With the current surge in growth of tablet devices, and more and more daily reliance on smartphones, how should we really serve content to our customers? For most users, we want our content wherever WE are. Whether that's at work on the desktop, home on the tablet or on the move on the phone. Sounds great right? But what does that mean for those of us designing those 'go-anywhere' solutions?

Approach options

There are a few ways you can approach the design of your products.

1. Linear experience (independent experiences with connected content and branding)
2. Multi-experience (Same/scalable experience on multiple devices)
3. Mobile DNA (carry your stuff with you on your own mobile device)

Which approach should you use? That all depends on your strategy. Over the past few years, we've applied linear and multi-experience approaches to design for various clients (including Aston Martin, Tesco, National Express), however an alternate approach is emerging. We're tentatively referring to it as 'Mobile DNA', and the premise is that the user uses their own content on multiple display devices. Several companies are already taking steps towards providing this solution to their customers.

Nokia's approach

Advances in phone technology are beginning to influence the customer journey, providing a completely personalised experience within the context of third party products. Imagine you get into your car, plug in your smart phone, and your in-car-system automatically contains your choice of sat-nav provider, all your music, fully Bluetooth phone capability for hands-free use... and even better, you take it with you when you park up. Nokia have been working on a system that does just this. A great approach, but it's a proprietary system and will only work with certain Nokia handsets.

Flight of fantasy

You get to the airport, check in using your smart phone, peruse destination information within the airport, pass through the gate using the boarding pass on your phone. Once on-board, you plug your phone into the charging cable, and your content is available through the in-flight entertainment system, supplementing the airline's content. You can play your own music and movies through the seat-mounted system and navigate content using your own interface.

How can this be extended?

The reality is that several companies are trying to achieve exactly this. Jungo, whose middleware offering allows users to plug in their Android, iPhone, iPad (or any other device), and then project the content on the head display of your car. Jungo's offering contains its own interface, but taking that a step further and allowing 3rd Party companies to create their own 'Mobile DNA' apps would provide infinite choice to users on exactly how they want their slim mobile experience to be. Car manufacturers then need only build in a touch screen with a phone connection, saving on costly infotainment systems and giving users the choice and control to use whatever they like.

So what does the future hold?

We'd like to see manufacturers of car and in-flight systems providing their own apps, allowing exclusive content and bespoke interfaces. The third party market could then open up, enabling competition which ultimately results in more diverse interface experiences for users. This then gives rise to users having the ability to customise their interfaces and provide themselves a bespoke augmented mobile experience across multiple devices.

It becomes uniquely your mobile DNA.