In 2004, a Philips-Sagem corporation based in Vienna, Austria, started developing multi-functional devices. It was a time of all-in-one devices, when many companies entered the race for the pole position in this market segment. Philips was already very experienced in area of fax devices and the idea was to build on that premise.
Since this was a new area for the company, there were different departments involved in development: hardware, mechanics, firmware, software and user interface. I was assigned to the last one with an assignment to deliver an interactive prototype simulator based on two documents that circulated between all the mentioned departments: Functional Requirements Specifications and User Requirements Specifications. Basically, the first one is describing what the device must do and the second one how the user interacts.
Meet the devices.
In addition to the expected functions such as printing, scanning, copying and faxing, some of the functions of the devices were:
- photo printing from a memory card or USB flash memory,
- scanning onto memory card,
- WiFi and Bluetooth connectivity,
- color faxing,
- SMS sending,
- MMS sending using the scanner to send the picture to a mobile recipient.
So some pretty slick ideas that were new on the market.
In addition to the mentioned documents I was also provided with an image of the device’s interfacing controls.
For better simulation, I included the complete visualization of physical handling of the device instead on only concentrating on the device screen. Opening and closing the device, chip-card insertion and rotation, cartridge handling; everything was simulated as specified in the documents.
Here are the first sketches of the menu navigation and ideas on how to visualize the opening and ink-cartridge handling.
Animation still of opening the device cover.
Ideas on how to handle inserting, removing and discarding ink cartridges.
Last sketch and its final implementation underneath.
In this dialog box you need to open the hatches, take out the existing ink cartridge and toss it underneath on the marked area. Then specify the ink cartridge you’re inserting and place it in the hatch. Any one of two. Everything is possible, and therefore also simulated.
Funny story.
I accidentally left one of the hatches open before closing the device cover when it struck me; what happens in the real world? A quick call resolved that question – my supervisor called the mechanics department which had a mockup of the device on site. This is how it went.
UI: Hey, what’s up? Look, we have a question.
M: Shoot.
UI: You know when you’re changing the ink cartridges, you have to open and close the small hatches?
M: Yep.
UI: Well, what would happen if someone tried to close the device cover? Would that break them?
M: Hmmm. Just a sec…
<Rattling noises. Click. Click. Clack. Clack. … CRRAAAAAACKK!!!>
M: Yep.
Priceless 🙂
OK, so back to simulating. When inserting a new ink cartridge the user must authorize it by inserting a chip card supplied with the cartridge. The following dialog box simulates device behavior if a new/used chip card is inserted; both properly and incorrectly.
Other simulated devices featured a full-colored LCD screen where complete memory card handling was addressed and adjusted accordingly.
