Tuesday, January 1, 2013

Quiet Lock Screens


Some feel that the current offerings in User Interface Design on all devices are 
too In Your Face and Noisy. 
Others feel that Time, Date, Bars, Battery, and Carrier logo are important enough that they 
need to always be there, so as to be accessible at a nano moments notice.
I know I always feel better after a frantic glance to check to make sure I still have the same carrier.
(nothing irritates me more when designing a graphic experience, than to have it interrupted, 
abused and defiled by the unnecessary. In this case, the ever present carrier logo, the only graphic
on the screen that delivers No Useful Information To The User.)


There is nothing about the above screen that is pleasant to the eye.
It is the digital equivalent of a grocery store, with every item fighting for your visual attention.

Lock Screens could be an oasis in this desert of visual clutter, and while not as noisy, 
sometimes even pleasant, still tend to be text information based.



Myself and others tend to feel that as users become more sophisticated, they don't need 
obvious queues like an arrow icon followed by text describing the arrows function.



Think of this as an animated alternative to the arrow for "slide to unlock".
Sliding the luminous bar in any direction would Open the screen and take you to 
your grocery store, or Password


If text based information is really wanted on this screen, a user action, could bring that data to the surface, followed by it's fading away or moving off screen.

"Ocean"



"Event Horizon"


As an animated screen, it would have a greater visual appeal, but would draw heavily on battery life.
You could also impart more information in the animation.
The overall color of the screen could indicate Battery life (as you are clearly abusing it), the direction could indicate Bars, the speed could indicate Messages, and a vibrating of the animation image could accompany or replace the silent vibration ring for phones or alarms.


"Bento"




"Narabi"


© ROBERT STEIN III '20