This is what the final pdf looks like (below) or have a look at the pdf itself here
I didn’t find any appropriate music for my example video so I decided to upload it with out. Bad decision… Jesus it’s boring and I know it’s not good when you say that about your own work. But it does give you an idea of the concept I’m going for and that’s all that counts, really. But check it out yourself:
What I do like about the video and the pdf is that I managed to keep the same kind of design going for both of them. I used a turquoise and dark grey colour scheme which I think works really well together. I’ll show you the 3 buildings I drew too. The london eye obviously represents London, then I’ve got the Taj Mahal for Agra and Hamburger Rathaus for my home town Hamburg (yay).
One thing I’m worried about is that people won’t understand what I’m going for. I really like the idea I came up with and would love to realise it too because I think that it would be a great project to work on and to see people reacting to it. I think in a conversation I could give a much clearer picture of the idea but then again I do tend to worry to much. Looking forward to see other peoples ideas!
Working on the pdf right now and just had a flash of wit.
We used to have this game show in Germany called “Tabaluga”. The final game in it was finding the way to the evil snowman, Arktos. The players had to memorize a path showing up on the floor and then walk along it when it disappeared. Just a fun example for interactive floors.
– The web design is horrific for this one but all about flashy floors so enjoy!
– This dance-off floor and the paper on it is the closest I could find to my idea. I was worried that they where going for the same idea as mine but luckily it does differ from my concept. As far as I can see to this point I might have actually come up with a very individual idea (woop).
The above examples are all based on a pressure triggered led floor which at the moment I think is what I’m going with. But I also found some cool other interactive floor ideas, which I’d like to share.
Not very inspiring is it. But worst of all it’s not memorable either.
So I doodled around a bit and came up with this idea:
Now I know that one can improve this as well. Give it more dimension, change the figure, colour and grading, but from the basic idea it is more memorable than just plain writing. It functions as the “W” in “Walkit” but can also be used a the logo individually. It represents the idea behind Walkit.
For the app itself I wanted a simpler look. I’m not to happy with my result but I do think it works better then the original. I’m thinking at the moment that a differnt background would work better. But I wanted to stick to a green/yellowy colour scheme representing nature. Also I think they are quite optimistic colours motivating the user to actually go out there and walk.
Today we have started to learn our 4th and final skill: Designing a clear and structured interface to make it easy to finding relevant information. There are lots and lots of different interfaces out there. Some of them with a great design/concept, but sadly the majority of them aren’t thought through at all. This is crucial in many cases when it comes to finding information quickly and effortless.
In our workshop we’ve been assigned to different areas of research. I’ll be looking at apps around “commuting”.
Research
When searching for “app communting” you quickly find sites using catchwords like “10 Excellent Apps“, “16 Super Useful Apps” and “5 Commuter Apps you should not live without“. However, just looking at the designs I already dislike most of the Apps. Also you find very different things when looking for commuter apps. It goes from music to listen to, books to read, games to play to where did I park my car, what is the fastest way from A to B, where’s the next gas station etc.
I’ve got two examples to show:
Walkit is in my opinion a great example for an awful App. First of all I do like the Idea. It is an App that suggest walking routes if you want to go from A to B but also circular routes if you just simply want to go for a walk. You can choose between a direct route or a ‘less busy’ one that will try and avoid major roads and favour off-road paths through parks and by waterways.
However you can only use it in 40+ cities and UK only. If you look at the maps beneath you don’t really feel motivated at all. It looks very clustered and even though they tried to make it look colourful it just looks confusing more than anything. I like the design of the A and B signs but they don’t fit in with the rest of the style. But what annoys me the most is how they show the route. The blue line is way to wide, you have no idea where it’s taking you along because it not only covers the road you’re walking on but roads around it as well.
Waze on the other hand is quite a fun and handy commuter app. It is a worldwide bases traffic and navigation app that allows users to interact with each other. Users can share where speed camaras are placed, police and traffic as well as gas prices. You can also coordinate your ride with other waze users. Waze have their own map system which gets updated and improved all the time. The video below is a good introduction to all it’s functions.
Waze is the only app I could find were I liked the idea and the design. It is simple and clear which makes it easy to navigate. The little icons are fun but not in the way and it’s interactive which make you feel much more part of it.
