So, today… I wrote up the sketching from last night, and would still love comments from anyone who can spare the time to look through them. In particular I'd like to hear feedback on the detail of it all.
I spent a few hours this afternoon putting together a card-and-paper model of some of the sketches; something which I can put in front of real people next week to test the ideas. I'm not sure how well this is working: maybe I just need a few more screens in there before it'll start to feel worthwhile. I'm worried that some of the interactions I have in mind (e.g. 2-finger pinches) in some spots will be quite tough to model in paper, too. Let's see.
I've also been thinking about the visibility of analogue displays (after getting a bit worried that I'd prematurely rejected the idea of a digital one), and did a little test - taking photos of analogue and digital using my camera phone, from the bedside and end of the bed. Here they are:
I can't see a bit difference in readability, myself. And I think there's more room for improvement in the analogue clock than in the digital one - in that the white circle around the clock-face distracts from the lettering, and could be made less prominent. So I'm a little bit less worried about going analogue for the UI now…
* Some media is not displayed in this email and must be viewed on the website.
