INFO

I worked with Umevatoriet which is an observatory and planetarium to design a graphic advertisement.  The  main mission of the campaign was to inspire young people’s interest in natural sciences.

The goal of this project is exploring the possibilities of using graphic form, layering and animation in interface design. These approaches attempt to explore a visual structure for interfaces that break the traditional boundaries of GUI design.

Inside the observatory there is an artificial starry sky – a planetarium that makes it possible to view events in space. Furthermore, there are more exciting experiments and actives for children in Umevatoriet.

RESEARCH & ANALYZE

After interviewing with Umevatoriat and Umea citizen, I noticed that most of people, don’t know where Umevatoriat is but they felt a lot of interest to visit it. Thus, my idea is to find a solution to make the relation between city Umea and Umevatoriat closer.

One concept is that masking the solar system on the map of Umea. The position of sun is the same location of Umevatoriat. According to the map, I selected some pots on the earth orbit which are available in the city to install the outdoor advertisements. Blue circles display the sign locations in the center of Umea.

On the basis of this analyses, I separated all information into 3 different categories based on content and behaviors how to get information in normal life.

CONCEPT GENERATION

Considering the huge cost of building a lot of tangible dome screens around the city, I offered another solution using the screen of  a mobile phone to display information.

In order to add more interaction between  a physical real-world environment and the screen-based universe, I found another interesting technology Augmented Reality which I tested on my laptop with the cam.

DESIGN PROPASAL

The concept used mobile phones to browse information of Umevatoriat.  People in proximity of the mark area can spontaneously sign in, and connect to the Starry Sky application via their Bluetooth-enabled mobile.

Based on augmented reality and location service, citizens can easily browse current information about Umevatoriat and Universe in the mark areas around Umeå,

The mark on the ground is an abstract pattern  about Umeå map to evoke curious and help people without mobile phone to reach Umevatoriat.

Here is the video to show the concept.

BACKGROUND

The assignment of this project was to design two digital camera interfaces include the behavior and appearance.

We started with mood boards and theme boards, explaining a feeling. The challenge is to through an expression explain and transmit the feeling without words, of rapid, light, precision robust, etc. Then, I picked two themes, precision and rapid, to design the graphic.

FEATURE DESIGN

Inspired by the beauty and form of classic cameras from the past, I designed the external appearance of Canon camera which could express the feeling of precision on the left.

The challenge was that I was not allowed to change any of the given measurements and not move the flash or optics. Thus, I was focus on the color pattern and texture.

Here is another theme below, that evoke a rapid feeling.

ICON DESIGN

In this part, I tried to keep the feeling by playing with proportion and the way icons appear on the screen.

Here is the process of designing the “Rapidness” icon family.

DYNAMIC BEHAVIOR

I tested the finger activities on a piece of cardboard which has the the same size as the camera, in order to find the balance between usability and “Rapidness” gesture. I noticed that the gesture which right thumb slides quickly on screen evokes a rapid feeling.

Here is a short video to show the concept, a gesture-based interface. The advantage of this interface is that users even do not have to watch the screen when they are used to the position of each options.

INTERFACE OF PRECISION

In this design proposal, I got the inspiration from old mechanic machines. There are some little details I added to this interface like “stop” feeling and “magnify” affect to express t “precise”.