“De bouche à oreille” is a device used in shared rented accommodation that describes points of interest in the local area. It is used by tenants to records the oral history of a place and to pass on information to incoming tenants.

The design aims to look at little details that can make life easier when you arrive in a new city or a place you do not know.

The Internet is usually already installed when renting a shared flat, “De bouche à oreille” would be provided as a new Orange service taking advantage of this.

Flatmates will record places, events, gigs that they liked or disliked and share these pieces of local history with the following flatmates supporting the discovery of new places to enjoy or events happening in your neighbourhood. Rather than a written or visual message “De bouche à oreille” works through oral transmission. It encourages the users to tell stories and offers rich descriptions of a place.

The design is informed by the expression “De bouche à oreille” and the way to use the associated hand gestures. Thus the product references the design language of the archetypical early 1900s phone translated into a new digitally supported service. This aesthetic gives the feeling that this object is part of the flat environment since the beginning and has become a new communication tool between the old, new and future inhabitants.

This project was realised for the design contest Orange Hands you the Keys and was exhibited at Le Lieu du Design in Paris.