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Teen Lab at Alcatel-Lucent

The Teen Lab is an innovative primary research program focused on soliciting the end-user experiences of kids and technology from all over the globe.

Research Results: 95% of Worldwide Teen Lab Members Download SuccessfullyYesterday

This just in! Our new research on mobile downloads is quite revealing. We asked our kids about the user experience when it came to shopping for and downloading mobile content and got some good news! In the world of mobile downloads, things have gotten much better.

Two years ago we did a similar study when The Lab was just starting out. Back then, the teens were miserable as they negotiated a silo’d user experience built from the “add-on” approach most mobile providers used for adding service. Each silo required different things from the user and didn’t allow for a “horizontal” experience across content types – preventing the user from shopping for the brands he or she cared about.

Today, what we’ve learned when comparing the two studies is that mobile service providers have done a great job making the user experience better. It appears that improving the user experience has had an overall positive affect on the entire process of downloading.

In 2006, only half the Lab Members were able to successfully download, they rated the quality of the content as good but less than half were will

Our Tween Talks: Music Downloads on Mobile Phones, Music Players and more…November 17

Quinn is a 12-year old U.S. tween who is using technology in a number of innovative ways. This week we will release our research on mobile downloads two years after we completed our first study. We thought we’d kick things off my having Quinn tell us about her downloading experiences. You can see Quinn’s other blog entries here.

I use my iPod Touch to listen to music. It’s like the iPhone without the phone or texting. It’s like a personal organizer, it gets the Internet and it plays music and videos. I will use a CD player every once and awhile. I have older CDs but I don’t get them much anymore since I got an iPod speaker for my iTouch. (I used to listen to them on my old Nano but I gave that to my little brother.)

I have my iPod dock which plugs in but of course my iPod is very portable. I use my dock a lot because it charges my iPod and it makes my music louder so my friends and I can listen to it. It also makes my iPod alarm even louder. The cool thing about the dock is that is has a remote. It’s really convenient and easy to use. Our neighbor got it for me for a holiday gift last year.

I also will listen to music from iTunes on my computer. I never use tape rec

Two Thirds of Teens Want a Better Mobile Phone: Voice and Data Research ResultsNovember 12

On Monday we started sharing the results of our voice and data research. Today we have part two: their purchasing plans for new phones that can do more and some insight into the things they think are missing from today’s mobile services.

We asked our Lab Members to pretend they were shopping for a new mobile phone. If one of the phone’s features was the ability to do multiple activities together, like talking and also viewing your email and more, how important would this capability be in selecting a phone? Over two thirds of the Lab members (69%) said that having this capability would be important in their purchasing decision.

Then we asked them what was missing from today’s mobile phones. We’ve summarized them here as recommendations. We encourage you to review the research to learn more about their specific ideas.

There are things we can fix or improve.
It’s time for the next-generation of texting; creating new features suggested by our Lab Members enriches the experience and gives them control. Internet brow

Voice and Data Research Results: Teens Do More with Mobile PhonesNovember 9

Ever wondered what else you might do on your phone while you are talking on it? Is there a way to add value to a voice experience or to let users do more than one thing at a time with their phone? Or how does using the computer enhance the mobile phone experience? That’s what we asked our Worldwide Teen Lab members in their most recent assignment.

Here’s what we learned and it is great stuff!

> At least once a day, 44% of Lab Members talk on a phone while using their computer

> Browsing the web and social networking sites were the two most popular activities they did while on the phone and computer

> Over 2/3 think simultaneous voice and data would be an important feature

> Another 50% said that they also listened to music on their computer while talking on the phone.

> Over 50% of the Lab members said they would use their mobile phone to talk and also do something else on their phone at the same time at least once a day

So what are the top three activities they would do together on their mobile phon

Worldwide Teens Share Creative Ideas on Green, Technology and Big BusinessNovember 3

Last week we shared new research results on teens, green, technology and shopping preferences. Today we are featuring the “green” projects the Lab Members created to express their ideas about companies, green and saving the planet. If you need to get “up-to-speed” on the green movement and how it relates to youth, there’s a great presentation here here produced by scenarioDNA (I recommend watching it in “full screen” mode).

In this blog, we are featuring a few of the ideas – but we invite you to click through and see all the projects that were submitted.

A Ducky Solution!
This PowerPoint presentation created by Fuji in Japan describes a problem we heard from many of our Teen Lab Members – “what the heck am I supposed to do!?” With so many calls to action, teens are unsure what is true and what will really make a difference. Fuji serves it up in a fun, entertaining way.

Brand Loyalty Matters
A number of our Lab Members talked about the brands that have earned their undying devotion because they are committed to green. In this video, Noah and Sam point out the value of Loaded Longboards and why they choose that brand over the others (click here to see video).