list of add-ons like a microwavable warmer, more varieties and a better explanation of how to use it on the back. Younghee Jung thinks Tenga's popularity is a good indicative sign of another tendency in Japan: Hikikomori, roughly translated to social phobia and withdrawal from society. More than 700.000 are suffering from the condition, especially young males. They shut themselves into their rooms and rely on the family to keep them alive. Their only contact with the outside world is through the Internet.
Younghee Jung shares two other examples: Maternity centers in India are established in order to combat the high child mortality rate in the country and farmers' means of communicating while they are harvesting.
Furthermore, she talks about inventing a new interface for Indian mobile phones since it is very difficult to text message in Hindi. She emphasizes that designers can never work alone, but have to find inspiration in the surrounding world - or else the designer would be forcing the users to change rather than enhancing their lives.

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