Never miss a notification again. A notification light built into the power button — shipped globally on five Nokia phones and recognised with a Good Design Award.
the problem
I led the Beyond Expectations UX project to improve the user experience of missing notifications on Nokia phones. The answer was hardware and software working together: a notification power button that breathes with light when there is something you need to know, and a dedicated Google button for instant access to the Assistant.
The behaviour model separated what users need to know — new message, new email, missed call, shown as a breathing reminder light — from what they want to know: a single click for Google Assistant, a double click for the Google Zero information page, press and hold for Walkie-Talkie mode. Guiding principles for light frequency — breathing, heartbeat and fast heartbeat — separated passive information (normal / usual) from active information (need aware / alert / stop / warning / urgent).
process
The first programme to implement Blink Key was Panther — the Nokia 4.2. It was not easy to get the key to light up evenly while preventing light leakage. After countless time trials and errors, we used printing on the translucent button with laser etches cleaning up the light-up area we needed. Mechanical engineers were involved early, providing cost input and pros-and-cons analysis for every proposal.
the result