Hahaha, yes indeed! I’m a very sporadic person, so I tend to jump around to a lot of different things without thinking much! 
I started off with a pure design and form goal in mind, but I quickly got ahead of myself in wanting to do too many things for a simple personal project. I’ve moved on somewhat from this project, (it’s been more of a learning project than a design one!) but I still think about it from time to time, so you could expect an update or two in the future!
Ocha is Japanese for tea. I’m a huge fan of Japan, as well as a tea fanatic, so I decided to dub my first project ocha. (It would also make it easy to update or re-design that idea, using different names of teas, for example, Usucha, Gen-mai cha, etc.) Thanks for asking, I didn’t think anyone would!
Thanks for your thoughts, they are much appreciated!
Ocha as a name could help you structure a philosophy around this design. Take some time and study the ritual of tea and tea making. Tea ceremonies, perhaps? They are a very social activity but there are strict rituals to heed when participating. How does that translate into a mobile device today, which is also social and bound by certain etiquettes and manners?
I was a little bored tonight, so I decided have some fun and come back to this project.
I wrote out a some general problem statements, and listed what I’d do (it’s not gonna fix it, but it’ll add to the solution!). I also jotted down how ocha’s properties could drive the design and thought behind the design. (Thanks Tarngerine!)
I’ve also sketched out some ideas I had to remedy current issues with phone design, like adding a ring flash to add even lighting, as well as simplify the back side, or placing microphones on both ends of the screen will help blur the idea of one “fixed” orientation. Plus it would make it easier to answer the phone without having to worry about picking up the phone upside down!
It’s by no means set in stone, or serious in any way, just some doodling. It was fun coming back to this project, and there could be a possibility of re-starting this one day.
