IMHO this is one of the best examples of the use of touch / NUX I've ever seen. It's such a shame this show was cancelled. I enjoyed the explanation of the evolution of the Cylons through the capure of Zoe's conciousness in VR and then being put into a Cylon protoype. But perhaps even better was they ways that the show evidenced potential interaction with the machines and networks that we will use.
Here Zoe is on the train right before it explodes. She does not know this is about to happen, but she is running away from home, and she decides to e-mail her mother to tall here that she is ok and not to worry.
She pulls out a paper computer display from her pocket.
When the paper opens it shows a simple, task-oriented, interface in use. WHen opened, a set of icons, each representing a different task, slide in from the side of the page,
Touching the icon turns it blue to indicate interaction...
And a flyout displays showing the face of those she would want to message...
Touching the person she wants to message (her mother) and it image flies out to the top left, which the other options change...
The selection shows in the upper left, while the existing UI slides out of visibility to the right...
The top of the page now shows creating a new message to 'Mom' and a virutal keyboard flies in from the right..
Zore begins typing the message to her mother. There are some interesting things going on here that can't be seen in a still image. As she type a word, she proceeds from the bottom row, progressing to higher rows. When she select a letter on the bottom row, the row above morphs into the characters that can be typed next, with the most likely just above the current selection, doing a kind of predictive typing which I've never seen before.
The completed message:
When hitting send it flies out to the right.
And the confirmation of delivery.
My Comments on the NUX
First, I think this is the primary NUX experience that sticks in my mind. There are a number of design concepts involved in this example which I really believe in being important for the future of UX/NUX;
- Interaction
- Minimal-But-Rich
- Single-Task
- Morphing
- Visual-Context
Let me explain each of these a little bit.
Interaction
Users love to touch data. Using a mouse was the first step and took UX so far. The iPad has shown us that people just love to touch the applications, and move through information with natural gestures. Mice force us into clicking and draging, and the thing I hate the most: menus. These are not natural concepts and are an "adapter" of machine to human interface, adapting our minds / hands, through the mouse, to actionable items in the application. Interactive touch removes this level of indirection and makes the experience much better for users.
Minimal-But-Rich
This has a tie in to the idea that I hate menus - they are a waste of space and an unnatural way to work with information. Touch and gestural interfaces provide the ability to remove a lot of this cruft form the UI, letting the user get down to just the information needed at any particular time. Take the paper UI in this post. It is very minimal, only show what it needed at a given time. Simple icons to touch to select function; a keyboard to type a message. it's not evidenced here, but other options beyond what is the immediate task at hand can be done with a gesture, instead of adding more, and clunky, user interface. But minimal does not mean "plain". The UI demonstrated here is rich, combining graphics images of people as items to be manipulated, rich change of the display content to represent state change, and visual cues to provide context.
Single-Task
Simply put, the UI represents one and only one task for the user at a given time. The task is full screen. There are no windows to confuse the user. The UI at any given time does exactly what is need for the user and adapts as the tasks proceeds. This is one of the most important things to come out of the iPad, the single-task orientation of applications. It has various ramifications, including the applications are simpler, making them easier to test, as well as to use. If you need to do another task, just get another app that does that one the way you want to do it. Ever notice there are no manuals for iPad applications? That's because they are simple apps that a user just knows how to use through touch.
Morphing
The minimalist and single-task orientation of these interfaces mean that as a user moves through a task, the user interface needs to change to assist in the task. The presenation of information changes, dynamically, with visual cues, as the user works through data. The change dynamic change of representation of state guides the user through what they need to do instead of them needing to fumble through menus and windows.
Visual-Context
The interface always gives visual cue to the current context of the task. The UI morphs as the user interacts with the application, but always gives subtle hints as to the current context. Take the paper messaging interface demonstrated here. When opening the paper, a simple set of icons navigate in. Selection of the messaging program animates a list of users, and when one is selected, that users avatar (here a real picture) is moved to the top left of the display and the rest of the display is available for creating the message.