1. Presentation of a small selection of data from ongoing ‘Where’s the Phone’ studies that highlights gender, age and cultural differences in how people carry mobile phones. London, 29th March, This presentation and related research can be downloaded from A short essay the compliments this presentation can be found at
All photos and data copyright Nokia.
Thanks to the research team who helped made this research possible: Petri Piippo, Virpi Roto, Liu Ying, Younghee Jung, Sachi Mizobuchi, Raphael Grignani, Gilles Baudet, Indri Tulusan, Julius Matovu, Lokesh Bitra, Zeenath Hasan, Thomas Stovicek, Kiyoko Toriumi, Aico Shimizu, Ramin Vatanparast, the extended team of data collectors.
Photo: Where’s the Phone, Tehran, 2006.

2. Photos: Where’s the Phone Beijing, Tokyo, Ji Lin City, 2004 - 2005.

3. *Presentations that cover the qualitative research methods mentioned above can be downloaded from in particular Exploratory User Field Research in the Nokia Mobile HCI Group and Out There: Using Field Research to Inform and Inspire.
Images: the reporting style is a mixture of statistical data highlighting cultural, gender and age differences in carrying styles and motivations and visually rich imagery that shows the mobile phone owner, their phone, any form of physical customisation e.g. phone straps, covers, stickers, …, and the position where the phone is carried. Where possible we also document the location of keys and money (money either contained in a wallet or loose cash).

4. Thanks to the original Helsinki Where’s The Phone research team: Juha Marila, Miika Silfverberg, Tuomo Nyyssonen, Vuokko Lantz, Topi Kaaresoja & Fumiko Ichikawa.
Photos: Where’s the Phone, Helsinki, 2003.

5. The Los Angeles study is, more specifically Venice Beach and Santa Monica.

6. Photos: From Where’s the Phone studies in Kampala, Tokyo, Seoul, Beijing & Tehran, 2004 – 2006.

7. Photos are synchronised with questionnaire data by taking a photo of the form including a unique identifier in the top right hand corner. The sequence of photos that follow relate to that participant.
Photo: Where’s the Phone data collection form, 2006, Tehran.

8. N = 1549, all participants from all 11 studies.
60% of men sampled carried their mobile phone in their pockets, and of these most carried them in front pockets, positioned to be reached by their dominant hand i.e. right handed people mostly kept the phone in their right pocket.
61% of women sampled carried their mobile phone in their hand bag or other bag.
Possible questionnaire responses include: handbags and other bags; trouser pocket; skirt pocket; upper body e.g. shirt pocket; in hands; neck strap; belt case or clip; owned but not current carried; others e.g. in sock, clipped to body parts other than the belt, tucked inside waist band; strapped to wrist; wedged in motorcycle helmet and so on.
Photo: Bag carrying participant, Ji Lin City, China, 2005.

9. Based on N = 1549, all participants across all cultures.
Photo: Bag carrying participant, Ji Lin City, China, 2005.

10. Based on a collation and categorisation of open-response answers of 1549 respondents.
Secondary factors influencing carrying position include: health concerns, lack of alternatives, a reflection of local carrying styles and tastes, large phone sizes (not suitable for preferred location), and not wanting to interfere with current activity.
Photo: Novel use of pocket for younger males – supports ease of interaction, checking the status of incoming communication and projecting identity, Tokyo, Japan, 2006.

11. Tokyo male N=61
Milan male N=56
Los Angeles male N=66
Beijing male N=111
Ji Lin City male N=104
More popular amongst older males.
Photo: Atypical belt mounted phone, Beijing, China, 2005.

12. Tokyo N=124
Milan N=110
Los Angeles N=122
Beijing N=212
Ji Lin City N=202
The main drivers for people adopting protective phone covers is to prolong the life of the device by protecting from dust and scratches, and to protect resale value. Covers reduce the owners ability to project social associations and impress others, so you would expect them to be less in cultures where strap usage is high. The one exception to this is Seoul, South Korea, which the team attribute to an unusually high local awareness of bacterial awareness/paranoia [see
Cover usage considerably changes the interaction and carrying experience, and with hard-cover designs adds considerably bulk to the device.

13. The questionnaire only included questions on phone straps after the Delhi study, hence statistics are only available in 8 of the cities. Whilst it was not specifically measured as part of these studies we estimate Milan, New York and Helsinki to each have less than 10% of strap use. Phone strap usage ranges from the purely functional to highly decorated - see examples on the following slides. Females are known to make sophisticated use of phone straps by attaching objects with unique textures, that are then used to help locate the phones in handbags.
Phone straps are a suitable platform to facilitate social associations and impression management, and one possible explanation for differences of these statistics is individualism vs. collectivism (for background reading see: Hofstede, G., Cultures and Organizations: Software of the Mind. New York: McGraw-Hill U.S.A, 2004).

14. Photo: Where’s the Phone, Ji Lin City, 2005.

15. Photo: Where’s the Phone, Tokyo, 2005.

16. Photo: Where’s the Phone, Korea, 2005.

17. A simple example of an object you (probably) take for granted as being universal amongst urban dwellers, but which is in fact far from universal.
Tokyo N=124
Seoul N=101
Beijing N=212
Ji Lin City N=202
(this data may be biased by people not wanting to reveal to the researchers where they carried their purse/wallet. However in most instances respondents did show the researchers where their money was carried).
Main reason for not carrying a purse/wallet? - it’s an easy target for theft. In addition a wallet/purse is only (functionally) needed when there are enough objects e.g. credit & debit cards, ‘loyalty’ cards, id cards, to cluster in it as a container. Currently for many of the world’s poorer city dwellers a purse/wallet is simply not needed.
Photo: Where’s the Phone Tehran, 2006.

21. Team effort + street data collection teams in Los Angeles, New York, Milan, Kampala, Tehran, Delhi, Hyderabad, Beijing, Seoul, Tokyo & Ji Lin.
Photo: Where’s the Phone, Tehran, 2006.

22. Related reading:
Cultures and Organizations: Software of the Mind. Hofstede, G., New York: McGraw-Hill U.S.A, 2004.
Mobile Essentials: Field Study and Concepting. Presented to Designing the User Experience 05, Chipchase, J., Persson, P., Aarras, M., Piippo, P., & Yamamoto, T. [
Where's the phone? A study of Mobile Phone Location in Public Spaces. Mobility '05. Ichikawa, F., Chipchase J., & Grignani R. [
Which hand? Which ear? – Comparative study for N-Gage and S60 portrait hand preference. Jan Blom, Jan Chipchase, et. al. Internal report, 2004.
Photo: Data debrief session with Fumiko Ichikawa and Cui Yanqing. Jan Chipchase. Beijing, 2006.