In a number of recent articles, I've been cataloging the capabilities of new consumer device product platforms with deep interest. One might wonder: why so many articles on the technology within smart phones, consoles, media players, and netbooks/pads?
It boils down to a simple mantra: know your medium. As a designer, understanding the capabilities of technology empowers you to deliver interfaces that empower people in new ways. It was this belief that lead Frank Ramirez and I to author Web Application Solutions: A Designer’s Guide more than 4 years ago (April 2005).
In the document, we compared some of the most popular Web application presentation layer solutions available through consistent criteria (deployment & reach, user interactions, processing, interface components & customization, back-end integration, future proofing, staffing & cost, unique features) and provided an overview, set of examples, and references for each. This guide helped us to better understand the technologies supporting our Web application designs. It was a way to better understand our medium.
Since the digital product design medium keeps changing, keeping up with capabilities is essential.
In Designing for Sensors, I outlined how ubiquitous integration of sensor technologies in consumer devices shifts how we think about designing digital products. Soon, instead of just designing for computing (productivity and data management) or communication (email, social networks), we'll be designing for sensors.
Today Apple Inc. revealed new patent applications that cover additional sensors which could be used in future versions of the iPhone. From Mac Rumors:
Haptic Tactile Feedback: Adoption of "haptic" display technologies which allow the user to "feel" different surfaces as their finger moves across a touchscreen. As an example, a display could include a virtual click wheel which vibrates at a different frequency at the center. Users could easily sense the difference and use the click wheel without having to look at it.
Fingerprint Identification as an Input Method: Fingerprints have already been used in computers for security purposes, but Apple's research involves the use of fingerprint patterns to actually identify distinct fingers. This could then be used to produce specific functions depending on which finger is being used.
RFID Reader: Apple suggests that an RFID antenna can be placed in the touch sensor panel itself, allowing it to also be used as a RFID reader. RFID tags are tiny chips that chips that label objects with unique identities and can be used to track items at a distance.
These three capabilities would be added to an already impressive list of sensor integrations.
Location sensor: precise location coordinates from GPS
User orientation sensor: directional heading from a digital compass
Touch sensors: Multi-touch input from one or more simultaneous gestures
Light/dark sensor: Ambient light detection
Device orientation & motion sensor: from built-in accelerometer
Proximity sensor: device closeness to other objects or people
Audio sensor: input from a microphone
Image & video sensors: capture/input from a camera (all kinds of signals can be found in real-time visual information)
Device sensor: through Bluetooth
Audio broadcast sensor: FM transmitter (rumored on iPhone)
In my Apple’s Next Integrations article, I showcased several examples of how the company integrates new capabilities across its product line. Developer Steven Troughton-Smith recently did the same himself by building an implementation of OS X's Stacks feature on the iPhone.
In my iPhone with a Compass = First Person UIs article, I discussed how location and orientation awareness in mobile devices opens up a set of new interface possibilities that are designed from the user’s current perspective. In other words, first person user interfaces that are built knowing where you are and where you are facing.
Recently I found three such applications have made their way to Google's Android Market. Though in their early stages, these apps demonstrate the potential of creating user interfaces from a natural, first person perspective: how we actually see the world.
IBM Seer beta
The IBM Seer beta is an application designed to help you navigate you way through a better time at Wimbledon. Point your phone at anything the app will tell you what it is. In camera mode what you're looking at and what's happening there now. For example, concessions reveal themselves to you and then tell you how long you can expect to queue. Check out screenshots of the app in action.
Layar
Layar shows what is around you by displaying real time digital information on top of reality through the camera of your mobile phone (Augmented Reality). This version is available in the Netherlands only.
Wikitude
See the world through your phone’s camera view overlaid with Wikipedia content. What you see is an annotated landscape, mountain names, landmark descriptions, and interesting stories: Augmented-reality for everyday use.
Not only does Apple Inc. develop a lot of new hardware and software capabilities, they do a great job of integrating these new capabilities where it makes sense.
Consider the lifecycle of Coverflow: a software capability that allows fluid visual browsing of digital assets. Coverflow first appeared in the iTunes media application, then made its way to the iPod line of portable media players, then became an optional way to browse files in the OSX Finder, and now serves as a visual search results list for your browsing history in the Safari Web browser.
The iSight video camera, which began life as a stand-alone hardware peripheral, was integrated into the laptop line, then recently made its way into the latest version of the iPhone. Even the video editing software on the new iPhone started life elsewhere like iLife, Final Cut, and Quicktime software.
Other notable integrations include multi-touch (phone to ipod to laptop), non-removable extended life batteries (ipod to phone to laptop), glass & aluminum, and more. Given the consistent level of integration of Apple’s hardware and software integrations, it may be reasonable to look for clues of what’s next by considering integration opportunities. For instance, face recognition was shipped in the 2009 version of iPhoto. Chances are it will show up in the iPhone soon.
In my Parti & the Design Sandwich talk at UX London 2009, I outlined a structure to enable interaction designers to move toward a holistic product design in the face of many stakeholders, cross-functional groups, and diverse audiences.
Parti & the design sandwich is a structure for projects that allows you to go from concepts to products using the tools of design.
Parti (as defined by Matthew Frederick) is the central idea or concept of your project. A parti is expressed as a diagram depicting general structure and experiential & aesthetic sensibility.
In interaction design, that means a core interaction model. The inclusion of a core interaction model to represent the big idea is how a parti differs from product vision -though there are many parallels.
Getting a parti requires the consideration of factors outside of design such as technology opportunity, market factors, resources, alignment, etc.
Parti should focus on the aspects of an interaction that are unique to a project.
The whole team needs to buy in to a parti.
Parti is a guidepost for designing the many aspects of a project but the design sandwich helps us make informed decisions that bring a parti to life.
At the top of the sandwich are design principles. These are filters for making decisions.
At the bottom of the sandwich are design considerations. These are the factors you learn about and weigh when considering options.
The middle of the sandwich is where decisions about the design happen. Patterns, best practices, and testing -all can help inform decisions.
The distinction for me between best practices and patterns is nuanced –a pattern is a way you can do things in a specific context. A best practice is the way you SHOULD do things in a specific context.
Using parti & the design sandwich to structure a project means:
Considering all the things that are relevant to a design decision (design considerations).
Making use of patterns, best practices, and testing (when we can) to help inform decisions.
Evaluating those decisions by passing them through a filter of design principles so that all the decisions we make support the central idea of what we are making.
The point of which is to create a holistic design.
Your parti can change but don't give up on having a parti for your project.
Update: A listing of live Twitter messages from my presentation at UX London at disambiguity.com
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