User responsive iPad and iPhone bezel slide in gesture.

The best way to switch between apps on an tablet or phone device seems to be the bezel slide in gesture. That said, there are many issues with implementing this approach. The foremost being that apps requiring long screen gestures and interactions such as games will invariably cause users to accidentally switch away from the current app.

This is why having a full bezel to bezel gesture across the device's screen required to switch apps is more appropriate. That said, this system invariably loses out on some of the best aspects of the single bezel slide in approach, such as dynamic feedback illustrating that one app is being switched for another the moment the bezel gesture begins. This can't be applied to the bezel to bezel approach without losing the reason for using it in the first place, preventing interruptions to the current app session from accidental bezel slide in gestures.

This is why I propose a hybrid. Require a full bezel to bezel gesture to switch apps but only beginning the dynamic feedback at the midway point. This could be implemented as a gradual fade in of the next app below the user's finger at the midway point or, to conform more to Apple's design language, having the current app begin the recede into the background at the midway point followed by the next app sliding into place on top.

I'd like to see this approach implemented in the iPad as the current 4 finger gesture limits the functionally of apps to 3 finger gestures or less.

What .2 of an inch will do for the iPhone 5

Something occurred to me the other day regarding iOS 5, the iPhone 5 and their impact together on the iOS UI (namely notifications). Prior to this I'd been writing an essay on the shortcomings of notifications on iOS 5 and how I felt they could be fixed. With that essay in mind I was reflecting on how Apple could have gotten notifications so wrong when gradually the all the pieces, all the rumours and inconsistencies, came together for me. The ensuing image was brilliant. Let me explain:

In my previous easy I highlighted the fact that iOS 5's notifications are still obtrusive as they hide critical UI elements in some apps. My solution for this was to have iOS 5 resize apps below notifications using the same double height status bar method employed by the phone app, voice memo app and tethering function. The issue with this, I conceded, was that some apps don't resize properly to make room for the double height status bar. Apple must have also observed this resizing issue, regarded it as being unacceptable and chose to have notifications conceal all apps consistently rather than some apps inconsistently. Personally, I would have written off apps that didn't resize much the same way apps that didn't multitask were with iOS 4. Users would have naturally gravitated toward apps that do resize just is I found myself doing so with multitasking apps after the release of iOS 4. As it stands currently, notifications in iOS 5 are unacceptable and un-Apple in their implementation.

At the same time as my musings, rumours were surfacing regarding the next iPhone. Sites such as 'thisisnext.com' ran very exhaustive articles compiling the most credible rumours of what the iPhone 5 had in store. One rumours that struck me as odd was the suggestion of a larger 3.7" screen. Apple has stayed very true to the 3.5" screen of the original iPhone and to change it now would cause some very serious headaches for app developers. Also, that extra .2 of an inch isn't much, maybe enough for another line or two of text on screen. Why bother go through the trouble adding it? It seems like an odd move from Apple which has distanced itself from the numbers game one-upmanship of the rest of the tech industry.

A line or two of text though, that could be handy for notifications. In fact, bumping up the screen size by .2” would provide exactly the right space for notifications to slip into. My back-of-the-envelope calculations confirm this. By my calculations iOS 5 notifications are 6mm in height. Expanding the iPhone’s screen in all directions to accommodate 3.7” would result in 2.8mm of additional screen width and 4.2mm in additional screen height, but constraining the screen width to that of the existing iPhone and only increasing the screen height to accommodate 3.7” result in... 6mm of additional screen height!

Picture it, on the iPhone 5 old, iOS 2 to 4, apps would no longer be covered by incoming notifications; they would instead appear in the blank space made available by that .2 of an inch. This would be a genius move by Apple: what couldn't possibly be fixed through software (having all app developers code their apps to resize below notifications) would instead be fixed through hardware. Ideally Apple would then learn from the mistakes of the past and place stronger restrictions on new 3.7" screen apps, requiring them to resize properly upon the arrival of a notification, that or disallow apps for using that space at all.

If Apple does this it will have paved the way for one of the best notification systems in the mobile space next to WebOS's.  Yet, in an all too common move Apple will have thrown older generation hardware owners under the bus, leaving them with obstructive notifications and a subpar user experience.

They're finally getting it...

Very similar UI concepts . Im flattered.

My iPhone exposé concept:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4OOeKVbWIkg&sns=tw

Meego's three window UI concept:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BSZssHGR-Qg&sns=tw

Refining the iPhone notification system

I came across an interesting project Tweeted by Aaron Ash (arronash). Peter Hajas has taken it upon himself to rethink the way that the iPhone handles and displays notifications. Check out his blog at peterhajas.com I'm a little unclear on all the details but it got me really excited about the possibilities of a proper notification system on iOS. That said, I'd like to toss out a few of my own ideas on what iOS notifications could and likely should be with iOS 5.0 (fingers crossed).

The enemy! Obtrusive and annoying!

I've yet to see any notification system on the iPhone really deliver as they all fall into the same traps that others have: they become overly complicated by adding new UI paradigms.

UI paradigms are an agreement between developers and users. Put simply, the developer and the user agree that object/environment A will act in such and such a way. When you start to introduce exceptions or changes that breaks that agreement and users become confused.

Other notification replacements have used ‘Activator’ from ‘Cydia’ to bring up a list of previously dismissed notifications. I have found that this has led to issues with the functionality of my iPhone. Apps are not aware of Activator’s methods of activation: shake, slide in from the bottom, tap the status bar, etc. Those methods of activation interfere with games (shake), app launching(slide in), navigation to the top of a window (tap the status bar). My belief is why invent a new IU paradigm when Apple has already given you a good one: double tap the home button.

Double tapping home brings up backgrounding and media controls but it also leaves a lot of dead space that could be filled with dismissed notifications. If the screen lifted another inch or two to reveal notifications in addition to backgrounded apps the excising UI paradigm of iOS 4 would remain in place.

What’s all the empty space doing for you? Combining the double tap multitasking tray with the Spotlight search UI paradigm creates a new system which users will quickly come to understand.

The multitasking tray is left functional and the user gets so much more out of their double tap multitasking screen. I find this approach particularly intuitive because notifications relate directly to multitasking, just as the music playback controls do. After all, notifications like music playback are really just an extension of an app left running while you perform other tasks.

As a side note, my iPhone is jailbroken so that bar you see under the playback controls is not iOS 4 default. For those that are curious it is there to control my screen brightness.

The same approach to notification collection can and should be taken with displaying the notifications as they come in. Many of the new features of iOS 4 involved a new animation which moves your current display out of the way to reveal the happenings of a screen underneath. The multitasking tray uses these and folders use this.

A system using this animation would be the least obtrusive as it doesn’t cover your current task, it simply moves out of the way. Using this approach for notifications seems the most logical. It suggests to the user: I know you are doing something else but under here there is something else going on you may be interested in.

Holding true to established UI paradigms, there is another iOS notification that uses this approach: the double height status bar. When active, the double height status bar moves the current screen down slightly to make spaces for itself. Apps and users and used to the double height status bar. They both know that when in play they can continue to work: the keyboard still works and text boxes are still visible.

The status bar would lift away and the bottom of the screen would push down and resize to make, both making room for the notification underneath.

A know that there are still a lot of issues that need to be resolved with this approach to notification: how to display notifications on full screen apps, where to display the number of missed notifications to prompt users to double tap home to see them and how to display landscape. I believe full screen apps will just have to become covered in part. Apple really didn’t think that one through even with double height status bars. As for notification counters or some other way to display the number of unattended to notifications, I would like to see the status bar display icons of app notifications that haven’t been attended to or dismissed, though that could fill up fast. Landscape is a no brainer thankfully. It’s not great but it can still show some text and an app icon.

What are your thoughts on notifications, iPhone or otherwise? Have I missed something or am I way off? Let me know!

Hudson

Using Google Wave for Android Push Notifications

So I was going through my random ideas notebook, yes, I have a notebook dedicated just to crazy ideas, and I came across this old idea from way back (6 months ago?) when Google Wave first hit the public. My thought was, why can't Google use a tool like Google Wave to mirror, maybe even better, the iPhone push notification system?

Google Wave API plugins could be used for push notifications on Android not in dissimilar fashion to those on the iPhone. This system would involve some minor changes to the Android OS but would not fragment the OS as it would operate in addition to the current notification system. Additionally, Google would be able to leverage Google Wave in a way that would encourage developers and users alike to utilize Google Wave, to benefit of each. In this system the Android OS would allow apps to create waves in a user’s Google Wave account which the apps would use for storing all online and offline notifications, chats and other such events. At the OS level, Android, ether on Google’s servers or on each device, would monitor a user’s Wave account for changes. When a change is found that change would be directed to the corresponding app to notify the user or to perform any number of other tasks the app developer would see fit.

This system would have benefits outside any battery savings realized by using one global data connection. By plugging into Google Wave to direct notifications and data to a user’s Android device a developer would be making that notification and data stream available to the user outside of the Android device. A resourceful developer would be able to create a Google Wave app to leverage this data, extending their Android app to the desktop computing environment and potentially increasing the amount of time a user spends in their app. This increases the value to cost for the user and the potential advertising revenue for the developer.

A simple example would be a Twitter client would runs both on Android and inside Google Wave. Tweets and requests would be stored inside the Google Wave stream and presented inside a user friendly Wave app. That data would be directed to the corresponding Twitter client on the user’s Android device. Ideally, the Wave app and Android app would have a consistent UI across both platforms, creating a seamless user experience.

A Twitter app running on a Nexus One.

The Google Wave version of that same Twitter app, collection data in a forward facing, user friendly manner.

Google has already been talking up its app store for Google Wave; it doesn’t seem like that big of a leap to imagine apps being sold in conjunction across Android and Wave: buy one, get the other for free.

As aways, your thoughts on this or any other ideas are very welcome!

Hudson

Research Project: Head tracking in Architectural Environments

Two years ago I began a four month research project in conjunction with the University of Waterloo’s Architectural program with the goal of developing methods and systems for creating inexpensive virtual architectural environments. These virtual architectural environments would enable students and professionals to immerse themselves into their designs, becoming more attuned to their special qualities. What followed was nine month of soldering, programming and LOTS of Googling, trying to bring my ambitions to some kind of head. In the end, I produced a setup using the Nintendo Wiimote, Unreal Tournament 2004 and lots and lots of soldering and burned out LEDs.

I’ve made public, through Google Docs, my project documentation video and PDF. Please feel encouraged to download it and do with it what you would, as I’d always intended it for public use.

PDF Documentation

Video Documentation

Thoughts on phones and silent times...

So I have an iPhone and many of you have heard me complain about some element of it at one point or another. That said, I do really love the thing. I love the way it lets me stay connected at all times. Sadly, that connectedness can be a problem when it comes to times when you just want... SILENCE!

The iPhone does a particularity bad job of offering users a way to silence their phone at key times or to do so manually when so needed. Two modes are given: silent or not. I won't go into details on what is exactly silenced when in silent mode but it falls short. For one, the vibrate function can be rather loud when you are trying to sleep with your phone next to you. It can also provide too great a degree of silencing, eg. Perhaps you get a lot of messages during the day but so you need your phone silent while at work but you want to be alerted when that one, all important, call comes. In that instance the ring should not be silenced but the message client should. Sadly, Apple does not see this as a valid use case, users don’t NEED these options. You're right Apple, they don't, but they do WANT them.

Hence the reason for my purchase of Auto Silent from the Cydia Store (so available on Rock) An aggregator for applications which Apple sees fit to neglect or outright deny.

Auto silent allows for the creation of time specific profiles which can be programmed function by function to be silent or not, this even includes disabling the vibrate (JOY!) Needless to say, I love it. My phone has been waking me up at night far too often even since I enabled facebook, msn and email on it! That said, it believe that it still falls short of providing the level of control and intuitivity that Apple is renowned for.







The profiles that Auto Silent allows you to create are limited to time as the only determining agent when enabling them. Why not adapt to the user? We aren't home bodies, we aren't mindless drones, we are subject to change and erratic behaviour. My phone shouldn't be telling me when it's time for lights out, I'll tell it!

With that in mind, here is an email I wrote to the programmer of Auto Silent with some suggested features to include in future builds.

These features do not have to be limited to the iPhone; ideally I would like to see them inform all phone designs.

>>>>>>

First, the concept is that the night mode/sleep time, ie. 10pm to 7am is good for getting a good night’s sleep but if you DO happen to have your phone on you or are out and about then you'll want your phone to be making sounds as normal. Why not have an option which can be enabled on any profile which will have the phone intermittently pole the accelerometers to see if it is moving? That should give a good indication as to if it is in use or not and if it should be silent or not.

Here is another one, maybe even better. Have an option which can be enable in the profile setup, just as with the accelerometer mode, to have the phone intermittently sample the ambient audio level and adjust the volume of the ringer or alerts accordingly. This could include simply lowering the volume in a quiet room or increasing it in a loud one. It could also silent the phone entirely when the ambient volume is below a pre defined level.

Last one. Why not have another mode in the profile setup which, again, can be turned on in a profile to profile basis but this time it would rely on the phone's location. A user could define a point on google maps and then a radius around that point in which the phone would change its profile to a pre defined setting. Eg. Pointing to your work and specifying silent between 8am to 5pm or school between 9am and 3pm, or home between 10pm and 7am. The Longitude app in Rock already does the pre defined location poling. Maybe you can tap into that as a requirement for this option? Just pole the user's google latitude location.

These options can be introduced as DLC for the Auto Silent app. Let users buy them each for $1 to $2. You'll make a killing! I know I would buy each and every one!

>>>>

So, what are your thoughts on this? Too much or still too little? How can a phone be more responsive to its user in a helpful way? Are we getting there or are we just spinning our wheels?

Hudson

-- Post From My iPhone

Rome Design Studio Project 2 – Final Project

It’s over! I’m actually very happy with my project. I won’t bore you with the long drawn own explanation of what my project became in the final hours (and believe me, I was down to the final hour!) I just hope that you can take in the pretty pictures and get some pleasure from them.

I do want you to read this quote of Philleppi Starck though. It’s from an interview with the technology website, endgadget.com and really influenced the way I approached my project when I was trying to understand the Zeitgeist for our decade.

"Modernity goes to the minimum, to dematerialization. All intelligent products are more power and less volume and less design. And yet, in a complete reversal of modernity... Everything that has mechanical parts is older. These old, mechanical things may be well done but one day they will break.

Do we love these objects, the box, or do we love what will be inside the box?
When you get a new computer you are not in aw of the computer itself, but what you will do with the computer. That is why I want to clearly separate the 'box' from the end result. I don't give a shit about the object, the box, the space, the building; I care about what will be done with these things by the people that will be interacting with them, the human experience.”

On my building facade textures contrast: stone to stucco, stucco to mosaic, mosaic to concrete. Stark walls of concrete and marble faces contrasted against the bright, gleaming walls of mosaic.

Mosaic will create my imagery and orientations. Intricate patterns will form out of the grid of the ceramic tiles. The gleam of the sun across their brightly polished surface will create an added layer of texture, swirling, shifting, ever changing.

Ramps and stairs lead to a series of simple, austere spaces. Concrete floors and ceilings, steel cable railings, and a sleek exposed lighting system create neutral functional spaces; the objects placed in the museum are the program, for, as is the case on the internet, the medium is nothing without the subject.

The pure orthogonal geometry of the circulation zone, the internet, is violated by the expression of the folded front facade on one side and the resultant galleries, the medium, within.

If you want to see the full panels with plans, sections and elevations you can check them out in the images below or follow the links to be redirected to Google Docs

http://docs.google.com/fileview?id=0By7LHV7FlKQcYzNmZWFhMjAtYTgyMS00Y2E2LTljNjYtMmMzNTI3ODQwOTQy&hl=en

http://docs.google.com/fileview?id=0By7LHV7FlKQcNWQxZTZmNWItZmY3Mi00YWM0LTgxNTktMDlhMmVjMjkxOTUw&hl=en

http://docs.google.com/fileview?id=0By7LHV7FlKQcNjIyNWEwMTktZWIxNi00ODFlLTlhYWEtNDJmZWE1NGQxNjQ3&hl=en