Task:
26.10 – stell dir vor, du hast einen smart phone touch screen, der spürt, wie fest du drückst. was könnte man mit so einem touch screen besser machen als es jetzt gemacht wird? dokumentiere 7 ideen, was man damit anders machen könnte, und dann nimm eine dieser ideen und kreiere 7 variationen. (eh klar: nicht erlaubt ist es, sich anzuschauen, was es dazu jetzt schon gibt!)
Implementation:
The first thing that comes to my mind is to select different states of one option. This could be to set a slider bar accordingly to the input pressure.
Another idea is to improve existing apps ( i am an android user btw 😉 ). Starting with the home applications, including a quick-access feature would help to speed up find favorite apps. This feature should be modified be the user (choosing the app, set pressure and duration to start the behaviour).
An app that would benefit from pessure input would be Google Maps. The user could Zoom directly without any slider or gestures and just with one finger. The camera app can be improved by selecting different states while triggering a photo: the pressure could be used to pre-focus, taking a photo with or without flash, zooming in/out can be used with another finger.
And a feature that will enhance any keyboard app is switching between upper and lower case letters (pressing harder for upper case letters).
Creating new apps relying on the feature of pressure is interesting and challenging. Assuming that the display is heavy weight resistent and very distinctive, the first app would be „Scales“ – an app for measuring weight.
Games can also be enhanced using the feature. A racing game could use pressure to acc/decelerate the vehicle. Even the breaks could be controlled with that sensitivity feature. A plattformer would even more benefit. The speed of the game character could be directly controlled pressing a (virtual) left or right button, the height of the jump would be set by pressure too. Beat’em up games would use the feature to select the punch/kick (light, medium, hard) or any other action.
It could also be used to raise the difficulty level, like QWOP (https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/QWOP, a game that has it’s challenge in mastering the controls).
Another game that relies solely on the input feature is an adoption of guitar hero, but the goal is the following: a 2-dimensional coordinate system, in which a point is shown (e.g. x=sound volume, y=pitch) and the user has to control two pressure buttons (controlled with thumbs) and the better the point is approached, the more correct the sound plays.
The last idea is to introduce the function as a system wide „right click“ in the android world. Whereever there are options that can be offered to the user, he/she will access the context menu be tapping on the control (e.g. button, text field etc.) and push a bit more to show the context menu.
Summed up, the five features are:
- Input feature: Slider (choose one option out of severals)
- Improving existing apps: Home App, Google Maps, Keyboard
- Creating new apps: Scales
- Improving games: jump’n’runs, racing games, beat’em ups,…
- Input feature: Context Menu
7 Variations of the feature Slider:
- Volume Control
- Zooming
- Brightness Control
- Display Timout
- Brightness of Flashlight
- Choosing between different profiles
- Switching between display options (list, tiles, etc.)
Reflection 26.10.2015
It was difficult to come up with completely new ideas. I tried to find ideas that are different from each other which is not easy at all.
Task:
27.10 – nimm eine andere idee und kreiere 7 variationen.
Implementation:
7 Variations of a jump’n’run game:
- Speed – from sprinting to creeping (yep, there are stealth missions)
- Height of jump
- Shooting: fire rate (higher fire rate kills enemy faster, but reduces ammunition faster)
- Jumping and stomp down: a jump that will break the floor on landing. Stomping forward will break walls.
- Shooting: Bullets depending on pressure: high pressure for rockets (for heavy enemies), pressing slightly toggles bullets (for fast enemies)
- Higher pressure for moving objects faster (or heavy objects at all), but slight objects are pushed away, which can attract enemies
- A button spins the character – higher pressure results in spinning faster
Reflection 27.10.2015
Finding ideas for a jump’n’run game was fun and not as difficult as the challenge from yesterday. Finding ideas for games was easier for me than finding input options for apps (respectively result of that input).