Project Modai: Process thread [FIN.]

Thanks for the feedback Yo! I’ve got refining the ID on my agenda for tomorrow (but will probably be pushed to Friday since the UI is holding me up).

Some more progress on the UI…


Weather:
When people check the weather in the morning:

  1. They want to know the temperature so they know what to wear
  2. They want to know what the weather will be like later

Modai tries to address both issues with a simple interface. Slider for weather at a specific time at the bottom, and Modai’s recommendation for wear today.

Notification bar/stream (Need a better name)
Also started development of the notification bar (better name in the works… have one? let me know!). You can scroll right to read the messages. Mail, texts, and Facebook notifs are all integrated in the same stream (notifstream? nah…).

Messages look too much like the weather widget right now… some competing visual hierarchy goin’ on… hopefully will have a better solution soon?

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some challenges I’m running into now are merging the UI and ID visual language together. Most of my ID concepts are very professional/sleek, but the UI/brand is fun and playful. I really like how the UI is going right now, so I’m going to push the ID toward that direction. The ones that work are Banana or Watermelon… oh and I guess the blue one, but I’m not liking the taper on that.

I’m digging the retro-aesthetic of the UI. Very different than what we see today in mobile.
But if I was doing the ID around that, it would look really different than the sharp-edge futuristic stuff you’ve been showing us.

Who is this Hunter guy anyway?
What would we expect to see pulled out of his pocket?

CG, a fan of the sartorialist I see? I use his images with client PDS sessions to help guide what the personality of the product should be. The images he captures are just great.

Sartorialist is a great one along with these other two…

http://jakandjil.com/blog/

and

www.jjjjound.com

jjjjound is one of my favorite blogs and has great shots for inspiration boards.

Hello,
Finally had a chance to go through the recent work.
I like the colours you’ve used on the UI, I think the soft pastels work well with the hard illustration. I love clouds too, bonus.
I was hoping you’d be developing the avatar quite a lot more than you have so far, he currently looks pretty much like your sketches which I’d assumed were more like placeholders.

He’s way too close to the REVIVE monsters too don’t you think?

I think it’s worth making the avatar your own.

The shhhh! silencing/mouth idea is a cool one, maybe the sleep/lock interaction is intergrated with eyelids?
I love the tickle unlock interactions, very nice & probably my favourite thing so far.

Also, you could consider using audio/SFX as another method of expressing emotion within the device.

looking forward to the next lot of development!


Duncan Shotton

http://twitter.com/_dshott

Hey Duncan,

I really liked the revive monsters, so I took heavy inspiration from them. I did try to design other things but kept gravitating back (I have a page of sketches somewhere of different versions). In the end, though, the functionality of our avatars are a little different. In my defense, the form developed from this (really early) sketch:

Where the original purpose was just a battery/signal indicator.

Also this:

I would love to explore sound, but I don’t have time for that at the moment. There’s tons of things I would like to do, but because the project is due in a month, I can’t.

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cg: Yes, I’m planning on selecting the few concepts that spoke more to the aesthetic of the UI and refining that further. I guess there’s just something inside everyone that wants to design future sleek sexy stuff.

I’ve never gotten into the habit of doing lifestyle image boards… I should probably look into that.

There’s a big update coming up soon… I’m getting close with finalizing the UI.

A little taste of what’s to come.

I decided to try my hand at animating the UI for kicks. It actually turned out pretty good! Thanks, Keynote! You’re amazing.

Unfortunately, Vimeo and Youtube butchered the quality. I also forgot to scale the UI. Halfway through animating I realized this but it was too late to start over.

[vimeo]http://www.vimeo.com/16809565[/vimeo]
Project Modai: Setting an Alarm on Vimeo

a little animation goes a long way.

Hi, I am student starting out in Interaction design and was curious on your animation. I have figured out how to create a prototype interface in keynote, bu what do you use to simulate the finger actions? Also, which program do you to capture your the animations… ei to put onto youtube etc.

Thanks!

I just animated a transparent circle using the Move build. Keynote can also export .mov, which is accepted by YT and Vimeo.

Had a midterm-ish (3 weeks left) presentation today. Pecha Kucha style. You can see it on Vimeo:
[vimeo]http://www.vimeo.com/16874332[/vimeo]
Project Modai Pecha Kucha Midterm on Vimeo
11-14pechakucha-101115222924-phpapp01&stripped_title=11-14-pecha-kucha&userName=tarngerine
Project Modai Pecha Kucha presentation by Julius Tarng - Issuu

I’m currently working on the ID… having some problems with Balsa2.


Gonna do some refinement/color variation. Then move on to Banana / Watermelon… I still kind of like Panda Rams.

very nice!

blogified:

Whoa! Thanks for the front pager, Michael! Made my day.

Hopefully it’ll help me get some more feedback! (If anyone missed my presentation I just posted because of the page break, it’s here: Design Magazines)

Just a quick shot at what I’m sketching up right now. Detailing some camera button. Really liking the “pimple” hill on the bottom right.

go to sleep kid, it is past 1am East Coast time! More to do tomorrow! :wink:

Great work with some very nice ideas and execution! My only advice would be to try to clarify and simplify the overall concept. If it’s about ‘humanizing’, what does that really mean? I like the little character that charges up when cord is attached, or the speaker level changing by ‘opening/closing’ character’s mouth. It’s ‘cute’ and has personality… But are those really what strengthens your concept of ‘humanizing.’? How is shown in the industrial design/form/materials/details?

I’d try to dig deeper into who this is for…Maybe it’s targeted toward a certain type of consumer? Or certain types of consumer behavior? (ie sleeping with their phone on their bed, playing with phone antenna…etc)

A simple concept with a clear point-of-view can go a long way over another concept with too many ideas stuck together without a clear cohesive vision. When I was a student, I used to do projects like the latter; and realized that I don’t have to use up all those great little ideas on this project I’m working on now. It’ll come back to you later.

Hope that helps :slight_smile:

Hey junetic! Thanks for the feedback. Not sure if you watched the Pecha Kucha presentation I posted a few posts ago (Design Magazines) but I actually do cover all of those things:

What is humanizing
Creating trust, knowledge, and empathy between a user and Modai. Modai knows what you feel, and you know what it feels. And all of that is based on context (time, location…)

Who my user is
Students/young professionals balancing their work/social life (hence the social vs work paradigms)

But yes, I am working hard on keeping it from being a feature list. My final deliverable will have a video scenario of a Day with Modai to really tell a convincing story.

I’ve been trying to follow, but it’s a lot to keep up with which bodes well for you.

You’ve got a lot of great ideas and having just finished watching the pecha kucha presentation I can appreciate Junetic’s points about there being a lot of ideas in this project that can be hard to digest all at once, but I think you are getting there, just keep refining your message as you progress and then after the project is over, give some time and distance and come back with some fresh eyes as I’m sure this may help you craft the story.

It is often seen as a bit of a cop out when students design things for “a student or young professional,” and while I don’t have an issue with it, I would like to see a little more thought and exploration on Prodai or maybe even just a little more facetime in the presentation. The presentation as given just left me feeling Modai was little more Fundai than Prodai, maybe another persona would help this. Maybe Hunter wants to wake up to Fundai, but “Sophia” is a little more type A and spends more time in Prodai?? Just some thoughts.

In terms of the physical artifact, I like a lot of the ideas of physical gestures or shape changes to communicate information or state, but I haven’t seen a lot in terms of the execution that is really selling me. The Peelstand for one sounds like a great idea, but I’m wondering how to execute it differently as the proposed solution for standing up, just doesn’t seem to fit for some reason, maybe too mechanical, not sure I like the idea of this thin sliver, but this may be a personal bias. One idea for a small piece popping up to communicate might be like a jar lid that pops up when opened?

I also love the way you are sharing your process with the blog, videos, slideshare, etc. It’s really great that you are not only able to show the process, but that you are really using so much of the technology available to do so in an orderly and organized manner.

Goodai
r

Hi IDiot

Thanks for our feedback.

Regarding “copping out”: I actually feel the same way. However, I usually don’t choose to design for students/young professionals (save for my Chef’s Portmanteau, which is a really specific audience). A lot of my projects range from kids to geriatrics to baby boomers… I believe I have that breadth of empathy for users who aren’t like me.

Lack of Prodai: I have lots of things in the work for Prodai, but it wasn’t done by the time of this presentation. I briefly mentioned that it is still in the works. I’ve got that covered.

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In other news:

I’m trying to get some sheets of Santoprene to experiment for Project Modai. I’m looking at something around a 60-70A durometer, and something like .08 thickness… I’ve been looking online and all of the resellers’ websites look really sketchy and untrustworthy. Does anyone have experience with purchasing sheets of Santoprene?

I also noticed that most are just black… but I have seen samples in many different and bright colors (yellow, green, red…).

Any help would be REALLY appreciated!

Thanks

not sure about buying sheets of santoprene, but I know several companies sell silicone baking mats,
although I kind of doubt they’re going to be the durometer you’re looking for, might be worth swinging
by the housewares/baking section of your favorite local place to get that stuff…? Could be fast and cheap
way to dabble if it’s anywhere close to what you’re looking for.