On a Mobile Phone Contact List Based on Social Relations

Abstract

Social relations are unquestionably the major provider of contacts in the mobile devices contact lists. However, they remain marginal in the literature of social software related to the contact list and are not at all integrated in its design. Inspired by African social and cultural practices, this paper is about a design of the contact list that integrates the social relationships existing between people in the real life. A desktop prototype of the proposed contact list designing allows to validate it. Illustrations of the developed application demonstrate the assets of the proposed contact list regarding issues such as contacts reminding/retrieval and homonymy resolving with respect to the real life. Additional capabilities of the proposed contact list reside in the creation of groups of contacts for group communications needs.