18 months ago, I promised Dave that I was going to find a phone that would be very simple for him to use. Dave has tried a bunch of different mobile phones in the past and as a friend I've seen how frustrating it's been for him when a mobile phone is just too complicated for him to do what he wants.

When I started designing the Doo Phone my aim was to create a user interface that would allow real people like dave to have the same access to communication that most of us take for granted. With the simple image based dialling system and no complex menu functions I beleive that this product is going to make a world of difference to the people who need it the most.

It's been a long 18 months, but finally thanks to the fantastic team at Orange Dot and all the people who have beleived in us and supported us along the way, Dave finally has the chance to travel with convidence. We're two weeks into our trial and it's looking like we've found the perfect solution to Dave's communication needs. The only problem we've found is that Dave loves calling his family and friends so much that he's already managed to use all the prepaid credit we loaded on the phone for him.

For those of you who might be interested we are working hard towards a commercial release of the Doo Phone with a view of getting it into the hands of many more people like Dave as soon as we can.

Recently I was invited to speak at the launch of the Sydney mega 2009.

Aussie phone for disabled wins recognition

With Australia's mobile phone penetration now sitting at around 100 per cent, it's easy to forget that there are still groups for whom the technology remains out of reach.

Rhys Cooper became aware of this during the five years he spent working with intellectually disabled adults. Modern mobile phones were simply too complex with too many options to be used easily. So last year he formed a company, Orange Dot, and set about creating a new type of phone that would be usable by a wide group of both intellectually and visually disabled people.

Earlier this year he built his first prototype based on a touchscreen phone from HTC, and then in May was named the winner in the Freelance category of the MEX Mobile User Experience Awards in London.

(For the Full article please click on the link below....)

http://www.zdnet.com.au/blogs/bootstrappr/soa/Aussie-phone-for-disabled-wins-recognition/0,2001092438,339296765,00.htm?feed=pt_rhys_cooper

As you might have heard Orange Dot's first product is the Doo Phone. This is a mobile phone interface developed for adults with intellectual disabilities, our aim is for it to be the easiest phone in the world for making basic phonecalls.

The way the Doo Phone interface works is by showing picture based speed dial options on touch screen mobile devices. This is presented in a very simple format and when selections are made the phone will say the name of the person or place you are trying to call, as well as this the screen will highlight the selected image to reassure the user of their selection. The Scroll buttons located near the bottom of the screen enable the user to move between pages of contacts and there is also a button that will switch the screen to a large format numeric dial interface. When using the numeric keypad to dial the phone will give audible feedback on the selections.

The first version of this software (Doo Phone V0.1) is currently being tested on HTC Touch HD devices, these devices were chosen because of their suitability for this project. We are working towards releasing a version of this software in the second half of 2009.

If you are interested in finding out more about our product or you have any questions and/or suggestions please feel free to contact us through the contact selection on thie website.

Recently, I was shortlisted as a finalist in the MEX Mobile User Experience Awards 2009 which was being held as a part of the MEX 2009 Conference in London. This was great news so I decided to pack my bags and jump on a last minute flight over to London. Due to some delays in Bangkok I only just got into London about 8 hours before the conference started, I found my way to my accommodation and got some well needed sleep after my now 29 hour journey.

London was amazing and the MEX Conference was absolutely superb, it was held at a venue called Wallacespace St Pancras. Just as they had advertised there were about 100 user experience specialists from over a dozen countries who had all come together to share and learn from each other about what it is that is going to make a mobile product a great experience for the user.

Enough about the conference, after day one there was an awards ceremony that night and this is what I was really there for. I was nervous, as you would expect, I’d just flown literally to the other side of the world to see if I was going to win an award for my contribution to mobile user experience through the work I have been doing on the Doo Phone. I tried to talk myself out of getting excited, I told myself I wasn’t going to win to try to calm my nerves. They announce the other three categories before getting to the freelance category award. I couldn’t believe it when Marek Pawlowski (Founder of MEX) called out “Rhys Cooper” I was awarded a very heavy glass trophy which holds the title of ‘Winner – Freelance Category, MEX Mobile User Experience Awards 2009’

It truly is an honour to have been awarded an international award for the work I’ve been doing over the past couple of years and I thank MEX 2009 for giving me this experience. I’d really like to take the opportunity to thank some people publicly here, Nick McIntosh, Justin Brow and Shane Williamson who have all been very supportive of my goal to deliver a mobile solution to people with a disability. I’m truly taken back by the amount of effort these men have been willing to put in to support Orange Dot, I feel very passionate about the Doo Phone project and I can’t wait to see it delivered to the people who need it most.

Here is the video component for our 2009 Mex Mobile User Experience awards entry.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qFc19nHr1Ig

On March 26, 2009 Rhys Cooper of Orange Dott presented the Doo Phone concept at the inaugrial Brisbane event of Pitch Club.  Pitch Club is an event that "provides an opportunity for 9 ventures to step into a miniature boxing ring where they have 90 seconds to 'pitch' their idea to a crowd of investors, business angels, VCs and other entrepreneur enthusiasts".  It's fast paced, to the point and a great opportunity for someone with an idea to get the word out.

Rhys Cooper effectively enguaged the audience and was voted through to the second round on the strength of his 90 second pitch.  Orange Dot received the second most votes out of the 11 presentations and was clearly well supported by the 100~ people present.

The second round gave Rhys Cooper a 5 minute window to explain the Doo Phone concept in more depth and conduct a brief Q&A session on the revolutionary product.

Rhys Cooper's passion and sound business idea was acknowledged on the night by the judges and received prizes valued at $2500 from Fisher Adams Kelly for "Most Innovative Pitch" and The Focussed Group as well as invaluable exposure for Orange Dot to the Brisbane entrepreneurial community.

As of this week we welcome our financial member to Orange Dot Pty Ltd, Mr Andrew Szosler. On behalf of the Orange Dot team we'd like to thank you for your support and encouragement.

I'm glad to announce that we're officially in the process of raising our first round of capital. I could never in my wildest dreams have imagined at the start of this year that I would be this far by Christmas. I'd like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who has helped Orange Dot to get to where it is today. I'd like to thank Andrew S for all the help with building the mock up prototypes for pitching the concept, and I'd especially like to thank the other directors Nick, Justin and Shane.

Ok, so a few things have been happening with Orange Dot, for a new company this has been a whirlwind year so far. In an effort to keep everyone up to date, we have decided to start this new website.

For those of you who haven’t heard of Orange Dot, we’re a young mobile technology company and we’re working on some projects in a hope to make mobiles more accessible to people with disabilities. The biggest of which is a new interface for a mobile device that we are working on that focuses on simplicity as the main design element.