Once a Mockup in Flash, Now a Reality in iPhone | Visualrinse

Once a Mockup in Flash, Now a Reality in iPhone
Filed under Flash, Uncategorized by Chad | 1 comment

My students 4 semesters ago in a multimedia class at Bradley created some mockups of what could be possible in a wirelessly connected community. These mockups and the style of future viewing were inspired by Sun’s Starfire. The iPhone now can handle pretty much all of the features highlighted in the video for a tidy little monthly fee and a $500 entry price tag. A student of mine from that class noticed that and emailed me today. I was struck by some of the similarities in the visualization. Here is the one we created back in the Spring of 2006:

Here is the Apple ad featuring some of the same functionality in our video:

Not too far off, eh? It features slick design and easy connectivity. Ours were created as SWF files, (They did indeed connect to data sources, be it external services or XML files created by us) that were then captured using Camtasia, and then composited into the video we shot using After Effects. The Apple one is obviously a real device. One of the things that strikes me about both of the interfaces in these pieces is that they seem to adhere firmly to a belief that I have in interface design best written in this research paper at Sun. From the paper by Bay-Wei Chang and David Ungar from March 1995:

User interfaces are often based on static presentations, a model ill suited for conveying change. Consequently, events on the screen frequently startle and confuse users. Cartoon animation, in contrast, is exceedingly successful at engaging its audience; even the most bizarre events are easily comprehended.

This trend is easy to see in the Mac OSX Dock, The Vista 3-D Aero Windows Animations, and the Microsoft Surface computing demo videos. It’s great that we finally have the CPUs and the tools to develop the software to make what was once a Knight Rider episode, or a major budget Hollywood blockbuster ala Minority Report and make it a device most all can purchase. Now if only the muni-wireless efforts could escape the bureaucracy and make it reality for even those who don’t have the ability to pay exorbitant monthly data fees or purchase a new Vista machine… oh well, it seems as if that wish might still be far in the future.